The Oregon House seats Dems want to pick up

By Julia Shumway | Editor

With 37 seats in the Oregon House, Democrats don’t have many more opportunities to pad their numbers by picking up Republican districts. Today, Alex Baumhardt and Shaanth Nanguneri look at two top Dem targets in Salem and the Gorge.

After 2021’s redistricting lumped more liberal Northeast Salem (home to the Capitol, fantastic taco trucks and charming old houses) in with more conservative suburban Keizer (home to a nice riverfront park and the In-N-Out burger chain that creates its own traffic patterns), Republican Kevin Mannix made his triumphant return to the Capitol and Dems have been unable to dislodge him. This year, they’re trying with Michael Welsh, a Keizer resident who works for a paint company and is running on a platform of helping working families.

In the Gorge, Rep. Jeff Helfrich is trying to jump to the state Senate, opening one of Oregon’s most competitive seats. That’s a race between 64-year-old Wasco County Commissioner Scott Hege and 25-year-old Hank Sanders, who had stints in journalism before jumping into politics. Sanders worked for his mom, state Sen. Lisa Reynolds, and her former seatmate, U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, before running himself in a four-way primary.

And one more thing:

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In competitive Gorge-based House District, candidates tout years, dollars between them

By Alex Baumhardt

The Hood River-White Salmon Bridge spans the Columbia River, with Mount Hood towering behind it. Oregon’s 52nd House District runs along the river from Troutdale to The Dalles. (Photo by Jerry Cornfield/Washington State Standard)

Voters in Oregon’s most competitive state House district in November will choose between a political newcomer and a longtime county commissioner with nearly 40 years, $750,000 in campaign contributions and diverging views on issues bigger than a hyperscale data center between them.

Rep. Kevin Mannix faces political newcomer in fight to hold onto Oregon swing seat

By Shaanth Nanguneri

Rep Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, (left) and Michael Welsh are vying for a competitive Oregon House seat that Mannix has held since 2023. (Photos by Laura Tesler/Oregon Capital Chronicle and courtesy of Welsh campaign)

A business law attorney and an occupational safety professional with vastly different levels of political experience are vying for control of one of Oregon’s few swing districts.

With fewer public defenders, indigent defendants pay the price

By David Montgomery

A courtroom at the Placer County Superior Court in Roseville, California, earlier this year. In California and other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney. (Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./ CalMatters)

In 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that under the Fourteenth Amendment, states must provide lawyers to criminal defendants who cannot afford one. But throughout Texas and many other states, the rosters of public defenders have been shrinking at an alarming rate, often leaving defendants in jail for days, weeks or months without access to an attorney.