Hill plans a rematch.

Byline: The Register-Guard

No incumbent governor of Oregon has faced a serious challenge in the primary election since ... well, we checked as far back as 1946, when Earl Snell easily won the Republican Party's nomination for a second term. If former Treasurer Jim Hill succeeds in mounting a strong campaign against Gov. Ted Kulongoski in the Democratic primary, it will be the first race of its type in at least six decades.

This prospect must be troubling to Kulongoski. Since at least the end of World War II, a sitting governor has been able to expect an all-but-uncontested primary election in his campaign for a second term. Most - Snell, Douglas McKay, Mark Hatfield, Tom McCall, Vic Atiyeh and John Kitzhaber - then went on to win re-election. But even those who were denied a second term, Robert Holmes and Bob Straub, faced no significant opposition for their party's renomination.

This year is already different. Kitzhaber led Kulongoski in the polls while he toyed with the idea of a gubernatorial campaign. Lane County Commissioner Peter Sorenson is in the race, and can be relied upon to do better than the vanity candidates most incumbent governors face when seeking renomination.

And now comes Hill. Hill finished a distant second to Kulongoski in the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary, but he and a third candidate, Multnomah County chairwoman Bev Stein, nearly equaled Kulongoski's vote total. Hill has run two winning statewide campaigns, winning election as treasurer in 1992 and 1996. Hill has been out of the spotlight for the last four years, but even with his late entry he has the potential to be a strong candidate.

Evidently, more than a few Democrats sense Kulongoski is vulnerable. "Ted has not been a good Democrat," Hill said in announcing his candidacy. Hill cited the governor's record of appointing Republicans to key positions and his support for an off-reservation Indian casino in the Columbia Gorge.

More significantly, he criticized Kulongoski's role in reforming the Public Employees Retirement System, a theme likely to resonate with a key Democratic constituency - public employees and their unions. "There are people holding back from him," Hill said of the governor's donor base. Hill raised more than $1 million for his 2002 race, which lends credibility to his observations about campaign funds.

Kulongoski still must be counted as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination, and the Democrats who are sniping at him now will speak more kindly if the governor moves on to the general election campaign. Still, the leading Republicans in the race - Kevin Mannix, Ron Saxton and Jason Atkinson - undoubtedly relish the prospect of becoming the first in decades to oppose an incumbent governor whose primary contest is something other than a coronation.