A prize-winning ex-New York Times columnist from Yamhill County.

The most powerful woman to ever serve in the Legislature.

The daughter of a Republican mayor who became a Democratic state senator and is running as an independent.

Oregon’s top money guy. An oncologist making his second run. The 2018 nominee of one party trying to win the primary of another.

A collection of mayors and local officials from around the state, business people, and a guy whose official candidate filing refers to himself as “The Jewish Messiah.”

As of Friday afternoon about two dozen candidates had taken a step toward running for governor next year: filed for office, created a campaign finance committee or simply announced they want the job.

On Tuesday, it will be one year before Oregon goes to the polls to pick a new governor. With more than 22 names already in the race and more expected, voters may need a menu instead of a ballot.

It’s an unusually large cohort because Gov. Kate Brown can’t run for re-election, creating the first race this century without a current or former (John Kitzhaber, 2010) governor on the ballot. The throng is expected to grow.

The latest — and splashiest — entrant is Nicholas Kristof, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from the New York Times.  Kristof quit the newspaper after 37 years to stay in Oregon and run for governor.

A native of Yamhill County, Kristof is best known for his articles and books — often with his wife, fellow journalist Sheryl WuDunn — chronicling repression and deprivation around the world.

He returned to Yamhill County to report and write a book with WuDunn. The result, “Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope,” published in 2020, included searching out what happened to his grade school classmates who rode with him on the bus to grade school. He found lives derailed by economic dislocation, drug addiction and suicide. 

“One-quarter of the kids on the No. 6 school bus have passed away,” Kristof said. “There are No. 6 school buses all throughout the state.”

Speaking at Emerald Villages homeless sheltering project in the Whiteaker neighborhood of Eugene on Thursday, Kristof — wearing a powder blue button-down shirt and gray slacks — tried to be heard over the occasional screech and rumble of freight trains passing about 100 yards away.

Kristoff said he didn’t have a “silver bullet” to cure all that ailed Oregon, but had ideas that might be “silver buckshot” to knock down some troubling issues.

He didn’t feel his lack of previous government experience was a handicap. He had spent a life looking at problems and talking to people about ways to fix the worst impacts.

“But what I do bring is a career spent working with folks who’ve been elbowed aside by their governments all around the world, and doing my utmost to better their life,” Kristof said. 

Kristof’s greatest hurdle may be winning the closed Democratic primary. Asked why he didn’t run as an independent to give himself a better chance to get to the November election, he was frank.

“I’m a Democrat, I’ve always been a Democrat,” he said.

So are at least 10 other candidates so far. Democrats have history on their side — their nominee has won every election for governor since 1986.

The line-up so far is headlined by a pair of political powerhouses in Salem. Rep. Tina Kotek, D-Portland, is the longest-serving speaker of the house in Oregon history.

Treasurer Tobias Reed, also from Portland, is the person in charge of the state’s wallet.

Each has ramped up activity in the past month. Read has met with editorial boards, including Willamette Week, a key read for party progressives. While declining to get deep into specifics, Read touted his financial acumen in piloting state finances through the pandemic and attempts to begin repairs on fiscally troubled Public Employees Retirement System.

Kotek touted her invitation to be part of a national panel on affordable housing called by President Joe Biden. She had been chief sponsor of first-in-the-nation legislation that would put more multi-unit housing in areas previously zoned for only single-family homes.

With fundraising and endorsements being tied up each day by those already in the race, the possibility of a late Democratic entrant such as Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum becomes less probable, but not impossible.

Campaigning hard to get into the political conversation are Yamhill County Commissioner Casey Kulla and 2018 Independent Party candidate for governor Patrick Starnes of Brownsville.

There’s also a large cluster of political unknowns, including Michael David of Ashland, whose campaign committee is named “The Jewish Messiah.”

Fourteen Republicans are in some form of campaign mode, hoping to win the nomination and break the GOP’s losing streak in gubernatorial races. The best known in the pack is Bud Pierce, the Salem oncologist who lost a 2016 special election to Brown. Political consultant Bridget Barton of West Linn, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam and Baker City Mayor Kerry McQuisten are other known names in the mix.

The winner of the Democratic and Republican primaries will not automatically dominate the November ballot as in most years. Along with minor party candidates will likely be Betsy Johnson of Warren.

The daughter of a Republican mayor and state representative from Redmond, she has served as a Democrat in the Senate, including co-chair of the powerful budget-writing Joint Ways & Means Committee. The most consistently moderate of the Senate Democrats, she’s bucked the party on issues such as gun control, business restrictions and carbon pollution abatement plans. But her pro-choice stance on abortion and other social issues don’t match up with Republicans.

With each party holding a closed primary in which only their members can vote, Johnson saw the possibility of a Kotek vs. Pierce kind of match-up that would leave a big gap of voters in the middle. She’s mounting a rare independent run, hoping to gather more than 23,000 signatures that will send her directly to the general election.

“Oregonians deserve better than the excesses and nonsense of the extreme left and radical right,” Johnson said Oct. 16 when launching her campaign. “Oregonians are ready to move to the middle where sensible solutions are found.”

Three major candidates on the ballot next November virtually assures the governor will come into office with a plurality of support.

The mandate in the Legislature will also be blurred by controversy over changes in districts for the House and Senate.

The Legislature has approved a redistricting plan reflecting population and demographic changes over the past decade as counted by the 2020 U.S. Census. But the plan, drawn by the supermajority Democrats in the House and Senate is being challenged in court. Knowing who is running where might not be known until after Jan. 1, 2022.