Oregon State Treasurer's primary

Incumbent state treasurer, Ted Wheeler, won the Democratic primary for the seat last night with 65 percent of the vote.  He'll now run against Republican State Senator, Chris Telfer, in November.
Kristian Foden-Vencil attended Wheeler's celebration party on Portland's eastside last night, and files this report.

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Ted Wheeler took over a small Cafe for the evening. He watched with family, friends and campaign staff as results came in.


Ted Wheeler; "It was an exciting night. By all accounts we saw this race as being neck and neck and it was anybody's race. So I'm just pleased to say the way it turned out in our favor."


Polls before the election showed Wheeler just a few percentage points ahead of State Senator Rick Metsger -- with many voters undecided.
It now appears those voters broke overwhelmingly for Wheeler.


Ted Wheeler: "I wish I was smart enough to give you a real answer as to why people tended to break for me at the end of the day. I really don't know the answer but I suspect people are saying that they believe I have the right experience and background for the job. I suspect it's also a referendum on the work I've done so far as the state treasurer."

Across town, Rick Metsger was at another restaurant watching the results. He says Wheeler ran a great race.


Rick Metsger: 'I'm very proud of the race he ran. I'm very proud of the race we ran. He obviously had a lot more resources than we did. He maximized those. And I appreciate that very much. But I'm very much supportive of Ted in the general election, I think he's what Oregon needs in terms of the State Treasurer's office and I'll be there 100 percent behind him."

On the other side of the Cascades, State Senator Chris Telfer watched the results come in. She's the Republican nominee and was running unopposed.
But now she knows who she'll be running against. Still, she says, it really doesn't change her campaign.


Chris Telfer: "Same message. Same message. I'm running on my experience, my skill level. The fact that I'm a certified public accountant, which obviously fits the office quite well. So I don't think my message is going to change whether Rick's running or Ted's running. The message is still the same."

Telfer say she's disappointed by one issue, and that's that more people didn't vote.
Turn out was at historic lows.
So far, the treasurer's race has been a real barnstormer.
Former treasurer Ben Westlund passed away in March, giving candidates just two days to file for the seat.
Governor Ted Kulongoski then appointed the chair of Multnomah County, Ted Wheeler, to the position.
The day Wheeler was settling in he learned The Oregonian newspaper was working on a story about treasury staff taking free meals and junkets from investment groups.
Wheeler made several changes. Judging by last night's vote, those changes seemed to appeal to Democrats.
Over the next few months, we'll see what Republicans and Independents think