Oregon Attorney General race up for grabs

Poll shows Democratic candidates in dead heat

By Nick Budnick

The Portland Tribune, May 14, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (19 Reader comments)

In the race to be Democratic nominee for Oregon Attorney General, state Rep. Greg Macpherson enjoys a lead over former federal prosecutor John Kroger that is so slight as to be meaningless, according to a poll commissioned by the Portland Tribune and FOX News 12.

Macpherson, a Stoel Rives employee-benefits lawyer who has spent six years representing Lake Oswego, leads Kroger, a Lewis & Clark law professor better known for prosecuting Enron, by 28 percent to 26 percent.

The Portland polling firm Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall Inc. interviewed 400 likely Democratic voters across the state and found that 46 percent of them remain undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points, meaning the numbers could be off by that amount in either direction.

With so many undecided voters, Macpherson’s two-point lead “is no lead at all,” said pollster Tim Hibbitts.

No candidates have filed for the Republican nomination, meaning whoever emerges victorious in the Democratic primary is expected to be elected.

The Attorney General oversees the state Department of Justice, which in turn helps oversee enforcement and implementation of Oregon civil and criminal laws while also defending state agencies in court.

In the Attorney General’s race, as with the Oregon Secretary of State's race, Hibbitts said the large number of undecideds reflects the fact that no candidates began with high statewide name recognition.

“Almost all of them started from virtually no name recognition statewide, so it’s not a surprise that it takes voters a while to make up their mind,” he said. “Huge numbers of people don't know anything about them.”

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