Oregon Senate GOP spokesman J onathan Lockwood has joined the gubernatorial campaign of Bend’s Rep. Knute Buehler.

Lockwood resigned from the Oregon Senate Republican Office, effective Nov. 1, after less than a year in the position.

Tayleranne Gillespie, policy analyst for Senate Republicans, signaled Lockwood’s departure in an email to reporters Thursday, Oct. 19, announcing that she would be the new contact for media inquiries.

Lockwood joined Senate Republicans Nov. 30 hailing from Colorado where he helped strategize the defeat of two progressive policy referendums.

Molly Woon, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Oregon, said Lockwood’s hiring raises concerns about the tenor of the 2018 gubernatorial race.

“I am surprised to see Knute Buehler, who styles himself as a moderate Republican, hire a right-wing mouthpiece that the Denver Post called ‘flat out deranged,'” Woon said in an email to the Pamplin/EO Capital Bureau. The quote came from a description by the Denver Post editorial board.

“Is Lockwood’s inflammatory brand of communications the kind of political discourse that Buehler thinks best represents his vision for Oregonians?” Woon said. “Lockwood’s history of fabricating information will make Oregonians wonder if anything Buehler’s campaign says is trustworthy.”

Rebecca Tweed, Buehler’s campaign manager, did not comment on Woon’s assertion. Tweed said Lockwood would begin serving as the campaign’s communication director Nov. 1. She indicated she would withhold further comment on his new position until he is officially with the campaign.

But Lockwood’s nonconventional approach — probably described best in a piece by The Colorado Independent — has drawn attention to Republican causes in two states that are largely liberal.

As the former executive director of free market group Advancing Colorado, among other things, Lockwood successfully campaigned for the defeat of a single-payer health care system and GMO labeling.