Oregon
Oregon attorney general race offers Republicans best chance in decades at statewide victory
Editor’s note: Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Stay informed with OPB on the presidential race, key congressional battles and other local contests and ballot measures in Oregon and Southwest Washington at opb.org/elections.
Candidates for Oregon attorney general in 2024: left, Democratic nominee Dan Rayfield, and right, Republican nominee Will Lathrop.
Courtesy of camp
Oregon’s race for attorney general is arguably Republicans’ best shot at winning statewide office in decades.
The race pits Republican Will Lathrop, an experienced prosecutor pushing a public safety message, against former Speaker of the House Dan Rayfield, a Democrat, who represents the political establishment that, for years, has been responsible for shaping policies and laws.
Despite that, both candidates have a lot in common. Both are white men in their mid-40s, and both attended law school at Willamette University around the same time.
Of course, there are differences too.
What you need to know about voting in Oregon and Southwest Washington
Lathrop, a former prosecutor in Marion and Yamhill counties, recently returned to the United States after working for a Christian human rights nonprofit in Uganda and Ghana. He’s running on his experience in law enforcement prosecuting crimes, such as homicides and human trafficking, and has stressed he’s not a politician.
“If you don’t actually have a law enforcement background, or that buy-in or credibility with the law enforcement community, you can’t actually get the laws executed,” Lathrop said in an interview with OPB. “That’s where we’ve really struggled in Oregon.”
Rayfield, a personal injury lawyer, spent nearly a decade representing the Corvallis area in the Oregon Legislature, ascending to Speaker of the House in 2022, until stepping down this year to run for attorney general. He says if elected he’d build on his work in politics and law to defend the state’s abortion laws, protect the environment and go after scams.
“Whether it’s housing and homelessness or it’s a substance abuse crisis, or you see seniors and consumers that are being taken advantage of in their community, the attorney general’s office in Oregon — with the right leadership — can have an important impact on those issues,” Rayfield told OPB in an interview. “That’s why I wanted to run for this position.”
Regardless of who Oregonians elect as the state’s next top law enforcement official in November, it’ll be a significant change. Since 2012, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat, has won the statewide race three times, but isn’t seeking reelection this year.
Issues important to Oregon voters
The attorney general essentially runs Oregon’s largest law firm, the Oregon Department of Justice. The agency boasts a nearly $900 million biannual budget and nearly 1,500 employees.
The department defends state laws and agencies in court. The attorney general is also responsible for protecting residents through lawsuits against the federal government and companies that cheat, lie or harm Oregonians.
Under Rosenblum’s tenure, Oregon’s Department of Justice has fiercely defended the state, whether it’s the troubled child welfare system, how the state dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic in its prisons or its efforts to implement a voter-approved measure regulating firearms.
Ballot Measure 114 bans the manufacture and sale of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and requires anyone who wishes to obtain a firearm to get a permit first. Permits will require taking a safety course and completing a federal background check.
OPB interviewed both candidates and asked them to complete a series of written questions. In them, both Lathrop and Rayfield agreed they would continue the agency’s vigorous push to implement the law, which has been blocked in the courts after it narrowly passed in November 2022.
“It is the role of the Attorney General to uphold the law,” Lathrop wrote. “Ballot Measure 114 was passed into law in 2022, and will remain the law pending the ruling of the higher court.”
“I would continue to move the process forward,” Rayfield responded. “Oregon voters passed Measure 114 to protect our communities and kids from acts of gun violence that are all too common in this country, while respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
Both Rayfield and Lathrop indicated they’re familiar with the DOJ’s reputation for aggressively defending state laws, and both signaled they might take a more moderate approach, especially in instances where state employees, agencies or laws have caused harm.
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Lathrop, who grew up on a cattle ranch in Wallowa County, spent time prosecuting sex abuse cases before joining International Justice Mission. The Christian-backed human rights organization said it works to protect people living in poverty from human trafficking and violence.
“I’ve got statewide, national and international law enforcement experience,” Lathrop said. “Each year I would come back to Oregon when I was living overseas and just watching the decay of law and order and particularly victim protection.”
During the pandemic, violent crime increased in Oregon and across the country, but has dropped sharply since.
While Lathrop boasts his leadership at International Justice Mission as an asset, a 2023 BBC documentary raised concerns about its work in Ghana when Lathrop served as country director for the nonprofit. According to the BBC’s reporting:
“IJM has removed some children from their families in cases where there was scarce-to-no evidence of trafficking and this aggressive approach may have been fuelled by a target-driven culture inside IJM. We found two documented cases of rescue operations in which children were forcibly, traumatically and unjustly removed and the children’s relatives prosecuted as child traffickers.”
In an interview with OPB, Lathrop dismissed the BBC’s findings. He said IJC worked behind the scenes and said it was Ghanaian social workers and police who took children to court where judges made determinations about removing children from their homes.
“They accused IJM of kidnapping,” Lathrop told OPB. “IJM doesn’t have the power and never has taken a kid and never has removed a child from home. It’s always the police or social workers, and it’s all documented.”
He said to call any of that kidnapping, as the documentary suggests, is “outlandish and not supported by any of the court documentation.”
The film concludes noting that Lathrop left the Christian nonprofit and mentions his campaign for Oregon attorney general.
Lathrop has raised just over $1 million in campaign contributions and has more than $530,000 cash on hand, according to campaign finance disclosures filed with the state.
Rayfield has brought in $1.2 million in campaign contributions and has more than $940,000 cash on hand, according to the state campaign finance disclosures. A sizable chunk comes from out-of-state law firms who could get contracts from the state in future litigation. Some states call these campaign contributions “pay-to-play” and prohibit them, but not Oregon.
Rayfield is running on his experience in public office and politics. When he first ran for the Legislature in 2014, Rayfield addressed run-ins with the law he had while as a young adult, including a DUII he got when he was 18 years old that was later dismissed.
In a campaign ad for attorney general, Rayfield acknowledged he “even ended up on the wrong side of the law a few times” and had a challenging childhood and “saw up close how physical abuse and addiction impact families.” In an interview with OPB, he recalled attending recovery meetings as a kid with his mom.
Rayfield embodies many of the things that Lathrop argues he’s running against. But that political experience also allows Rayfield to point to what he said are bipartisan policy victories he helped craft, such as the legislation that rolled back Oregon’s drug decriminalization law and made possession a crime once more.
“Everybody wanted to solve the root cause of what we were seeing, which was a substance abuse crisis,” he said.
Take a deeper look at Oregon’s efforts to address addiction
OPB asked both candidates whether they support their party’s presidential candidates.
Rayfield wrote that he “enthusiastically supports Kamala Harris for President.”
Lathrop wouldn’t say where he comes down on former President Donald Trump and pivoted to critique Oregon’s political establishment that’s been dominated for decades by Democrats.
“So you have to admit if you’re a Democrat, you cannot keep electing the exact same people in different seats and expect that the results are going to be any different,” Lathrop said. “It’s just like this musical chairs of the same people who voted for, and did all of the things you’re frustrated by.”
His goal is to “redefine what an Oregon Republican really is” and rejects “any kind of radical politics from the right or left.”
“Oregon needs that,” Lathrop said. “Oregon is hungry for that.”
Oregon
#6 Oregon State Falls Friday to Air Force, 9-6
A night removed from winning their series opener, two uncharacteristic fielding errors and a roughshod thirteen hits doomed Oregon State against the Air Force Falcons, 9-6.
The full box score can be viewed at this link, and our game recap can be read below.
The elder statesman of Oregon State’s pitching rotation, junior righty Eric Segura, forced a pair of groundouts to keep the top of the first scoreless. His strong start was followed by an Oregon State run in the bottom of the first. The Beavers’ opening run started with gold glover AJ Singer, who flashed his batting prowess by pinging a double to the warning track. Singer scored on a Paul Vasquez slash through 5.5 hole, and Oregon State led 1-0.
Air Force batters went down in order to begin the second inning. Their short stint at the plate was followed by another successful Oregon State frame. With one out and no one on, Josh Procter swung at the first pitch he saw. After his ball landed 399 feet away, Oregon State doubled their advantage.
As one might expect, the Air Force cadets showed perseverance against adversity and calmness under pressure. In the third inning, they seized the lead. Their four run rally started with a pair of singles. Then facing one out and runners at the corners, Falcons’ senior Ben Niednagel drew a walk to load the bases. The next man up, 2026 Preseason All-Mountain West catcher Walker Zapp slugged a bases-clearing double. With Oregon State suddenly trailing, pitching coach Rich Dorman met his starter Segura at the mound. After the meeting, a fielding error by first baseman Ethan Porter returned runners to the corners, and then Air Force senior Tripp Garrish reached on a fielder’s choice, inching Zapp home from third.
Singer answered with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. His shot traveled 407 feet, and landed a few yards to the left of Goss Stadium’s batter’s eye. As if they were awoken by the blast, Oregon State roared back to life: with Porter on base after getting hit by a pitch, Vasquez singled, and then Bryce Hubbard rolled a tough groundout to short, moving both runners into scoring position. Following an Air Force pitching change, Adam Haight sent a one-hopper into the grass beyond second base. While the sophomore outfielder was thrown out trying to reach first, his effort scored Porter from third, tying the game 4-4.
Again, the Falcons responded. After Air Force loaded the bases, their senior two-batter Niednagel forced a fielding error on a sharply hit grounder to Singer at second. When the dust settled, two runs scored. In the ensuing moments, Oregon State pulled Segura off the mound, replacing him with 6’2″ righty Zach Edwards.
Segura, a key factor in Oregon State’s sweep of Long Beach State last weekend, struggled mightily tonight. When his shift ended after 3 and 1/3 innings, he had allowed 7 hits and 4 earned runs. The top of the fourth finished with his successor Edwards stranding two runners, while Oregon State clawed closer in the bottom frame thanks to a pair of wild pitches moving Tyler Inge across the bases.
However, the one-run margin wouldn’t last for long. Facing a 2-2 count with no outs in the top of the fifth inning, Air Force’s senior Garrish smoked a high, middle fastball. Once his strike returned to Earth, the cadets led 7-5.
Scoring stalled until the top of the seventh. Oregon State’s reliever Edwards cruised for 2 and 2/3, until a pair of singles invited his pitching coach to the mound, who called for another change. Out went Edwards, and in came Washington transfer Isaac Yeager. The consistently reliable 6’6″ right hander – with 40 strikeouts and just 22 hits allowed across 33 innings – couldn’t stop the bleeding tonight. His first batter faced, Tripp, delivered another Air Force run home on a slow roller up the middle.
Oregon State climbed closer in the bottom of the seventh, after Bryson Glassco singled up the middle, delivering the Huntington Beach native Porter home from second base. The base hit also placed Vasquez in a threatening position at third base, but a Haight groundout stranded Oregon State’s runner ninety feet away from the promised land.
Air Force denied the Beavers once again in the bottom of the eighth. Tying runner Easton Talt faced a 1-2 count with 2 outs and a teammate on first base. In one of the game’s biggest moments, Falcons’ reliever Gaines Estridge offered a sky-high outside fastball. Talt swung tight, striking out, and stranding the runner at first.
The cadets tacked on one more run in the top of the ninth, when center fielder Christian Taylor beat out a throw across the diamond, helping Walker Zapp race from third. Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Beavers needed three runs to tie. Unfortunately, Falcons’ closer Patrick Davidson struck out the side.
The loss snapped Oregon State’s eight game win streak, and moved their overall record to 42-12. More importantly, their postseason fate is now in jeopardy. The three-time national champions entered the weekend needing a sweep to solidify their RPI before the regular season ends. Tonight’s defeat – following a pattern of upset losses to Portland, UTRGV, Cal State Fullerton, and CSUN – puts a hypothetical Corvallis Regional host site at the mercy of the selection committee.
Oregon State concludes its regular season tomorrow afternoon against Air Force, with first pitch scheduled for 1:35 PM PST at Goss Stadium in Corvallis. The game broadcast will be televised on Portland’s CW, and radio play-by-play can be heard across the state on Beavers Sports Network affiliate stations.
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Oregon
Oregon health officials warn of measles exposure at Happy Valley clinic
HAPPY VALLEY, Ore. (KATU) — Health officials have identified a new measles exposure site in Happy Valley.
The Oregon Health Authority and Clackamas County public health officials said people may have been exposed at Providence Immediate Care – Happy Valley, 16180 S.E. Sunnyside Road, Suite 102, between 11:05 a.m. and 3:47 p.m. Tuesday, May 12.
Officials said anyone who was at the clinic during that time should notify a health care provider about the possible exposure. Providers can determine whether a person is immune to measles by reviewing vaccination records, age or laboratory evidence of a previous infection.
Health officials urged people to monitor for symptoms and seek medical advice if they believe they may have been exposed.
ABOUT MEASLES
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory virus that spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, speaks, coughs or sneezes. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours and can infect up to 90% of unprotected close contacts. Complications can include pneumonia, brain inflammation and death.
Nationwide, measles cases have been rising since early 2025. Nearly 2,300 cases were reported last year, with most occurring among unvaccinated children.
Symptoms typically begin seven to 21 days after exposure and include cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis accompanied by a high fever. A rash usually follows, starting on the head or neck and spreading downward. People are contagious from four days before the rash appears until four days after.
A graphic from the Oregon Health Authority shows the symptoms of Measles.
HA advises health care providers to report suspected cases immediately and consider post-exposure treatment for exposed patients. The measles, mumps and rubella vaccine can be given within 72 hours of exposure. Immunoglobulin may be administered within six days.
For most people 6 months and older who are eligible for vaccination, receiving the MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure is recommended.
Anyone not protected against measles is at risk, according to OHA. The agency encourages residents to check their vaccination status and contact a health care provider with questions.
Oregon
Oregon man shot at In-N-Out drive-thru drove family to safety with bullet lodged in head
Oregon police have arrested two suspects in connection with the shooting of a father who drove himself to a hospital after being struck in the head by a bullet after shots rang out while he was pulling out of In-N-Out drive-thru with his wife and two young sons.
Ethan Adrian Armenta-Lagunas, 20, and Gabriel “Alex” Javier, 18, both of Salem, were taken into custody Wednesday.
They face charges of first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon, criminal mischief, and recklessly endangering another person in connection with the Feb. 9 shooting of Marcio Garcia.
Multiple guns were allegedly found at Armenta-Lagunas’ apartment, the Keizer Police Department said. Javier was arrested later in the day.
Authorities are still searching for a third suspect, 22-year-old Anthony Taylor-Manriquez, who is considered armed and dangerous.
Garcia, 28, was in a car with his wife and two children, ages 2 and 7, when shots rang out near the burger chain.
The gunfire shattered the car windows and struck Garcia in the head; his wife and children were uninjured, police said.
“In the middle of chaos and fear, while he was injured and in pain, he somehow found the strength to drive us out of the scene to safety,” his wife wrote in an online fundraiser.
“He protected our family before thinking of himself. That is the kind of man and father he is.”
Images posted online showed the bullet that was removed from Garcia’s head during surgery in February, according to his wife.
She also noted that Garcia did not suffer major brain damage and is currently recovering at home.
“The doctors told us what we already believe — this is nothing short of a miracle,” she said. “Now he faces a long road of rest, healing, and recovery.”
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