OREGON
A6 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2022
Poll: Drazan, Tiernan
Most GOP gubernatorial candidates
emerge as front-runners applaud possible abortion restrictions
in Republican primary
By SAM STITES
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Oregonian
PORTLAND — Former
House Republican Leader
Christine Drazan and former
state lawmaker Bob Tiernan
have emerged as frontrun-
ners among the huge fi eld of
Republican candidates for
Oregon governor with just
two weeks left before the
May 17 primary.
Nearly 19% of likely
Republican voters picked
Drazan, of Oregon City, as
the candidate they would
choose or were leaning
toward for the Republican
nominee in a poll conducted
by Nelson Research that
was released Wednesday,
May 4. Tiernan, who has
worked as a corporate turn-
around consultant and owns
a home in Lake Oswego,
drew 14% support.
Given the poll’s margin
of error, 4.3%, that put
the two in a statistical tie,
with more than a fourth of
respondents, 27.4%, still
undecided.
Bud Pierce, a cancer
doctor from Salem who
was the Republican guber-
natorial nominee in 2016,
received 9.5%. The poll
was the fi rst to be pub-
licly released this year that
did not show Pierce with
the highest share of likely
Republican voters’ support.
The most recent of those,
also by Nelson Research,
found Pierce had 11% sup-
port and Drazan 8% in
mid-April.
In the new poll, con-
ducted April 29 through
May 2, three other candi-
dates received more than
5% support. Sandy Mayor
and insurance execu-
tive Stan Pulliam received
6.9%, while former small-
town superintendent Marc
Thielman and Baker City
Mayor Kerry McQuisten
both received 5.9%.
Nineteen Republicans
fi led to run for governor
this year, which could lead
to voters selecting their
Drazan
McQuisten
Pierce
Pulliam
Thielman
Tiernan
nominee by a slim margin,
The Oregonian/OregonLive
has reported.
The survey of 514 likely
Republican primary voters,
conducted by telephone
and online, was paid for by
Public Aff airs Counsel, a
lobbying fi rm whose prin-
cipal J.L. Wilson owns
Nelson Research.
Both Drazan and
Tiernan have gained signif-
icant support since Nelson
Research’s last poll. The
former House Republican
leader gained an additional
10.7 percentage points of
support, while Tiernan
surged by 8.8 percentage
points.
Drazan has reported
raising nearly $2.5 mil-
lion since January 2021 and
spending nearly $2 mil-
lion. She reported spending
nearly $900,000 in April,
most of it for TV ads. She
spent more in the fi rst four
weeks of April than in the
three previous months.
Tiernan has also poured
money into an ad blitz
that has helped to put him
in the leading pack. He
has reported spending
more than $1 million and
raising nearly $1.3 million,
including a $500,000 per-
sonal loan.
Early voter turnout on pace
to meet midterms average
Just over 70,000
ballots returned
so far for primary
By SAM STITES
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Oregon
voters are taking their time
in marking primary elec-
tion ballots before returning
them for free via the U.S.
Postal Service or at offi cial
drop boxes.
At least, that’s what
the data released by the
Oregon elections division
on Wednesday, May 4, sug-
gests, with just 2.4% of bal-
lots returned statewide.
That’s on pace with Ore-
gon’s number from the 2018
primary election, in which
2.5% of ballots had been
returned by this same point.
Of the nearly 3 million
ballots sent to registered
voters over the last week
and a half, just over 70,000
have been returned.
Voters have until
Tuesday, May 17, to either
mail or physically return
their ballot.
“What we are seeing is
in line with previous pri-
mary elections,” said Secre-
tary of State Shemia Fagan,
who oversees all elections in
Oregon.
“Voter turnout is generally
high in Oregon thanks to our
modern and convenient vote
by mail system,” she said.
“Oregonians are voters.”
Data compiled by the
Bipartisan Policy Center —
a Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofi t research group
— shows that Oregonians
do turn out well above the
national average in both
midterm and presidential
elections. (Midterm elec-
tions take place two years
between presidential elec-
tions and are typically dom-
inated by congressional
races for the U.S. House of
Representatives and Senate,
as well as state offi ces such
as governor.)
In the 2018 primary elec-
tion, 27% of all Oregonians
18 years of age or older
returned a ballot, while the
country averaged just 19%.
Both those numbers were up
from the 2014 primary.
Oregon’s historical
turnout in midterm prima-
ries improves when looking
at only registered voters.
In 2018, 34% of those who
received a ballot returned
them, a slight drop from
36% in 2014.
Elections offi cials and
pollsters both say it’s hard
to gauge what turnout will
truly look like once the elec-
tion is complete — Orego-
nians have only begun to see
the expected fl ood of TV ads
and mailers — but trust the
state’s electorate to be fairly
predictable in this primary at
around 34% turnout.
Some smaller counties
are showing higher early
turnout percentages — such
as Wheeler County at 9.8%
and Gilliam County at 7.4%
— simply due to lower num-
bers of registered voters. For
example, Wheeler County
has 109 returned ballots but
only 1,110 registered voters.
In the Portland metro
region, Washington and
Clackamas counties lag
slightly behind at 1.7%
(6,443 ballots) and 1.8%
(5,567 ballots), respectively.
Daily vote count data
from the 2018 primary com-
piled by Multnomah County
shows turnout signifi -
cantly picked up after the
fi rst week following ballots
being mailed, jumping from
a daily average of about
20,000 ballots returned the
fi rst week to 69,000 ballots
in the week leading up to
the election.
SALEM — Oregon
leaders often praise the
state’s strong protection of
reproductive rights, which
is codifi ed in state law.
But most of the Repub-
lican candidates for gov-
ernor say they would work
to reduce those protections
if the U.S. Supreme Court
overturns Roe v. Wade.
In responses to a can-
didate questionnaire sent
this spring by OPB, fi ve
candidates — Stan Pul-
liam, Bob Tiernan, Bridge
Barton, Amber Richardson
and Bill Sizemore — said
they would pursue new
restrictions on abortions
in Oregon. None went
into depth about what that
would look like.
Four others — Court
Boice, Tim McCloud,
Brandon Merritt and Nick
Hess — said they would
support a voter referendum
to remove abortion pro-
tections within Oregon’s
constitution.
Only one, Jessica
Gomez, the founder and
CEO of Rogue Valley
Microdevices, said she
wouldn’t pursue any new
restrictions on reproduc-
tive health.
And in a debate hosted
Tuesday, May 3, by the
City Club of Portland and
KGW, the topic of what
happens if Roe goes away
emerged as one of the car-
dinal issues for the GOP
candidates. They spent
more than 10 minutes
of the 90-minute forum
KOIN 6 News/Contributed Photo, File
Republican gubernatorial hopefuls, from left, Stan Pulliam,
Christine Drazan, Bud Pierce and Bob Tiernan take part in a
televised debate Thursday, April 28, 2022.
debating news that the
U.S. Supreme Court might
be on the verge of over-
turning the Roe decision
and the impact in Oregon.
Four front-runners —
Gomez, Bud Pierce, Pul-
liam and Barton — were
asked what the possible
new decision means for
their plans as governor.
Gomez doubled down,
saying she’s fi rmly “pro-
choice” and stands behind
abortion being a consti-
tutionally protected right.
She does, however, stand
against using Oregon tax
dollars to help pregnant
people from other states
access abortions here.
Pierce, an oncologist
and 2016 GOP nominee,
described himself as “pro
life,” but said he believes
in obeying federal and
state law and would rather
focus eff orts on supporting
pregnant people with child
care and education so they
feel less pressure to pursue
an abortion.
“My eff ort will be
on supporting women
who are pregnant so that
they’ll want to continue
their pregnancy if they so
desire,” Pierce said.
Pierce was pressed
in the debate for what a
moderator described as
“fl ip-fl opping” on the
question of abortion; in his
2016 campaign, he said he
supported the state’s pol-
icies of access to repro-
ductive health care. Pierce
said he did not fl ip fl op,
but reevaluated his posi-
tion following his wife’s
2020 death.
Barton, a conservative
author and political con-
sultant, said she supports
the high court’s apparent
forthcoming decision, and
disagrees with the state’s
current policies.
She said she’d walk
back funding set aside
by the Oregon Legisla-
ture that helps people in
Oregon and from other
states access abortions
here. State lawmakers
recently approved $15
million for the state’s
Reproductive Health
Equity Fund in response
to new laws or eff orts to
restrict access in states
like Texas, Idaho, Missis-
sippi and Florida.
“Millions of dollars
(are) allocated for what
we’re now referring to as
‘abortion vacations’ for
people outside the state to
come in here and use our
taxpayer dollars for their
abortions,” she said. “Most
Oregonians I believe don’t
agree with that.”
Pulliam, the mayor of
Sandy, off ered the most
aggressive opinion in
terms of restricting access
to abortion. He released a
statement May 3 saying,
“I’ve waited for this
moment my whole life.”
In the debate, he
attacked his opponents for
being, in his view, too pro-
gressive on their views
on reproductive rights.
He noted that he was not
endorsed by the advocacy
group Oregon Right to
Life, which endorsed four
other candidates: Pierce,
former House Minority
Leader Christine Drazan,
Barton and Tiernan.
“I hope Oregon Right
to Life, their board, their
funders, and activists are
watching this debate,” he
said. “These answers are a
complete embarrassment
for anyone who’s received
the Oregon Right to Life
endorsement.”
Pulliam said he would
sign any “pro-life piece
of legislation.” (The
chances of such legisla-
tion reaching any gover-
nor’s desk remain quite
slim given the Democratic
Party’s fi rm hold on both
chambers of the Oregon
Legislature.)
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