Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, standing, speaking on the floor of the Senate in January 2023, as Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, seated at right, looks on. Knopp and Linthicum represent most of Deschutes County in the Senate and their seats are on the ballot in 2024. They plan to fight a state law that would bar them from re-election because of unexcused absences during the Senate GOP walkout that stalled the 2023 legislative session. 

September 14 is when the Oregon election gets real. 

Candidates have already “announced” they are running, some have created political action committees – or revised existing ones – to get the money going needed for races next year.

But Sept. 14 is when the window officially opens with the Oregon Secretary of State to file for office.

It’s been a time of some drama in recent elections. In 2020, then-former New York Times columnist William Kristof listed a Yamhill County address in his bid for the Democratic primary for governor. The secretary of state’s office later ruled he had not properly established qualification of residency to run. 

In 2023, the questions will be put to the test by Republicans with more than 10 unexcused absences during the recent session Legislature. Under Measure 113, approved by voters in November 2022, any lawmaker with ten or more missed floor sessions without an approved excuse is barred from running for re-election.

Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has issued a decision that candidates who have violated the law cannot file to run in 2024. Five senators have asked the Oregon Court of Appeals to overturn the decision. 

Even when names start to pop up in the state elections systems, the result could be less exciting that 2022, when the governor’s office was on the ballot.

The Oregon Republican party had its moment in the sun in 2022.

Christine Drazan burst from a packed governor primary pack, rolled up big donations, blew past independent candidate Betsy Johnson and a swelling wave of political reporters and analysts say the race was too close to call.

Former Happy Valley Mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, out of office,  and two-time loser for Oregon House, beat Terrebonne attorney Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who had knocked off US. Sen Kurt Schrader in the primary.

Rep. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, jumps into race for the seat of Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, who resigned her seat and left the Democratic party for an ultimately unsuccessful bid for governorship.

House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, keeps raucous GOP caucus in the Capitol throughout the 2022 session. She agreed to a Senate Republican deal with Senate Democrats agreed to dilute abortion rights, transgender care and gun control bills. When her two top caucus lieutenants disagreed, she accepted their resignations. Her husband, political consultant Bryan Iverson, retains control of the Oregon Senate and House campaign PACS raising money for 2024 races.

The Republican power couple earlier hosted House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis to their Crook County farm and last week had another top Democrat over for dinner: Gov. Tina Kotek.

But few things grow older faster than yesterday’s election news, Republicans are raising money but have few high recognition candidates running for office – but few names familiar to voters are looking to step up as yet as Republican standard bearers in 2024.

At the end of August 2023, Drazan is active with a new political action committee, A New Direction for Oregon . It’s meant to amplify her views on Oregon’s problems and how she believes that can be fixed with variations on conservative Republican policies. But it is not a political action campaign that can be converted to use funds for running for higher office in 2024. Drazan has shown no inclination to get into any of the major races next year.

Chavez-DeRemer is rated one of the 10 most vulnerable congressional incumbents running for re-election in 2024. Weber joined in the Republican walkout in the Senate.

Weber was among the 10 lawmakers who surpassed the Measure 113 limit of 10 unexcused absences. But that won’t impact her until the 2026 election when her four-year term is up.

Even before voters can cast ballots on the topic, she’s among five GOP senators suing over Measure 113, which as interpreted by the Secretary of State would mean Weber will be out of her current job at the end of 2026.

Unless Drazan changes her mind, Republicans will be short on names familiar to the public when voting in 2024.

Secretary of State: Shemia Fagan resigned office for accepting side work from the La Mota cannabis company at a time when her office was auditing the Oregon Cannabis and Liquor Commission,

When Secretary of State Shemia Fagan announced her resignation over the La Mota marijuana scandal, he was widely mentioned as a substitute – even by Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend.

But following the example of former Gov. Kate Brown’s two appointments to fill vacancies, Kotek went looking for someone who had no plans to run for a full term in 2024.

Kotek appointed former Portland auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who has said she will not seek the office in 2024. 

Barred by the constitution from seeking a third term at treasurer, Tobias Read first ran for governor, finishing second to House Speaker Tina Kotek in the Democratic primary. 

Read is a veteran campaigner and brings a less flashy persona to the SoS job than Fagan. But he is vulnerable to to a progressive running the in the closed May primary.

Treasurer: Tobias Read wants to be on the ballot in 2024, but not in his familiar spot form 2020 and 2016. Barred by the state constitution from seeking a third term, Read is brining  his campaing opeation and fundraising track record to the race for Secretary of State.

The leaves Read’s current position of Treasurer open. Brett Baker, a Democrat listed as the president of Springboard Group in Beaverton, is the only candidate to establish a campaign finance committee for the race.

Attorney general: incumbent Ellen Rosenblum has repeatedly declined to say whether she will run for another four-year term. If she runs, it will be for her fourth term. Will Lathrop of Enterprise in Wallowa County is the only candidate to create a campaign finance committee for the race. He lists himself as a former Yamhill and Marion County deputy district attorney who sine 2015 has worked i non-profit law.

Oregon is one of five states in which the attorney general was created by state statute instead of in the constitution. One impact in Oregon is that it is exempt for the two-term limit placed on incumbents.

The Berkeley-born lawyer has been attorney general since 2015. John Kroger, he predecessor, had announced he would not run for re-election in 2012. Rosenblum won the May 2012 Democratic primary. Kroger said he wanted to be in place at Reed College for the fall semester and announced he would step down prior to the end of his term. Gov. John Kitzhaber named Rosenblum, the Democratic nominee, to the office.  Rosenblum was elected in the 2012 and been re-elected three times since.  Rosenblum currently has just $30,0000 in her state campaign fund, but has shown the ability to ramp up fundraising in election yes, including nearly $787,000 when she last ran in 2016.

David Frohmayer was the last Republican elected to the office, He first won election in 1980, then was re-elected in 1984 and 1988. He resigned in 1992 to become Dean of the University of Oregon Law School. Following state law, Democratic Gov. Barbara Roberts had to appoint a member of the same party as the officeholder. She tapped Charles Crookham, a state state judge, to fill out the end of Frohmayer’s sterm. Crookam did not see re-election. Voters elected Democrats Ted Kulongoski (a future governor), Hardy Myers and Kroger.

In 2012, Republicans failed to field a candidate for attorney general or state treasurer. Portland attorney James Buchal had enough write-in votes for state courts to place him on the November ballot against Rosenblum. She won 56% of the vote to 39% for Buchal.