Kitzhaber gets plenty of media hits on reentry

There's no question that former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber remains a heavyweight political figure on the state's landscape.

His announcement that he's running for governor again won him front-page news around the state, prominent television coverage and plenty of bytes in the blogosphere.

But what's striking is how far from laudatory the commentary was about the Democrat's re-entry into Oregon politics. Questions are being raised about how effective he was in his two terms in office and whether he will be a forceful and successful leader this time around. Check out the comments on Blue Oregon's post announcing his entry into the race. That blog comes from deep in the Democratic base, but the comments seemed about equally divided between cheering him on and questioning whether his time has past.

Look at my own paper, The Oregonian, still the most influential media outlet in the state. The paper carried three commentaries related to Kitzhaber today.

Columnist Steve Duin concluded that Kitzhaber "always brought more than enough brains to the table, and not nearly enough in terms of temperament and work ethic."

The Oregonian's editorial on Kitzhaber did laud his successes on salmon recovery and health care, but added that "he has sometimes not shown the persistence or bedside manner needed to persuade Oregonians and key stakeholder groups to go along with him on issues such as school funding, tax reform or transportation."

And former Labor Commissioner Jack Roberts, a Republican who writes a regular column for The Oregonian, cheerleaded for another heavyweight Democrat - Congressman Peter DeFazio - to get into the race.

[Roberts, it should be noted, had an earlier column slamming Kitzhaber and complaining that the state's media had not been tough enough on him the first time around. The irony is that Roberts could have had the Republican gubernatorial nomination for the asking in 1998 to run against Kitzhaber and he passed up the best chance anyone had to be tough on him.]

The Eugene Register-Guard offered a more upbeat appraisal, saying Kitzhaber made a good start in laying out a broad agenda. The Salem Statesman-Journal editorial focused on the political landscape in the governor's race but said: "Kitzhaber often was seen as aloof; and personal characteristics can be as important as such campaign issues as health care, the economy, the environment and education."

And, not surprisingly, the commentary from the right was particularly sharp-edged, given the new media environment.

Oregon Catalyst quickly put up two posts, one slamming Kitzhaber for his love of Edward Abbey's novel on eco-terrorism (Kitzhaber once had a bumper sticker on his SUV saying "Hayduke lives" but made it quite clear he didn't support eco-terrorism) and another on his history of supporting tax increases. That's one thing that Kitzhaber mostly didn't have to contend with during his two terms as governor: the blogosphere.