With Election Day two weeks away, the top trio running for Oregon governor  have stormed past the $60 million mark in the chase for campaign dollars.

There’s no let-up in sight. At top forecaster said Monday that despite the saturation advertising, the vote gap between the top two candidates is less than 1%. 

But a signal from nature that the election is nearing its end came Monday as snow fell on the Santiam Pass, a main route for last-ditch campaign swings across the Cascades.

The first marked ballots have arrived at county clerks offices around Oregon, as the state-mandated deadline to get ballots in the mail passes on Tuesday.

All registered voters should have their ballots by later this week. Oregonians can check on their registration status at the Secretary of State’s website, sos.oregon.gov/voting-elections.

Top job draws top dollar

FiveThirtyEight, a political forecasting website affiliated with ABC News, reported on Monday that an aggregation of recent polls show Republican Christine Drazan with 38.7% of the vote.

Democrat Tina Kotek trails by less than 1%, with 38.2% of the vote.

Unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson was the choice of 14% of voters, a little over half the slice of the electorate in her favor last August.

The close race has opened wallets. Campaign finance data reported Monday by the Oregon Secretary of State showed Kotek has amassed more than $23.5 million since Jan. 1, 2021.

Christine Drazan has received $19.1 million from supporters betting she’ll be the first Republican to win a race for governor since 1982.

Betsy Johnson led early in the competition for campaign funds. She resigned from the Oregon Senate and dropped out of the Democratic Party late last year in a bid to be just the second governor elected without a major party affiliation. She’s slipped into third place in the money race, raising $17.2 million to date.

Round-up the numbers and the trio has amassed $20 million more than the previous record of about $40 million in the 2018 win by Democrat Kate Brown over Republican Knute Buehler.  

PAC aimed at defeating Democrats spending big

Bring Balance to Salem, a political action committee founded in November 2021, has raised just under $4.8 million and spent just over $4 million to fuel Republican legislative candidates. It’s biggest donor: Nike Founder Phil Knight, who has given $2 million. Former U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, is the PAC’s consultant.

GOP aims for Senate 

One of the biggest money trails leads to the doors of the Oregon Senate. Backers of Republican candidates are making a big bet they can reduce or even eliminate Democrats’ current 18-vote majority in the 30-member Senate. 

The heaviest spending is in the Salem-area Senate District 10. Republican Rep. Raquel Moore-Green has raised and spent $1.7 million in a bid to flip the seat of Democratic incumbent Deb Patterson. Patterson has raised over $900,000 and spent nearly that much.

In one of the more intriguing strategic efforts, Republicans are pushing hard for an upset in Democratic-tilting Senate District 15 centered on Hillsboro. Republican challenger Carolina Malmedal has raised over $1 million vs. just $159,000 for Democratic incumbent Sen. Janeen Sollman.

Republican Kim Thatcher has broken the $1.05 million mark in battling for the Senate District 11 around Keizer, north of Salem. Democrat Randy Walsh has raised just over half that amount, reporting $559,000 in contributions to date.

In the northern end of the state, a financial slugfest is going on in Senate District 20, where Republican Bill Kennemer of Canby has raised over $1.1 million. Democratic challenger Mark Meek, a state representative looking to make the jump to the upper chamber, has put contributions just under $900,000 in his campaign till.

At the southern end of the state, Medford Mayor Randy Sparacino has topped $1 million raised in an effort to oust one of the last Democratic lawmakers in the region, Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland. Golden has raised $186,793.

Sanders to tout Kotek, Hoyle in Eugene

Liberal stalwart and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is scheduled to attend a rally on Thursday in Eugene, part of an eight-state swing to bolster Democratic candidates.

Sanders would come to the University of Oregon campus to energize voters to cast ballots for Kotek and Val Hoyle, the Democrat seeking the the 4th Congressional District seat that includes the city and campus.

National political leaders of both parties have come to Oregon in recent weeks. President Joe Biden made a quick round of rallies and fundraisers in the Portland area. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., campaigned last weekend alongside Kotek and 5th Congressional District candidate Jamie McLeod-Skinner.

Drazan brought out a pair of Republican heavyweights – outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland and recently-elected Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia for meetings and rallies.

Obama: Kotek, yes. Skarlatos, no

Former President Barack Obama has recorded a one-minute commercial for Kotek designed to play as an internet ad. The simple production has Obama talking to the camera. 

“Oregon, I want to tell you about my friend Tina Kotek,” Obama says. “She’s the real deal.”

Obama’s chief spokesperson last week strongly rebuffed another Oregon candidate using Obama’s image – Alek Skarlatos, the GOP nominee in the 4th Congressional District race.

Recent ads for Skarlatos show him in his Oregon National Guard uniform meeting with Obama in 2015. Skarlatos received accolades from the then-president for being among a small group of men who foiled an attempted terrorist rampage on a train from Amsterdam to Paris.

But Obama doesn’t support Skarlatos’ election to Congress. The Douglas County resident is running as a conservative Republican against Hoyle. 

 “Alek Skarlatos’ ads are purposely misleading,” Hannah Hankins, Obama’s communications director, told the Oregon Capital Chronicle. “Skarlatos has made clear he wants to roll back progress that President Obama delivered on.” 

Swoosh switch

Progressive activists have called for protests at Nike HQ in Beaverton targeting founder Phil Knight’s contributions of over $7 million to conservative candidates and groups. He’s given to Drazan and Johnson, along with GOP-promoting Bring Balance to Salem PAC.

But Nike’s HQ might be the wrong target. Knight has retired from an active corporate role with the sportswear company he started. While Knight favors large contributions to conservatives, Nike’s official corporate giving has been relatively small and bipartisan. By far the company’s biggest political gift in 2022 has been $75,000 to Kotek’s campaign for governor.