Things are getting interesting in Oregon. As October arrived, Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan pulled ahead of Democrat Tina Kotek according to the RCP polling average. As recently as one year ago, this race was expected to be fairly close, but Kotek should have been able to replace Kate Brown without too much fuss or muss.

So what’s going on here? There are no doubt a variety of factors in play, but one issue involving the general quality of life for Oregon residents is probably turning out to be a major thorn in Kotek’s side. At the end of September, she was caught on camera saying she opposes repealing Oregon’s decriminalization of all drugs because “it would take too much time. ” In 2020, Oregon decriminalized all drugs, including heroin, oxycontin, cocaine and meth via something called Measure 110. As you might imagine, this has created a number of problems. One is that Oregon now has an addiction crisis on its hands, and being the progressive-minded place that it is, people want to increase public financing of rehab programs.

But because Oregon decriminalized drugs rather than legalizing them, it cannot tax them to bring in revenue to pay for publicly financed rehab. Among other things, this led to a situation in 2021 where a hike in taxes purely on alcohol was proposed, with the intention of the proceeds going toward all addiction treatment. But the proposed alcohol tax hike was tailored to spirits only, where Oregon already had the second highest taxes in the nation. (No one wanted to disrupt Oregon’s craft brewery or winery industries because they’re big businesses there, but spirits are not).

Also, the rehabilitation programs that the revenue was supposed to fund haven’t been working. While Oregon wants to raise taxes to fund rehab for addicts, the addicts don’t seem to be interested in participating in the rehab. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

More than 16,000 Oregonians accessed services through the new grant program set up under Oregon’s landmark drug-decriminalization law in its first year, but less than 1% of those helped with Measure 110 dollars were reported to have entered treatment, new state data shows.

Most of those who accessed the grant-funded services last year, nearly 60%, engaged with harm reduction programs such as syringe exchanges and naloxone distribution.

The result of all of this has been a situation where Oregon has largely become a hard drug addicted and addled progressive hellhole. Oregon’s progressive Democrats own this situation 100% because the generally outnumbered Republicans and conservatives opposed the decriminalization measures almost unanimously. Particularly in the cities, Oregon has followed the course charted by Baltimore, New York, Chicago, and other urban centers. Groups of junkies casually shoot up drugs in the public square while the police are helpless to clean the situation up. And just as in other major cities, increases in public drug usage and addiction rates lead to other types of crime.

But the Democrats are still defending the policy. One of Oregon’s leading progressive luminaries, Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, called the decriminalization measure “one of the most phenomenal ballot measures that I think Portland has done in my thirty-plus years living here.” If Hardesty’s name sounds familiar, that may be because she’s the Portland politician who famously alleged that police were responsible for starting fires back in 2020.

By a 39 to 15 margin in the House and by a 19 to 7 margin in the Senate, state legislators—overwhelmingly Democrats— passed S.B. 755 in 2021 to ensure the implementation of the decriminalization measure. That group included Oregon Democratic superstars Sens. Jeff Golden and Deb Patterson, and Reps. Janeen Sollman and Mark Meek. You can probably guess who else voted for the measure. That would be Tina Kotek in her position as a member of Oregon’s state House, who is now somehow managing to trail the Republican candidate. And voters are being reminded of how she opposes repealing the decriminalization measure because… it would take too much time.

Nothing is guaranteed in American politics, particularly if you happen to be a Republican in a blue state like Oregon. But the clock is running out for this election cycle, and Christine Drazan is starting to look as if she may just pull off an upset.