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Oregon Attorney General election, 2012
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Oregon's 2012 elections U.S. House • Attorney General • Secretary of State • Other executive offices • State Senate • State House • State ballot measures • Candidate ballot access |
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| Oregon Attorney General |
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May 15, 2012 |
November 6, 2012 |
| State executive official elections in 2012 |
The Oregon attorney general election took place on November 6, 2012. Incumbent interim attorney general Ellen Rosenblum won a full-term election.[1] Election day polling hours were from 6 am until 6 pm.
Ellen Rosenblum (D) Incumbent
James Buchal (R)
Chris Henry (Progressive)
James Leuenberger (Libertarian, Constitution Party)
On May 15, Ellen Rosenblum defeated Dwight Holton in the Democratic primary race for Attorney General of Oregon. The polls closed at 8 pm, and the race was called soon thereafter, with only 50% of the votes counted. At the time the race was called, Rosenblum had a 63%-37% lead over her opponent, securing the party's nomination.[2] Write-in Republican candidate James Buchal received enough write-in votes to qualify him for the 2012 general election ballot for attorney general.[3] Rosenblum and Buchal faced off in November.
Democratic Oregon attorney general John Kroger announced in October 2011 that he would be retiring upon expiration of his term in 2012, citing an undisclosed health problem.[4] Kroger's retirement left the 2012 Democratic primary race wide open. Of the three candidates who initially declared their intention to seek the party's nomination, two remained: Ellen Rosenblum and Dwight Holton. Rosenblum was a retired Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon. Holton previously served as the head of the United States Attorney’s Oregon Office and as acting U.S. Attorney.[5]
The candidates’ differing views on Oregon's Medical Marijuana Act emerged as the most contentious issue in the race. Holton had referred to the 1998 ballot initiative to permit doctor-authorized medical marijuana use as a "train-wreck." While he pledged to enforce the voter-approved law if elected, he indirectly assisted in federal raids on state-sanctioned grow-sites while working for the U.S. Attorney's office. He also said he believes that the law has fostered black-market activity and represented a step toward "back-door legalization."[6] Rosenblum, by contrast, gained support from the pro-cannabis community by assuring that "personal marijuana use is the lowest priority for law enforcement" and pledging to defend the state against federal interference with OMMA rights.[6]
Because no Republican candidates filed for the election, it was generally expected that the race would be decided in the primary on May 15. Meeting this expectation depended on the performance of the GOP’s write-in candidate, James Buchal, a property-rights lawyer and three-time state House candidate. In 2008, the party failed to recruit a standard candidate for the office. In the absence of any strong write-in Republicans, Kroger (D) won both the GOP and Democratic Party nominations. The Republicans were determined to avoid a repeat of the 2008 election. About that incident of bipartisan convergence from 2008, Oregon's GOP chief of staff Greg Leo told the press on May 3 that “It’s grated on us so much that we said next time we have a vacancy for statewide office, let’s do a write-in campaign and make sure a Republican fills that spot.”[7]
Results
November 6 General Election Results
| Attorney General of Oregon General Election, 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Ellen Rosenblum Incumbent |
56.3% | 917,627 | |
| Republican | James Buchal | 39.2% | 639,363 | |
| Libertarian | James Leuenberger | 2.8% | 45,451 | |
| Progressive | Chris Henry | 1.7% | 28,187 | |
| Total Votes | 1,630,628 | |||
| Election results via Oregon Secretary of State | ||||
May 15 Primary Election Results
| Oregon Attorney General Democratic Primary, 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
| Ellen Rosenblum |
64.4% | 197,366 | ||
| Dwight Holton | 35.4% | 108,356 | ||
| Write-in votes | 0.2% | 614 | ||
| Total Votes | 306,336 | |||
| Election results via Oregon Live. | ||||
| Oregon Attorney General Republican Primary, 2012 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
| James Buchal (Write-In) | 50.4% | 12,816 | ||
| Misc. | 49.6% | 12,622 | ||
| Total Votes | 25,438 | |||
| Election results via Oregon Secretary of State. | ||||
Candidates
General Election candidates
Ellen Rosenblum (D)
James Buchal (R)
Chris Henry (Progressive)
James Leuenberger (Libertarian, Constitution Party)
Primary candidates
Democratic primary candidates
- Dwight Holton-former interim U.S. Attorney
- Ellen Rosenblum-retired appeals court judge.
Republican primary candidates
Former candidates
- Portland lawyer Katherine Heekin pulled out of the race in early February.[8]
Endorsements
Candidates
Dwight Holton
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Ellen Rosenblum
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Polls
General election polls
Public Policy Polling
Q. "The candidates for Attorney General are Democrat Ellen Rosenblum and Republican James Buchal. If the election was today, who would you vote for?"
| 2012 General election secretary of state candidates | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Ellen Rosenblum | James Buchal | Undecided | Margin of error | Sample size | ||||||||||||||
| June 26, 2012 | 46% | 33% | 20% | +/-3.7 | 686 | ||||||||||||||
| Note: The polls above may not reflect all polls that have been conducted in this race. Those displayed are a random sampling chosen by Ballotpedia staff. If you would like to nominate another poll for inclusion in the table, send an email to editor@ballotpedia.org. | |||||||||||||||||||
Primary election polls
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- The results of this SurveyUSA poll represent the responses of 432 registered Democrats who had already returned a ballot or were likely to do so in the May 15 Democratic primary. Responses were delivered over home or smartphone over the 3-day polling period between May 7 and May 10.
Campaign finance
| Contents |
|---|
| 1 Background |
| 2 Due dates for reports |
| 3 Candidates |
Reports released about a month before the primary indicated that Holton, Kroger's preferred successor, had gained a financial edge over Rosenblum due to backing from the state's largest union, the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU backed Kroger's final campaign for attorney general with a $300,000 donation. Holton received $20,000 from the union, along with endowments from the Oregon Education Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 48—two other influential unions in state politics—that helped boost his campaign.[12] Holton’s fundraising lead largely vanished after Rosenblum received a $70,000 donation from the drug law reform group Drug Policy Action, which aimed to block Holton—who showed less support for enforcing Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Law—from winning the election.[13]
Due dates for reports
The Secretary of State administers campaign finance law and maintains all records online.
As of 2007, there are no longer "scheduled" reporting deadlines. Committees will continuously report campaign finance transactions.
Candidates
As of May 4, 2012, the candidates’ top ten contributors were listed below.[14][15]
Dwight Holton
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Ellen Rosenblum
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Campaign sites/media
Campaign sites
Democrats
Republicans
- James Buchal for Oregon Attorney General on Facebook
- Buchal Official Campaign Website
- Follow Buchal on Twitter
Advertisements/Videos
Ellen Rosemblum |
Dwight Holton |
James Buchal |
News
- Open primaries a non-starter for Oregon Republicans
- Oregon secretary of state sued by candidate over alleged misinformation
- Oregon secretary of state's election date snafu still unresolved despite judge's ruling
- 2012 elections preview: Oregonians prepare to choose state executive nominees at the polls tomorrow
- Election aftermath: Oregon's state executive races
- Election preview: Oregon's state executive candidates file for office
- Attorney General Kroger leaves politics to take job as president
- The whirlwind candidacy of Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon's next attorney general June 20
Key dates
- Administrative deadlines are at close of business (5:00) unless otherwise noted.
| Deadline | Event |
|---|---|
| Mar. 6 | Last day to file candidacy |
| Apr. 24 | Voter registration for primary election |
| May 15 | Primary election |
| June 14 | Certification of election results |
| Nov. 6 | General election |
See also
Articles
- Open primaries a non-starter for Oregon Republicans
- Oregon secretary of state sued by candidate over alleged misinformation
- Oregon secretary of state's election date snafu still unresolved despite judge's ruling
- 2012 elections preview: Oregonians prepare to choose state executive nominees at the polls tomorrow
- Election aftermath: Oregon's state executive races
- Election preview: Oregon's state executive candidates file for office
- Attorney General Kroger leaves politics to take job as president
- The whirlwind candidacy of Ellen Rosenblum, Oregon's next attorney general June 20
External links
- Oregon Secretary of State Official Site
- Oregon Elections Division
- Politics1-Oregon 2012
- The Green Papers
- Eugene City Club Debate between Democratic AG hopefuls, March 17, 2012
- Listen to candidates Holton and Rosenblum debate the issues at the Salem City Club on April 23
Footnotes
- ↑ Oregon Live, "2012 General Election Results," November 7, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Live, "Oregon 2012 Primary Results," May 15, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Live, "Oregon Republicans now have candidates for attorney general and treasurer, courtesy of write-in votes," June 6, 2012
- ↑ OregonLive.com, "Oregon Attorney General John Kroger shocks employees with announcement that he won't seek re-election," October 18, 2011
- ↑ The Oregonian, "Former U.S. Attorney announces run for Oregon AG," January 11, 2012
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Statesman Journal, "Marijuana and the campaign for attorney general," April 30, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ The Statesman Journal, "Oregon GOP backs write-in effort," May 3, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Live, "Katherine Heekin withdraws from Oregon AG race," February 9, 2012
- ↑ The Oregonian, "Editorial roundup: A guide to The Oregonian's primary election endorsements," April 30, 2012
- ↑ Statesman Journal, "Medical marijuana and the campaign for attorney general," April 28, 2012 (dead link)
- ↑ [http://ellenrosenblum.com/news/bend-bulletin-endorses-ellen-rosenblum-ag The Bend Bulletin via Rosenblum Campaign Site, "Campaign Press Release-The Bend Bulletin Endorses Ellen Rosenblum for AG," April 16, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Live, "Dwight Holton reels in $20,000 in union donations," April 6, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Live, "Drug reform group funnels $70,000 to AG candidate Rosenblum," May 9, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Secretary of State, "Campaign Finance Reports-Dwight Holton," accessed May 4, 2012
- ↑ Oregon Secretary of State, "Campaign Finance Reports-Ellen Rosenblum," accessed May 4, 2012
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