Here’s the latest news today out of Oregon:
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown holds a tenuous lead over gubernatorial challenger Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, while four hotly contested ballot measures are struggling to win over voters.
That’s the bottom line of a new poll conducted for OPB in the run-up to the Nov. 6 election.
The telephone poll of 500 Oregon voters found that many are undecided or less than firm in their choices. And many acknowledged that they aren’t closely watching the Oregon elections.
Ballots hit mailboxes this week.
The Oct. 4-11 survey found that Brown, a Democrat, has the support of 40 percent of voters while Buehler, an orthopedic surgeon and state representative from Bend, is at 35 percent.
Another 17 percent are undecided, four percent say they support Independent Party cabinetmaker Patrick Starnes, and the rest are scattered among the other three candidates on the ballot.
The poll’s margin of error is 4.4 percentage points.
By the way, Buehler is an anti-vaxxer:
The Republican gubernatorial nominee in Oregon declared in a recent debate that he supported loosening vaccination requirements in his state, raising alarm from medical professionals there.
Knute Buehler, a physician who currently serves as a state representative, responded to a recorded question about vaccinations by saying that he backed parental rights to opt out even absent a medical basis for doing so.
“As a physician, I certainly believe in the benefits of vaccination but I also think that parents should have the right to opt out,” Buehler said. “To opt out for personal beliefs, for religious beliefs or even if they have strong alternative medical beliefs. And that has been beneficial. I think that gives people option and choice and that’s the policy I would continue to pursue as Oregon’s governor.”
Buehler’s answer is at odds with the vast majority of medical literature, which touts the necessity of a social contract around vaccinations in helping to stop the re-emergence or spreading of infectious diseases. Under current Oregon law, parents are able to exempt children from vaccination under specific circumstances: that they talk to a medical provider or watch an online video about the benefits of vaccines.
We cannot allow an anti-vaxxer to become Governor. Click here to donate and get involved with Brown’s re-election campaign.