Patrick Lucey visits Oregon

In the fall of 1980, two weeks after accepting the nomination of Vice President on Congressman John Anderson's Unity Ticket, former Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey made a campaign swing through Oregon. Lucey was a Democrat. Anderson a Republican. Together they felt they could make some changes worthy of votes in the November 1980 elections.

Patrick Lucey passed away this past week and I just realized I had one Oregon button from the Anderson-Lucey campaign.

Theodora "Tonie" Nathan Remembered

Nathan for Lane Co. Commission Card

The state of Oregon lost one of its most interesting political figures of the last fifty years when Tonie Nathan passed away today. She was a founding member of the national Libertarian Party and the first woman in United States history to receive an electoral vote in the 1972 presidential election. She was also the first Jewish American to receive an electoral vote. Beating both Geraldine Ferraro and Joe Lieberman to those historic firsts.

While her electoral exploits from 1972 are mostly remembered for good trivia for Oregon political junkies today; her victory of a single electoral vote in 1972 are due to the thanks of elector Roger MacBride.

Reagan Campaigns in Oregon Birthday Edition

Former President Ronald Reagan turns 103 this year. 2014 marks the tenth year from his passing. He was the first U.S. President to pass away in the 21st century and it happened right during a presidential election. President Bush was overseas in Paris at the time and Democratic nominee John Kerry suspended his campaign until after the funeral. It was the first state funeral I had ever had the chance to see as it was happening. President Nixon was the last President to pass away during my lifetime and had refused a state funeral.

OR Reagan pin

My Reagan collection is very small, maybe not even 100 items. Reagan does manage to fit into several of my collecting interests. His gubernatorial items are always nice, as they fit into my celebrity political collection and then of course his Oregon items. Reagan was also the first President to visit a Star Trek set so that fits down into my Star Trek collection. Today we're going to focus on his Oregon campaign relics. APIC member Winston Blair I think has one of the most well documented modern Ronald Reagan collections.

It may be surprising to many that the same Oregon that voted twice for Barack Obama; for John Kerry; for Al Gore; twice for Bill Clinton and even gave 7 electoral votes for Micheal Dukakis also twice picked Ronald Reagan for President. It's been 28 years since Reagan won Oregon. He was the last national Republican to do so. George W. Bush has come the closest to carrying Oregon. He was 6700 some odd votes shy of beating Al Gore in 2000.

Carl H. Francis Matchbook

This fall I had the great luck of visiting a sale at an estate and purchased the only political item I could find. It was a Carl H. Francis matchbook. It is one of the few items I have for Oregon legislative candidates prior to 1960. Francis was first elected in 1942, and this matchbook could be from any election between 1942 and 1954. In 1956 Francis was elected to the State Senate and served at least 1960. He represented Dayton and surrounding areas of Yamhill County while in the legislature.