Kitzhaber on election: 'We will emerge stronger'

John Kitzhaber is still not commenting to the media but his lead continues to grow Wednesday evening after his opponent, Chris Dudley, conceded victory.

At the last update at 9:17 p.m., Democrat Kitzhaber had exactly 49 percent of the state vote, compared to Dudley's 48 percent.

Overall in the vote tally, Kitzhaber has 677,567 votes; Dudley has 665,018 votes.

As stated earlier, Kitzhaber has an event planned Thursday morning at 10 a.m. in Northwest Portland's Tanner Springs Park.

KOIN Local 6 will carry this conference live on the telecast and also at KOINLocal6.com.

--Toshio Suzuki

Kuwait City, Kuwait – “I want to extend my congratulations to John for his victory today.

“This was a highly competitive race and both candidates can take pride in having run strong campaigns during a very difficult election cycle – and for engaging the public in some of the hard but pressing issues that must be addressed by the next governor and legislature.

“Oregon, along with the rest of the nation, is facing challenging times and it is critical that the outgoing administration and incoming administration work together to ensure a seamless and productive transition.

“I take seriously my responsibility to exercise my duties as Governor until January 10, 2011, but I am equally committed to working with Governor-Elect Kitzhaber to position our state for success in the coming years and in achieving a successful transition for the people of Oregon."

“We now have the certainty we need to put aside the divides of this election cycle and come back together as Oregonians.”

--Governor Ted Kulongoski

After an 11-month race for governor that took him across the state, Republican Chris Dudley conceded the race Wednesday night in front of a Mexican restaurant in Lake Oswego.

"Well, I called John (Kitzhaber) and wished him the best--conceded the race--I think the numbers are going in that direction," said the former NBA center, who was surrounded by his family. "I wish him the best in helping our state forward."

Repeatedly thanking his supporters during the brief media appearance, Dudley called the competitive race "tremendous," "tough" and "incredibly tight."

Speaking on behalf of the voters and the competitive result, Dudley said the message from Election Day was clear: Republicans and Democrats need to work together.

"The mandate out of this election is we're tired of all the political nonsense, we want you to work together," he said.

Dudley also talked about how close the race was but refused to comment on what his campaign could have done differently.

"It's a half a point, so I don't wanna over do it on what you could of done--it very easily could of been the other way," he said.

When asked directly about another run for office: "I'm just going inside--probably gonna have a margarita and worry about all that later."

--Toshio Suzuki

His campaign reported that Chris Dudley will speak in front of a downtown Lake Oswego restaurant at 7:15 p.m.

Dudley will speak at the El Ranchito restaurant and will remark on the outcome of the election, according to his campaign.

Local media outlets have all announced Democrat John Kitzhaber as the victor in the extremely tight race.

KOIN Local 6 will cover Dudley's comments live on the air and online.

According to unofficial election results provided by the Oregon Secretary of State, John Kitzhaber took the lead in the governor's race at 6:14 p.m.

The Democrat, already widely predicted as the winner, arrived at 48.74 percent of the vote, or 664,845 total votes.

Republican Chris Dudley is at 48.34 percent, or 659,362 votes.

At about 5:45 p.m., the state elections division reported only about 100,000 votes remaining to be counted.

Citing "higher mathematics," KOIN Local 6 Political Analyst Jim Moore projects John Kitzhaber as the next governor of Oregon.

"There are approximately 50,000 votes left to count and Kitzhaber will win 70 percent of those, which is 35,000 votes," said Dr. Moore.

The numbers have been trending in this direction since late last night and it now is accurate to predict that the former Democratic governor of Oregon will once again hold the post.

No official announcements have been made from either campaign, but Kitzhaber announced that he will speak Thursday at 10 a.m. at Tanner Springs Park in Northwest Portland.

KOIN Local 6 will carry this conference live on the telecast and also at KOINLocal6.com.

--Toshio Suzuki

Multnomah County submitted a summary of their unofficial results at 3:47 p.m., showing that John Kitzhaber received 164,574 votes to Chris Dudley's 65,686 votes.

At the Secretary of State website, Kitzhaber continues to gain on his opponent as time passes. At 4:14 p.m., the statewide difference was in Dudley's favor, but only by .4 percent.

Republican Chris Dudley: 48.74 percent of the vote

Democrat John Kitzhaber: 48.34 percent of the vote

According to the most recent numbers from the Oregon Secretary of State, Republican Chris Dudley is still leading Democrat John Kitzhaber in their race for the governor's office.

The lead is now only 10,781 votes, down from this morning when the lead was about 15,000 votes.

As of the 3:27 p.m. update, both candidates now have 48 percent of the vote: 48.95 percent for Dudley; and 48.13 percent for Kitzhaber.

In the all-important Multnomah County, which is still being counted, Kitzhaber leads 70 percent to Dudley's 28 percent.

According to the Oregon Secretary of State, as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, there were nearly 155,000 votes left to be counted in the race for Oregon governor.

While Chris Dudley holds a 15,000 vote lead over John Kitzhaber, there are nearly 100,000 votes left to be tallied from Democrat-rich counties Lane and Multnomah.

Political analyst Jim Moore said that if tradition holds those counties could go three-or-four to one for Kitzhaber.

Nigel Duara & Tim Fought, AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democrat John Kitzhaber was whittling down a slim lead by Republican Chris Dudley as the last ballots were being counted statewide in the race for governor.

Most of the remaining ballots were in Multnomah County, where Kitzhaber was heavily favored among the large Democratic majority in Portland.

With nearly 1.3 million ballots counted, Dudley had just over 49 percent while Kitzhaber had a little over 48 percent of the vote.

But roughly one-fourth of the Multnomah County ballots had yet to be counted by 9 a.m. Wednesday, and Kitzhaber was outpacing Dudley by nearly 3-to-1.

Nigel Duara & Tim Fought, AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley remained locked in a tight race for governor as ballots from two of the state's largest counties were still being tallied.

The candidates spent a combined $15 million on the race to replace Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who is leaving office after the two straight terms allowed by Oregon law.

Kitzhaber, a former two-term governor trying to return after a seven-year hiatus, was buoyed by a last-minute visit from President Barack Obama. He'd be the first Oregon governor to win three terms.

Dudley, a former NBA player and political rookie, ran a campaign supported by Oregon's business community.

The winner will face a projected budget gap of $3 billion in the state's next two-year budget cycle

Speaking to his supporters at the Rose Garden, Dudley said "there's no doubt" which way the governor's race is going.

"We're winning now and we're gonna be winning tomorrow," said the Republican candidate at about 11:20 p.m.

At the time of his speech, Dudley was still leading his Democratic candidate by the percentages, 49 to almost 48 percent.

The total Oregon vote count as of 11:24 p.m. is 1,074,389.

Check back with KOINLocal6.com in the morning to read updated results.

--Toshio Suzuki

Down almost 18,000 votes at 11 p.m., Democrat John Kitzhaber spoke confidently of his chances to his supporters at the Hilton Hotel.

"Let me tell you why I'm so confident here this evening," started Kitzhaber, before listing all of the statistics that outline the work his campaign did. "This is a field operation unprecedented in Oregon history."

His main point, however, was that Multnomah County results were yet to be counted: "Almost half of the Multnomah County vote is not in yet and we're carrying that."

With over 1 million Oregon votes counted at 11 p.m., Republican Chris Dudley led the race with 49 percent of the vote, while Kitzhaber had almost 48 percent.

At the end of his brief speech Kitzhaber told his supporters to go home and get some sleep, because tomorrow was a big day for the state.

"Tomorrow we start the hard work of putting Oregon back together," he said.

--Toshio Suzuki

At 9:40 p.m. Dudley is up by about 13,000 votes. It's a close race.

But hanging out there is Multnomah County. Kitzhaber has been winning in the heavily Democratic area by about a 70-30 percent ration, actually a bit more than that.

About 147,000 votes have been counted in Multnomah County. As of 4:30 p.m. this afternoon around 230,000 votes had been delivered to the elections office. By the time we get the ballot totals from 8:00 p.m., it wouldn't surprise me if there were a total of 250,000-270,000 ballots.

70 percent of those numbers gives around another 56,000 to 75,000 votes to Kitzhaber.

That would beat Dudley, probably by 40,000 or 50,000 votes.

But I can't call the race until we see that Multnomah County dump of results.

In past years, there have been times when Multnomah County just shut down and went home for the night after about 11:30. I hope they don't do that tonight.

--Dr. Jim Moore is a professor at Pacific University and political analyst for KOIN Local 6

With nearly 1,000,000 votes counted, Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley has pushed his lead over Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber to 13,000 votes.

The former governor grabbed an early lead in the heated race, but has trailed for much of the last hour.

Still, many of the votes yet to be counted are from Multnomah County, an area that KOIN Political analyst Jim Moore expects to favor Kitzhaber by roughly 40,000 votes.

Moore expects anywhere from 1.3-1.4 million votes in the race.

Republican candidate Chris Dudley has taken a small lead over Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber with about 59% of the votes tallied.

Dudley led by 5,000 votes at about 8:57 p.m.

KOIN political analyst Jim Moore expects Kitzhaber to rebound though, as more ballots from Multnomah County have yet to be counted.

Former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber opened up an early lead on Republican candidate Chris Dudley, but as the results pour in, the race has tightened.

As of 8:33 p.m., Kitzhaber holds a slight lead of just under 6,000 votes.

In the most watched political race in Oregon, John Kitzhaber has taken an early lead against Republican candidate Chris Dudley.

Kitzhaber, the former governor, has 181,402 votes (58%); Chris Dudley has 126,865 (40%).

Many pundits, including Bill Bradbury, expect the race won't be decided until late tonight.

The early results reflect voting from Multnomah County.  

The results page can be found here.  

As of 6 p.m., Multnomah County reported 235,746 ballots returned.

That overall tally accounts for 56.45 percent of the overall vote in the county.

The Kitzhaber campaign is setting up at the Hilton Hotel with American flags--all in preparation for the news at 8 p.m.

At the Rose Garden, where the Chris Dudley campaign headquarters is preparing, KOIN Local 6 Reporter Alexis Del Cid reported that Portland Police asked all journalists to exit while a K-9 unit swept the area.

--Toshio Suzuki

As of 4:30 p.m. on Election Day, the Oregon Secretary of State is reporting 60 percent of ballots returned.

Republicans are still leading Democrats in percentage of voters turned out (68-63 percent); but the overall number of returned ballots favors the Democratic majority (about 546,000 to 455,000).

Overall, about 1.2 million ballots are already returned, out of an eligible 2,081,595.

Keep track of complete Oregon Election Results as they flood in at 8 p.m.

--Toshio Suzuki

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley have been in a dead heat in Oregon for weeks in a governor's race about fresh perspectives versus experience. Polls and the candidates say it's still a dead heat just days ahead of Tuesday's election.

(Send KOIN Local 6 your photos or video from election night)

So, who wins will depend on the get-out-the-vote drives political parties are running with unusual precision under the state's vote-by-mail system.

"I think this is now a turnout issue," Kitzhaber, who has already served two terms as governor, said this past week in an interview with The Associated Press.

Kitzhaber's chances to be the first Oregon governor to serve three terms likely depend on the success of his party's efforts to get his supporters to return ballots — motivating Democratic volunteers to help get ballots returned is why President Barack Obama came to the state late in the campaign.

"Statewide, the higher the turnout ... the better the chances for Kitzhaber," said Oregon State political scientist Bill Lunch.

For months, polls have consistently shown the two candidates close, neither with an advantage of more than the polling margin of error. About a tenth of the likely voters were listed as undecided in the most recent poll done for news organizations.

The most recent turnout statistics from the secretary of state's office, released Friday, showed a third of the ballots returned, with 40 percent of registered Republicans having returned their ballots, 37 percent of Democrats.

About 97,000 of the prized votes from non-affiliated voters were in, representing 23 percent of those registered.

Because the Democrats have a decided edge in registration, Democratic votes outpaced Republican votes by about 318,000 to about 267,000.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.