LINCOLN CITY — Two Republican aspirants for governor who seemed different as mustard and custard competed over ways to fix Oregon’s biggest problems including sub-standard schools, deficit spending and homelessness when they appeared at a GOP forum April 4.

But Christine Drazen, a state senator from rural Canby, and Marion Co. Commissioner Danielle Bethell appeared to have more in common than meets the eye: they both have ideas to reform state government, revive Oregon’s wilting economy and rout low-polling Democratic incumbent Tina Kotek.

It was clear from the minute they took the microphone at the Lincoln City Cultural Center both are strong, high-IQ women accustomed to political headwinds that would crush others. In 2022, Drazen wiped out 19 other challengers in the GOP primary, then lost to Kotek by a 3 percent margin (46% to 43%) after Independent spoiler Betsy Johnson drained nearly 9 points from moderate ranks.

On Saturday Drazen blasted Kotek’s housing results, saying her promise to ease the crunch has delivered only “expensive public housing built with public dollars.” She elicited gasps with new facts on homelessness in No. 2-in-the-nation Oregon, where $95,000 per-person was spent in 2025 “with no discernable results.”

Drazen faulted Kotek’s education outcomes, saying she would reintroduce “the science of education,” remove disruptive students from classrooms and reinstate graduation requirements, which sparked applause. She blamed Kotek for allowing courts to get bogged down in “maximum allowable caseload” rules that artificially jam the system. Hearing for the first time about a university push to have a government-supported press, she blasted the idea as “crazy.”

“There’s no universe where we would use government funds for the press,” she said, pointing to several online reporters in the room. “This is the new media, and why mainstream news is dying.”

For six years as a county commissioner in Dem-controlled Salem, Danielle Bethell struggled to overcome Kotek’s flaws in real time, focusing on education, public safety and behavioral health failures that affect Marion Co. residents. Bethell said her work is “scalable,” whereas Kotek is ineffective, a politician who never led an agency before taking over a complex state bureaucracy now addicted to “overregulation and high taxes.”

“I want a government that actually works for the people it serves,” said Bethell, who pledged to fire the superintendent of public schools, reform addiction treatment and reverse the upward trajectory of taxes and regulation “dampening down Oregon’s success.” But she didn’t promise a solution for everything.

“A leader’s responsibility is to stand in the gap of where things are struggling or failing and bring people together to collaborate on a solution,” she said.

Drazen and Bethell led a roster of forthright and thoughtful non-partisan contenders for county commission, including:

• Curtis Landers, a retired Lincoln Co. sheriff running for Pos. 3 against appointed incumbent Walter Chuck. Landers defended POS. 1 Commissioner Casey Miller for blowing the whistle on secret meetings, and backed DA Wallace’s call for undelivered resources. He supports reopening meetings to the public that were recently closed by administrative fiat;

• Joe D. Steere, a north county rancher and timberman in the race for Pos. 2, described the appalling state of governance in Lincoln County, making a cogent case to “get the county back on track;”

• and candidates Nicholle Moody and Carter McEntee, in the six-way race for Pos. 1, both delivered smart, rousing comments.

Moody got passionate while speaking about education: “We are creating angry, entitled young people. We need to start building bridges and tell the children they need to be great again.” She was hard anti-tax and very pro business.

McEntee, who has an MBA and experience as a general manager with the family’s iconic Mo’s restaurants, told the crowd he has “nothing against” incumbent Casey Miller but believes he could do a better job. He stressed the need for efficiency, accountability, and transparency at the county level.