Tuesday Determines Several Winners for 08 Elections

Barack Obama swept Oregon as predicted, even taking a larger than anticipated share of male voters.

Barack Obama moves forward in Oregon.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The Democratic Primary candidate who promises to put America back on its feet, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, easily swept more than enough Oregon votes to claim victory here.

The showing of 75,000 people at Portland's Waterfront Park earlier this week was a clear indicator that in spite of a large amount of support, the state was not going to back Senator Hillary Clinton.

Maverick Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona received substantially more support than his challenger in Oregon Ron Paul as predicted.

Jeff Merkley won Oregon's support to run for the U.S. Senate with Steve Novick following in a not too distant second place. On the Republican side in the race for U.S. Senate, Senator Gordon Smith easily upset Gordon Leitch.

In the Democratic race for U.S. Representative in the 5th District, Kurt Schrader came out on top.

Republicans will send Mike Erickson into the 2008 Election to run for the position of U.S. Representative in the 5th District. He edged out attorney Kevin Mannix who after several failed attempts at running for Governor, found a similar lack of appeal among voters in this race.

Longtime legislative figure Kate Brown won the Democratic Party's support to run for Secretary of State. Republican Rick Dancer was on his party's ticket unopposed.

Democrat Ben Westlund will face Republican Aaron Felton in the race for State Treasurer; they were both unopposed in the Oregon Primary.

The Democratic race for Attorney General went to John Kroger, with Greg Macpherson also drawing significant support. There was no Republican contender listed on the ballot.

Salem Council Candidate David Beem pulled significant votes against his opponent.

In races closer to home, Salem Mayor Janet Taylor topped challenger Lloyd Chapman who pulled about 3/4th the vote of Mayor Taylor, not a bad shot when running against an incumbent.

One Very Special Salem Candidate

In Salem's Ward 5 Councilor race, Diana Dickey pulled just slightly more than twice the votes over contender David Beem. Beem like Kevin Mannix, knows what it is like to run for office and never see victory. But Beem has what some may consider a logical reason; he is developmentally disabled.

Beem in fact is the only mentally and physically challenged political candidate in Oregon and I shot and reported two stories about him while working for KATU Channel-2 News in Portland, Oregon. In a prior City Council race Beem pulled one third of the votes against Rick Stuckey. This time, running against Diana Dickey, he pulled close to half the number of votes. It looks like David Beem is on a slow roll toward perhaps one day being a Salem City Councilor. (see: One Very Special Salem Candidate Hails From Special Needs Community)

The Chemeketa Community College Bond and the Stayton Library and Pool Measure were both voted through,

Stan Butterfield edged out Aaron Felton for the position of Polk County District Attorney.

Oregon Ballot Measures 51, 52 and 53 are all passing.