By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com
#1. Kotek’s gas tax went down 83%
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has spent nearly 12 months defending and pushing a failed, grossly unpopular gas tax since the end of the 2025 Legislative Session last June. That defeat is a crippling blow to her and the Democrat lawmakers who voted for it. Thanks to the winning team of Chief petitioners Senator Bruce Starr, Rep. Ed Diehl, Jason Williams of Taxpayers Association, No Tax Oregon’s Jodie Fleck (Mama liberty), Nick Stark of Oregon Freedom Council and PAC team leader John Swanson.
#2. Socialist candidates get defeated!
At the beginning of the campaign cycle, the state director for the Working Families Party of Oregon said, “There is a war within the Democratic Party”. That war failed. Democrat Senator Janeen Sollman, District #15, fended off a socialist challenger, and State Representative Danile Nguyen fended off a far-left primary challenger. Far-left Working Party candidates failed to win open seat opportunities in House #38 and House #40.
#3. The Drazan-Diehl effect created an 8% boom
Based on early returns, Republican Party turnout was 8% above Democrat turnout, showing that these top-two candidates elevated their party and brought great enthusiasm to the election.
#4. First big challenger for the U.S. Senate in a decade with Senator David Brock Smith’s expected win
Senator David Brock Smith is winning his primary to challenge incumbent super-liberal Jeff Merkley. Oregon has not had a competitive challenger in over a decade. As a result, liberal U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden have had easy cake-walk re-elections. Because past challengers have been so poor at raising money and polling, they lost the opportunity to be in a televised debate or even make a mark. With David Brock Smith at the top of the ticket, this will boost turnout across all down-ballot races.
#5. Right-to-vote measure passes in Wilsonville
A purely citizen-led effort gathered signatures to put a local ballot measure requiring voter approval for future city urban renewal projects. Cities love to divert property tax revenue away from schools and police into an urban renewal slush fund where they lavish tax cash on private corporations to build things they were already planning to build. Hundreds of millions of tax dollars are wasted on such corporate welfare. This measure passed in Wilsonville and is a model for the rest of the state.
#6. Small local taxes went down
The Taxpayers Association spoke out against a handful of local taxes that stood out for their unusually high price tag, and nearly half of them were defeated. For instance, the costly Lane County property tax for OSU programs (#20-380) is two very expensive property taxes for schools in Canby (#3-636) and Newberg (#36-239). Additionally, measures went down in Clackamas (3-633), Polk County (27-148), Stayton (24-521), and Woodburn (24-520).
#7. Key player behind the gas tax referendum (John Swanson) wins seat for Polk County Commission
The team leader for the entire gas tax referendum was put together by Capitol staffer, John Swanson. He just won a seat on the Polk County Commission. You will be hearing more from him in the future.
— Was this article helpful? If yes, please contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).