OPB’s First Look: State of the governor’s race

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Good morning, Northwest.

With less than two months until Election Day, the Oregon governor’s race is heating up.

OPB politics reporter Lauren Dake starts today’s newsletter exploring the state of the contest for Mahonia Hall — the issues that have emerged and how voters are feeling now.

Also this morning, the time has come for the first weekday morning commute during the I-5 closure in Portland.

Here’s your First Look at Monday’s news.

— Bradley W. Parks

Top story

Oregon governor’s race ramps up as candidates start making their cases to voters

If Oregon were a political island, isolated from the national headlines, the odds of state Sen. Christine Drazan breaking the nearly 40-year losing streak of Republicans running for governor would be higher.

For years now, Oregon voters from both political parties have been concerned about the state’s economy, poor school rankings, declining populations and the high cost of living. More recently, they have watched grocery and gas prices climb.

It’s hard for any incumbent politician to be popular in this environment.

Oregon isn’t an island, though; Drazan’s party controls the White House, and President Donald Trump’s policies are just as unpopular in Oregon as Kotek.

With the Labor Day holiday over, the race to be the next governor of Oregon is speeding up, and it’s safe to expect the candidates will hone and amplify their messaging in the days ahead. (Lauren Dake)

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3 things to know

• ODOT is urging commuters to take extra time to prepare ahead of likely heavy traffic today due to the I-5 closure through Portland’s Rose Quarter. (Monica Carrillo-Casas)
• With the midterm elections less than two months away, ballots will be mailed to Oregonians living and working overseas, including military service members, this Friday. (Bryce Dole)
• Oregon plummeted 15 spots to No. 21 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll yesterday, its lowest ranking in four years, after its 39-31 road loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday. (Eric Olson, AP)

How Portland’s WNBA team won our hearts

The rekindled Portland Fire are wrapping up their inaugural season and, while they didn’t make the playoffs, they did finish fourth in the league for attendance. We break down the joys and challenges of the new team’s first season with two lifelong women’s basketball fans: OPB business reporter Kyra Buckley and Rev Shines, host of “Today’s Good News” on KMHD. (Kyra Buckley, Rev Shines and Julie Sabatier)

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Northwest headlines

• Why gray whales are becoming harder to find near Port Orford (Roman Battaglia, JPR)

• Coos and Curry counties are seeing different employment trends (Theo Greenly, JPR)

• Reykdal seeks $2B infusion for Washington public schools in next budget (Jerry Cornfield and Aspen Ford, Washington State Standard)

• Late goal earns last-place Stars 1-1 draw with Thorns (Drew Renner, AP)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app. Today’s planned topics (subject to change):

• Amazon VP on natural resources and data centers in Eastern Oregon
• Data centers emerge as a hot-button issue in Oregon’s gubernatorial race
• Bend resident embarks on motorcycle road trip around the world

One more look

New affordable housing honors the legacy of Portland’s Legin Restaurant

Legin Commons, a new affordable housing complex in Southeast Portland, officially opened Thursday. It provides 124 homes to people in the ethnically diverse Jade District and beyond.

Located on the edge of Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus, Legin Commons is named after Legin Restaurant, an iconic Chinese eatery demolished in 2012 to make way for the campus expansion.

The restaurant’s old site, where PCC’s Southeast Campus Library currently stands, is just a block away from the apartment complex.

Opened in 1995, Legin Restaurant boasted a banquet hall that could accommodate roughly 1,000 people, more spacious than comparable Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco at the time. It’s also bigger than any Portland Chinese restaurant still standing.

Legin Commons is still accepting applications for its units, but some tenants are expected to start moving in within these two weeks. (Winston Szeto)

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