The 2010 Oregon gubernatorial election was held on Tuesday, to elect the

Governor of Oregon The governor of Oregon is the head of government of Oregon and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. te ...

to a four-year term beginning on . The incumbent governor, Democrat

Ted Kulongoski Theodore Ralph Kulongoski ( ; born November 5, 1940) is an American politician, judge, and lawyer who served as the 36th Governor of Oregon from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative As ...

, was ineligible to run due to

term limits A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potential ...

barring him from being elected to more than two consecutive terms. The Democratic candidate

John Kitzhaber John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician who served as the 35th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003, and as the 37th governor of Oregon from 2011 until his resignation in 2015. A member of the Democratic Party ...

, who had previously served two terms as governor from 1995 to 2003, was elected to a third term, earning a narrow victory over Republican candidate

Chris Dudley Christen Guilford Dudley (born February 22, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player and politician. He played 886 games across 16 seasons in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, New Y ...

and two minor party candidates. Kitzhaber's election marked the first time in Oregon's history that a person has been elected to a third term as governor. Oregon first used its new cross-nomination system, a form of fusion voting, in the 2010 general elections. In this system, a candidate for partisan public office can be nominated by up to three political parties. Kitzhaber was nominated by the

Independent Party of Oregon The Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) is a centrist political party in the U.S. state of Oregon with more than 135,000 registrants since its inception in January 2007. The IPO is Oregon's third-largest political party and the first political par ...

in addition to the Democratic Party. Almost every opinion poll throughout the election season showed a statistical tie between the two, state Republicans saw this election as the best chance to win the governorship since the last Republican governor, Victor Atiyeh, was re-elected in

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., Un ...

. Once polls closed on election day, Dudley had led in early vote counts, but Kitzhaber narrowly won due to wide margins in Multnomah and

Lane In road transport, a lane is part of a roadway that is designated to be used by a single line of vehicles to control and guide drivers and reduce traffic conflicts. Most public roads ( highways) have at least two lanes, one for traffic in eac ...

counties. However, this remains the closest Republicans have come to winning the governorship since that election.

Democratic primary

Candidates

, former

Bill Bradbury Bill Bradbury (born May 29, 1949) is an American politician who served as a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly and as the 23rd Oregon secretary of state from 1999 to 2009. Bradbury was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2010 Oregon gubern ...

, former

Oregon Secretary of State The secretary of state of Oregon, an elected constitutional officer within the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is first in line of succession to the governor. The duties of the office are auditor of public accounts, c ...

*Roger Obrist

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

, former professional basketball player * Allen Alley, businessman and deputy chief of staff to Governor

* Clark Colvin, business executive * William Ames Curtright * Bob Forthan * Darren Karr, small business owner * John Lim, former Oregon State Senator and unsuccessful nominee for the U.S. Senate in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

* Bill Sizemore,

Republican nominee for

* Rex O. Watkins, real estate agent

Polling

Results

Independent Party primary

Oregon first used its new cross nomination system, a form of fusion voting, in the 2010 general elections. In this system, a candidate for partisan public office can be nominated by up to three political parties. As a result, the Independent Party of Oregon did not file a candidate and instead chose to hold a month-long online primary in July. In doing so, it became the first political party in the United States to conduct a binding statewide

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

entirely over the Internet, and it was the largest nominating process ever held by an Oregon minor political party. Republican Chris Dudley did not apply for the Independent Party nomination by the required date, so he was not on the ballot, but he could be written in.

Candidates

, former

* Jerry Wilson, businessman * Richard Esterman, photographer

Results

General election

Candidates

* Chris Dudley ( Republican), former professional basketball player * John Kitzhaber (

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

), former

* Greg Kord (

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princip ...

), industrial piping designer * Wes Wagner (

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

), systems administrator

Campaign

Following the primaries, the two leading candidates, Dudley and Kitzhaber, campaigned separately throughout the state for the summer. Despite attempts by both campaigns to arrange a debate, the candidates could only agree on a single debate on September 30. Through the end of September, the Dudley campaign had raised $5.6 million, more than twice as much as the Kitzhaber campaign. Throughout the last few months of the campaign, opinion polls showed a tight race with the lead apparently changing frequently. Due to the closeness of the race, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

, for whom Oregon voted by a 16-percent margin in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

, stumped for Kitzhaber; then headlined a rally at the

Oregon Convention Center The Oregon Convention Center is a convention center in Portland, Oregon. Completed in 1989 and opened in 1990, it is located on the east side of the Willamette River in the Lloyd District neighborhood. It is best known for the twin spire towers ...

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

on .

Newspaper endorsements

Predictions

Polling

Results

Statewide results

County results

Dudley won 29 of Oregon's 36 counties. Kitzhaber won seven, including

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tho ...

by a 43% margin of victory.

References

External links

Oregon Governor Candidates
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected officials in si ...

Campaign contributions for 2010 Oregon Governor
from ''Follow the Money''

from OurCampaigns.com
Election 2010: Oregon Governor
from ''

Rasmussen Reports Rasmussen Reports is an American polling company founded in 2003. The company engages in political commentary and the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports conducts nightly tracking, ...

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2010 Oregon Governor Race
from ''

Real Clear Politics RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator formed in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. The site features selected political ne ...

''
2010 Oregon Governor's Race
from ''

CQ Politics Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

''
Race Profile
in ''

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'' ;Official campaign websites (Archived)
John Kitzhaber for Governor
(D)
Chris Dudley for Governor
(R) {{DEFAULTSORT:Oregon Gubernatorial Election, 2010

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2010 United States gubernatorial elections

Democratic primary

Candidates

Polling

Results

Republican primary

Candidates

Polling

Results

Independent Party primary

Candidates

Results

General election

Candidates

Campaign

Newspaper endorsements

Predictions

Polling

Results

Statewide results

County results

See also

References

External links