The former governor was a key architect of Democrats’ dominance of Oregon. He says the current system isn’t working.
Nigel Jaquiss
Oregon Journalism Project
Two newly filed ballot initiatives would open Oregon’s primary elections, which currently exclude voters not registered with the parties holding the nominating contests.
Election reformers have been trying to change Oregon’s primary system for nearly two decades. What’s different this time is that one of the three chief petitioners of the initiatives is an unlikely champion for change: former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat who arguably contributed more to his party’s control of Oregon politics than anybody else.
In labor circles, Kulongoski, a lawyer who counted unions among his clients, will always be known for shepherding the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act through the 1973 Legislature.
That law went further than those in the few other states that then allowed public employees to bargain collectively. It covered all public employees, not just a select few, such as police and firefighters, and it allowed most public employees to strike. Collective bargaining gave Oregon’s public employee unions the power to build the sophisticated, well-financed political operations that have dominated state and local elections for decades.
Kulongoski rode that wave of Democratic power. The former governor says he remains a proud Democrat but is disillusioned with the condition of Oregon.
“I don’t think the process is functioning in the broadest interests of Oregonians,” Kulongoski says. “It’s working for interest groups and people with money.”