Oregon’s a funny state - although liberal, Republicans can and do win the state from time to time, usually after Democrats have pissed them off enough.
The politics of Oregon has similar demographics to the state of Washington. A large marjority of the state geographically is conservative, unfortunately, those areas are sparsely populated. Those liberal areas west of the "Cascade Wall" dominate state-wide politics.
Which is what happened over this last legislative session. The Dems royally P.O.ed people with their tax raises and attempts and turning their yes votes into no votes, and vice versa.
A name to watch for 2010 in OR: Jason Atkinson.