By Alex Baumhardt | Senior reporter
Astoria neighborhood overlooking the Columbia River. (Photo by Mia Maldonado/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Morning all!
Your Chronicle crew has been in-deep this week covering some of the most competitive legislative races ahead of the November election. Reporter Mia Maldonado joined several candidates on the North Coast as they canvassed, debated and tried to win over the majority nonaffiliated voters in the area.
Oregonians who answered door knocks and showed up for the campaign events expressed by-and-large being most frustrated with the rising cost of food, fuels and housing. The Democratic Legislature’s attempts in the past year to pass a new gas tax and raise car registration fees to fund the state transportation department and infrastructure investments left lingering resentment for some. As we reported this week in a follow-up to a 2024 investigation, some of the Legislature’s big ticket transportation investments have not paid off years after being promised.
The backers of a new ballot initiative would hope to ease Oregonians' financial burdens by creating a separate wealth tax for people with $30 million or more in assets to raise revenue that could bring tax cuts to lower income residents, reporter Shaanth Nanguneri found.
Data centers also continue to elicit strong feelings from voters across the state and region, and reporter Aspen Ford at our sister site in Washington brought us the story of more than four hundred Washingtonians across 19 locations taking to the streets to demand a statewide moratorium on the server farms.
In other election news from around the country, our D.C. and national bureaus report that Democrats could win the majority of governor’s offices for the first time in 16 years, but there’s no major gains projected for the number of women in Congress after the midterms.
Your Saturday long read connects the fate of an Oregon hemp seed grower Maldonado reported on last week with that of a hemp plant grower in Rhode Island navigating a new federal law that will effectively take an axe to the Oregon farmers seed business and the Rhode Island farm’s THC sparkling lemonades.
At any rate, and in any state, we hope this fall day is relaxing and refreshing.
YOUR SATURDAY STORY
By Christopher Shea | Rhode Island Current
Rhode Island’s regulated hemp market generated $2.85 million in sales in 2025, according to data provided by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. Drinks and seltzers infused with THC — the psychoactive component of the cannabis plant that can cause impairment— accounted for $2.36 million, or about 83% of the total. The state had 201 licensed hemp businesses as of Oct. 1, including 169 retailers.
But the market Simpson joined could soon be upended by a federal restriction that Rhode Island regulators say they must enforce. Starting Dec. 11, federal law will prohibit the sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container.
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