Republican poll shows close race for Oregon governor

A poll released by the Republican Governors' Association Wednesday showed a close race for Oregon's governor with Gov. John Kitzhaber at 42 percent and his Republican challenger, Rep. Dennis Richardson, at 38 percent.

"We don't discuss future strategy, but I can say that we are keeping a very close eye on this race and see a large potential for it become more competitive," RGA spokesman Jon Thompson said.

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The On Message polling firm surveyed 600 likely voters statewide in late June and found that 33 percent of voters thought Kitzhaber deserved a fourth term while 55 percent did not.

"Oregonians are clearly starting to embrace an alternative to Kitzhaber's record of wasteful spending on failed projects like Cover Oregon and the Columbia River Crossing," Richardson spokeswoman Meredith Glacken said in a statement.

The RGA poll also showed that a majority of Oregonians know very little about the Central Point Republican who hopes to be their next governor. Thirty-four percent of people said they had no opinion of Richardson and 32 percent said they had never heard of him.

"Richardson is polling like he's a generic Republican candidate," said Jim Moore, who heads Pacific University's Tom McCall Center.

In 2010, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, had poor polling numbers against a generic Republican candidate, but he won decidedly that November against Sharon Angle.

In a KATU poll released earlier this month, Kitzhaber had a 13-point lead over Richardson with 48 percent of respondents going for the governor. Both polls had a margin of error of about 4 percent, so Moore called them statistically similar.

"The numbers have not changed much in two months," Moore said. "He has to move from generic Republican to Richardson."

Kitzhaber's campaign didn't sound worried about the RGA poll.

"This document is being used out of desperation to create a false sense of momentum from a campaign struggling to find financial and political support," Kitzhaber spokeswoman Amy Wojcicki said.

Whether undecideds swing Richardson will depend on three things, Moore said. How well Richardson introduces himself, explains in a positive manner what he would do differently and defines why he believes Kitzhaber is the wrong person to lead this state.

Richardson's also got to keep up his recent fund-raising energy.

"Numbers are fine and dandy, but there was no money coming to him in early summer. We didn't see national groups piling in or anything," Moore said. "Polling is great, but actions speak louder."