Oregon stays true blue

All the national stories about how Democrat Kate Brown was in trouble of losing to a generic Republican in the progressive state of Oregon were dead wrong.

Less than a minute after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Brown had cruised to re-election according to numbers on the state's election website.

Even the state's largest daily newspaper, The Oregonian, which hammered away at Brown for the last three-plus years and did not endorse her, was forced to call the race shortly after 8 p.m.

In fact, most of the newspapers endorsed her main rival, Republican Knute Buehler of Bend. Obviously, no one pays attention to what a newspaper says these days because so few citizens subscribe to a daily paper.

Even cable TV ads are having less influence than they once had.

All the millions spent on negative advertising failed to persuade voters to Buehler's side. This article may help to explain why.

Buehler, who campaigned as a pro-choice centrist, raised $18.5 million to Brown's $17 million. At least $2.5 million of Buehler's haul came from Phil Knight. And yet all that money given to Buehler's campaign was like pissing into the wind. Evidently, Oregon Republicans like the sensation.

Brown flushed Buehler down, 50 percent to 44 percent.

Hey, Oregon Republicans, until you ditch the anti-government rhetoric and your neanderthal policies, you will always lose the governorship and most of the seats in Congress. Stop wasting money on losers.

Oregon is a true-blue state.

From land-use to bottle redemption to Death with Dignity laws, Oregon has led the nation. Hopefully, the Democrats will gain super majorities in the Legislature so that more progressive policies will be enacted.

The common-sense voters in the Beaver State also rejected draconian statewide measures by sizable margins.

In spite of the millions spent by Coke and Pepsi to cloak their measure as a "no tax on groceries" proposal, Oregonians clearly saw it was a "no tax on soda" initiative. It was getting crushed by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin.

The anti-abortion crowd tried again with a measure of "no public funds for abortion" and, as expected, were clobbered again by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin.

The anti-immigrant rhetoric from Trump and most Republicans was totally repudiated in this state. Oregon became a sanctuary state 30 years ago and voters rejected an attempt to end that status by a 63 percent to 37 percent margin.

The anti-government crowd in this state tried to limit the Legislature's ability to raise revenue. That measure was whipped by a 65 percent to 35 percent margin.

After this election, maybe more Republicans will move out of state to regressive areas of the country. Wouldn't that be nice.