When the gavel falls by next week in the House and Senate, the political focus will flip immediately from legislation to the election. 

March 7 is the last day the Legislature can meet before the constitutionally-mandated end of its 35-day session.

March 8 is the last day candidates can file to run in the May primary election.

The calendar leaves just 70 days until the May 17 primary election day — though Oregon’s mail-in only ballot means the time for candidates to make their case is even shorter.

As of Friday afternoon, 309 candidates have registered with the Secretary of State to run for office in 2022. There are 36 running for governor, 35 for U.S. House, 10 for U.S. Senate, and four for Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Scores more are running for the state House and Senate, along with a collection of judgeships, district attorney offices, mayors and other local offices.

Some news and notes from the legislative halls and campaign trails:

Changing traditions to choose sides: The Democratic parties in Deschutes and Linn counties have broken with their longstanding tradition against endorsing candidates in primary races. Both groups voted to back the insurgent progressive candidacy of Jamie McLeod-Skinner in her race to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, the least liberal Democrat of Oregon’s delegation to Capitol Hill. McLeod-Skinner was also endorsed within the past week by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts. Schrader’s re-election will be backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. 

Sorry, neighbor: Gov. Kate Brown was the target of harsh words — and an apology — from Washington Sen. Marko Liias this past week. The Democrat from Lynnwood is chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and author of a bill to add a 6-cents-per-gallon tax on fuel refined in Washington that is bound for neighboring states. When Brown expressed her opposition to the plan, Liias went on KVI radio with a biting reaction.  

“The fact that she dare say a word is just a joke,” Liias said. “This governor down in Oregon is living in Fantasyland. She is in the last few months of her term. She is losing relevance. She is a lame duck.”

On Friday, Liias rose on the Senate floor in Olympia to offer an apology. “Yesterday I participated in a radio interview where I made unkind and disrespectful and inappropriate comments about the governor of Oregon, and I deeply regret those comments,” Liias said. “I have expressed my apologies to Gov. Brown and look forward to continuing to build a strong relationship between our two states.”

Grand Old Party spot: With COVID-19 on a trajectory of steep decline, both major political parties are planning a return to major election year conclaves. First up will be the Republicans, who will hold their Dorchester Conference April 22-24 at the Hood River Resort. Staking claim to being the oldest continuous political conference in the nation, it takes its name from the Lincoln City hotel where the first event was held in 1965. The conference plans on a governors’ candidates debate and a straw poll of attendees to pick their choice of the moment.

Dems head to bluer mountains: Democrats will make their traditional trek to the Sunriver Resort in newly Democratic-leaning Deschutes County. The onetime Republican stronghold voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, the first time a Democrat won more than half the county’s presidential votes since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The event had been scheduled for mid-March, but organizers felt the COVID-19 situation would be improved in the spring and have rescheduled the event to April 28-May 1. It too will include a debate of governors candidates, as well as meetings with other current and prospective officeholders.

Borderline bid: Katherine “Kat” Gallant, a conservative commentator, has switched races for the 2022 election. She’s now filed to run against U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, in the 2nd Congressional District.

Gallant had earlier announced a bid for Congress — in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District.

Gallant said in an e-mail that the delayed U.S. Census information that led to late redistricting of congressional districts in both states had left her out on the border in terms of where she would run.

“Arizona, too, is in the middle of redistricting and it made it confusing to know who I was running against,” she said.

Gallant said she was born and raised in Pendleton, has had property in several spots in Oregon, and currently lives in Ukiah, in Umatilla County. She said she also owns a farm in Arizona.

“I had homes in both areas and after looking and analyzing both, I decided to run in Oregon,” Gallant said. She said she also owns a farm in Utah.

Oregon state offices have relatively strict residency requirements, as shown by the disqualification of former New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in his bid for governor.

But the U.S. Constitution gives a great deal of leeway to candidates for the U.S. House. They do not have to live in the district — just in the state. It’s a rule that several candidates are invoking to get into races in newly redrawn congressional districts beyond where they live.

If Secretary of State Shemia Fagan is satisfied that Gallant is an Oregon resident, she’ll be on the May 17 ballot along with Bentz and Mark Cavener of Klamath Falls.