Oregon:

Oregon still operates under its original (1857) constitution. Its executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. Its legislature has a senate with 30 members and an assembly with 60 members. The state elects two senators and five representatives to the U.S. Congress and has seven electoral votes. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat elected governor in 1994, was reelected in 1998. He was succeeded by fellow Democrat Ted Kulongoski, who was elected in 2002 and reelected in 2006. In 2010 Kitzhaber was again elected governor. He was reelected in 2014 but resigned in 2015 amid investigations into his fiancée's financial affairs. Kate Brown, a Democrat and Oregon's secretary of state, succeeded him as governor, won the office in a special election in 2016, and was reelected in 2018.

Among the state's more prominent institutions of higher learning are the Univ. of Oregon at Eugene; Oregon State Univ. at Corvallis; Reed College and Portland State Univ. at Portland; and Willamette Univ. at Salem.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Facts and Figures
• Geography
• Economy
• Government and Higher Education
• History
• Bibliography

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