Ballots are beginning to drop, as they say, along the West Coast, Messed Coast™ as Election "Day" begins.
Could it be that after 40 years in the progressive oppressive wilderness, Oregon could elect the first GOP governor since Vic Atiyeh in 1982? Let's grab the Magic 8 Ball. "Most likely," it reads.
California is murkier, but hope springs eternal. We'll talk about it.
Other items on the docket this week:
It turns out the California "billionaire" tax isn't just for billionaires. Big surprise.
DeSantis makes a splash in Oregon politics.
It's all here in your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ update, so let's get to it.
Oregon's tectonic change?
The latest polls, to the extent polls are reliable anymore, have the GOP candidate for governor one point up, a virtual dead heat to win Mahonia Hall. But a virtual dead heat in an Oregon poll likely means that Christine Drazan's got a lead outside the over/under.
The poll, which included 915 likely Oregon voters, was conducted by DHM Research for Oregon Public Broadcasting.
It shows Drazan leading Kotek by one percentage point, with 47% of likely voters saying they were planning to or were leaning toward voting for Drazan and 46% for Kotek. That's within the survey's 3.24% margin of error.
Another 3% said they were throwing their support behind Pacific Green Party candidate Brett Smith, while 4% didn't know. [emphasis added]
Drazan, a state senator who was formerly House Republican Leader, said at a recent political event, "I am not running to manage Oregon’s decline. I am here to end it." A lot of voters believe her.
Keep up! West Coast, Messed Coast™ — California's Contemptible Government-Run Human Trafficking Machine
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters in the survey say Oregon is on the wrong track (under limp Democrat control). Another portion of the poll finds that voters believe the top five biggest issues in the state are affordability (18%), high taxes (17%), homelessness (16%), poor leadership (10%), and housing affordability (9%).
While both Kotek and California Democrat Xavier Beccera (see the next story) continually bleat "but, but, but Trump!" these issues were caused by decades of mismanagement in these West Coast, Messed Coast™ states. These issues existed before Trump, were amplified during the Biden administration, and were caused by Democrat priorities.
The Iran conflict has increased gas prices, no doubt, but California, Oregon, and Washington made climate cartel pacts that were purposely meant to increase prices of all strata of energy. Indeed, high prices are what they wanted and planned for. You know, to plunder the money and, oh yes, "save the planet." What complete nonsense.
Oh, look, Drazan made a commercial about it.
"Tina Kotek says she's protecting us from Trump, but who's protecting us from her?"
KOTEK's TDS on Full Display.
— NuttShelll (@BEAR_NUTS_PB) September 27, 2026
She hates that we're a Free country.
Vote Christine Drazan.
Get Crazy out of Politics. pic.twitter.com/4n7BOJ0ZOf
Perhaps a better barometer of how close the race is is the increasing tone of desperation displayed by the unfortunately-named Gov. Tina Kotek.
Increasingly desperate-sounding:
🚨 JUST IN: Did Oregon Governor Tina Kotek just threaten her Republican opponent who’s leading in polls?
— David Medina 🌲🇺🇸 (@davidmedinapdx) October 2, 2026
Kotek: “You should be careful what you say…”
Drazan then calls her out!
This is insane. This is how out of control Democrat leaders have gotten in this state. pic.twitter.com/5vJ9bqhihF
Kotek tried to double Oregon energy prices with a cram-down measure this year (told ya). She was thwarted by voters who referred the issue to the November ballot. But that didn't last. Voters saw the underhanded way Kotek tried to kill the referendum, the election in which it could be voted, and her final muscling of the issue to the lower-turnout May primary ballot, where 83% of the voters said hell no.
And they remember.
The lesbian governor, who installed her wife in a state office amid much scandal, has not been a particularly astute politician, notwithstanding her experience as Democrat leader in the legislature. She, like so many Democrats who run West Coast, Messed Coast™ cities and states, assume states run themselves, that raising taxes brings prosperity, and that regulation will grow business. They assume "keep doing what we're doing" is leadership. And they keep cranking up the taxes to give away more money to the illegal aliens, rent seekers, and their NGO tribe.
Corrupt Cali — West Coast, Messed Coast™ — That's the Smell of Corruption at Karen Bass' L.A. Homeless Authority
Steve Hilton v. Xavier Becerra
Like Drazan, California's Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has been the target of "but, but, Trump, Trump." He mocked it too.
"Trump, Trump, Trump..."
— Steve Hilton (@SteveHiltonx) October 1, 2026
What else you got, Xavier? pic.twitter.com/AqqbUdAgd4
It's an especially galling claim, considering that Becerra has been in public office in the Biden Administration and Congress for decades. He hasn't learned much, though.
Watch as Hilton completely commanded the stage at their debate this week.
As you'll likely conclude, Becerra will not be asked to bring the cookies to the next Mensa meeting.
This was a total SMACKDOWN.
— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2026
Far-left Democrat Xavier Becerra just got completely EXPOSED by Republican Steve Hilton for losing track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children during his time as HHS Secretary.
Becerra just stood there looking nervous as Hilton laid it all… pic.twitter.com/1jcSLhEcjH
But that punch about losing hundreds of thousands of babies and children from south of the border hit hard.
Hilton has run his heart out. Two recent polls have Hilton running 40% to Becerra's 60%. It's time to close the gap. I hope Republicans get good at ballot chasing and harvesting this cycle.
Becerra admitted he trafficked kids
Here's Becerra on a recording provided by a congressional whistleblower, admitting that his HHS was pushing through illegal alien children and putting them through his "assembly line."
In the recording, the man pretends not to know anything about the 350,000 lost children, who were drugged to be brought over here and went to unvetted "sponsors," cartels, and sex and labor traffickers.
Becerra was upset that the children weren't being processed faster.
“This is not the way you do an assembly line,” he told his interlocutors on the recording. Indeed, he wanted to get the "discharges" churned through the system quickly because "every time we have to go to the Hill and explain why we’re spending so much money when most people are struggling to spend a little bit of money for their kids on a daily basis, we try to explain how we’re spending more than $1,000 a day for kids who may not even have the legal right to be here.”
This is:
— 🇺🇸RealRobert🇺🇸 (@Real_RobN) October 2, 2026
The candidate the Democrats have chosen for the state of California.
Xavier Becerra, in a leaked audio recording, confirms that he transformed HHS into one of the largest child-trafficking operations in U.S. history.
He admits that trafficked children were being… pic.twitter.com/jxO6nJHlBv
By the way, they spent far more than $1,000 per kid per day to get these kids processed and "discharged" into a stranger's custody.
Remember, child workers — Becerra's unaccompanied minors — were found at the bust at the Camarillo Glass House Farms. DHS officials said they were working. State officials fined the company for having underage workers.
An armed protester shot at federal agents. Others threw rocks and fought the immigration cops.
Gov. Gavin Newsom saw it all, blamed the feds, saw the kids, and said nothing.
What are kids doing in a marijuana grow field?
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) July 11, 2025
It begs the question: if the children want to come to the U.S., why do they have to be drugged?
Spies among us
California tech CEO Greg Lui was arrested in a raid at the headquarters of his company for allegedly smuggling more than $300 million in restricted AI chips into China. https://t.co/sB7dlN6PkX pic.twitter.com/Pn08andQYl
— California Post (@californiapost) October 2, 2026
Wow: West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Nothing Says 'We Hate America' Quite as Much as UCLA's 9/11 Event
California's "billionaire tax" is really a thousandaire tax
CalMatters did a "fact" check of the California billionaire tax that everyone knows will end up as a thousandaire tax — meaning an everybody tax.
The publication said those claims were partially true based on language that allows the tax to be changed to include everyone. The publication said the claim that a governor couldn't "with the stroke of a pen" change the law was false. It takes a two-thirds vote of the legislature.
Guess who has a two-thirds supermajority in the legislature? The SEIU Democrats running this scam.
Washington State is running the same kind of scam with its "millionaire tax."
Lawmakers and leaders need to be reminded that passing laws based on envy of someone else's stuff and jealousy because you don't have it is a bad example to set for the children.
What absolute Delta Bravos.
Drug crisis? What drug crisis?
Nick Shirley is at it again, and he has the West Coast, Messed Coast™ in his crosshairs. If you watch nothing else in this video, check out the first 30 seconds of Shirley's video on fentanyl overdoses on America's streets.
Smile, Seattle!
Nick put out another video a few days ago, which rousted me from my slumber, as happens a lot.
The video, since removed, has Nick investigating fraud in Oregon — which is plentiful, to be sure.
Shirley said, "There’s a strip club in Portland, Oregon, where you can use your SNAP card," and I immediately wrote down the quote, the timestamp, and got the link.
I'll be looking for that story.
Oregon has one of the most expansive free speech laws in the country. Live sex acts equate to political speech in that state. As a result, Portland has the most strip clubs per capita than any other city in the country.
That a strip club owner could find a way to allow customers to use their food stamps — SNAP, EBT — to fund their strip club antics doesn't surprise me. At all.
They haven't ruined everything — yet
Free lawn maintenance, compliments of the Cannon Beach elk herd. Oregon's Haystock Rock is in the background.
Photographer Dan Rice writes on his Instagram post, "Talk about an unforgettable wedding guest."
Great shot, Dan Rice Photography.
If you have photos of the beauty of the West Coast, Messed Coast™, little or large, expansive or macro, and you want them to be shared in the column, send them my way, stating your explicit permission allowing me to include them here. Victoria @ VictoriaTaft dot com is where you can send them. I write my email address that way to discourage insta-weirdos.
You know what to do.
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