Dems Kancel Kotek
No Democrat running in a competitive race in Oregon lists Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek among endorsers
“Kotek” is a naughty word in Oregon Democrats’ campaigns heading into the November 5 election that will determine three important statewide positions and control of the legislature.
An Oregon Roundup analysis of the three statewide races and eight key legislative contests determined that none of the Democrats in those races listed Governor Tina Kotek as an endorser, despite listing many other elected Democrats, including in some cases former Governor Kate Brown, who concluded her final term as the least popular governor in the country.
Democrat Dan Rayfield, the personal injury attorney whom Kotek picked as her successor as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives in a contested leadership fight in late 2021 and early 2022, is in a closely watched Attorney General race against Republican Will Lathrop. Rayfield lists Brown and Ted Kolongoski, also a former governor, as endorsers, but does not mention Kotek.
Secretary of State candidate Tobias Read (D) lists Brown, Kulongoski as well as former governors Barbara Roberts (1991-1995) and John Kitzhaber, who left office in 2015 under criminal investigation (since dropped) into whether his fiancee Cylvia Hayes influenced state government on behalf of her consulting clients. Read does not mention Kotek.
Elizabeth Steiner, the Democratic candidate for State Treasurer, produces a lengthy list of legislative and statewide elected official endorsers, but omits Kotek.
In all eight of the legislative races designated as considered competitive by The Oregonian in August, the democrats avoid mention of the incumbent governor in the endorsement sections of their campaign websites.
Why? A veteran Democratic aide said this to Oregon Roundup about why Democrats are avoiding Kotek in 2024:
What's there to embrace? Among the lowest gubernatorial approval ratings in the country? Low academic performance and significantly high chronic absenteeism? An unsustainable budget? Squabbling between her staff and the First Spouse? Portland's economy marked by high commercial vacancy rates and a declining population? If Harris wins this year, Kotek's record will be put into searing focus come 2026.
Kotek’s 2022 Republican opponent and current State Representative Christine Drazan added,
It doesn't surprise me that legislative candidates are running away from Tina Kotek. When it comes to the major problems facing Oregon, things continue to get worse. Homelessness is still rampant, addiction an epidemic, education ranks at the bottom and cost of living is too high. There is a reason she has consistently ranked as the least popular Governor in America.
The implications for 2024 and 2026, when Kotek will presumably run for re-election, are significant. Typically, campaigns poll the favorability of major elected officials in their districts to determine whether to associate publicly with those officials. The blanket avoidance of Kotek suggests wide swaths of Oregonians view her, the most recognizable and powerful standard-bearer for Oregon Democrats’ policies, negatively.
The Morning Consult poll last year found Kotek had the lowest favorability rating of any governor in the country, with only 45% of Oregonians viewing her favorably. Her favorability appears not to have improved since then, with DHM Research in April of this year finding Kotek’s approval in the Democrat-laden Portland metro area at only 45%, with an equal number disapproving.
Even the OREGONIAN acknowledged this reality by publishing a story that showed that Kotek’s disapproval rating at 46% exceeds her approval rating at only 43%…in Portland, her home base where her support should be highest.
I've been hoping for a piece like this. Kotek has practically disappeared from the state's newspaper of record since Aimeegate. Kotek's mug was ubiquitous right after she was sworn in. What was her tour of the counties but a series of 36 photo ops?
But when was the last time the public received an update about Kotek's much vaunted plan to produce 36,000 new housing units per year? It was doomed to fail because Kotek didn't give the housing creators (developers, builders, lenders and home buyers) a role in the project. Instead, her program hinges on punishing municipalities if they don't streamline the approval process sufficiently, as if that were the sole problem.
For further proof of Kotek's irrelevance one need look no farther than Portland and mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio, who until recently headed the Portland Housing Bureau. Rubio has been courting voters by promoting schemes to increase the supply of affordable housing. Not once has Rubio indicated that she is working towards the goals of Kotek's initiative. A Goldschmidt would have seen to it that Rubio's messaging tied her plans to his statewide housing program.
It seems likely that very public failure of Aimee's attempt to make herself co-governor was a crippling embarassment to Kotek that also damaged her credibility among Oregon's political class. Who knew there were limits to Kotek's chutzpah? In hindsight, what stands out is the sheer phoniness of the PR campaign to boost the lightly credentialed and minimally accomplished Aimee. They tried and failed to make Aimee a national expert in public health and a home-grown Evita to boot. with boundless empathy for those who share her lived experience of mental illness. Aimee's online profile, embellished as it was by influencer-quality images, was a specious hagiography.
The Tina Kotek of late 2024 will be remembered for her unseemly efforts to throw boatloads of taxpayer money at Intel right when the ailing chip maker is laying off chunks of its Oregon workforce. In the process, Kotek is also running roughshod over voters' efforts to retain control of local land use decisions in the face of her efforts to pander to a feckless high-tech industry.