Well, we confess we sure didn’t see this one coming: Former Oregon Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Sizemore filed today to run in the 2010 gubernatorial primary for governor.
More in a bit.
UPDATED: Sizemore told WW in an interview this afternoon that his goal in running again (He lost badly in 1998 as the Republican nominee to John Kitzhaber, then running as the incumbent Democrat) was to “break the stranglehold public employee unions have in this state.”
Sizemore’s animus toward unions is personal, given their success in defeating his ballot measures and winning a $2.5 million judgment against him that led to a brief jail stint for him.
Sizemore, 58 and living in Redmond, says he told nobody in the Republican Party leadership that he was going to file his candidacy today but insists that his run is serious and that he can raise money for it despite a judge’s restrictions on his fund-raising options. (Sizemore certainly has before).
He says he’s the one to take on the public employee unions as a candidate instead of in his more recent role as a frequent initiative filer because Oregon’s lineup of what he calls “milequtoast candidates” is unlikely to. Asked if he includes declared GOP gubernatorial candidate Allen Alley in that list, Sizemore said today wasn’t the day to attack Alley. He then proved himself in fine campaign fettle by noting that Alley once worked for Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
