Kitzhaber seriously considers third term.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Former Gov. John Kitzhaber said in an interview Friday that he's serious enough about launching a political comeback to have called his successor, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, to inform him that he may challenge him for the governorship.

Kitzhaber said his interest in running for a third term as governor had him close to "50-50 odds" of jumping in. He said he will decide by early January.

The former governor said he told Kulongoski during a phone conversation Thursday that he was thinking about running against him in the Democratic primary in May.

"I called up the governor because I wanted to let him know what I was thinking," Kitzhaber said, recounting the conversation. "I told him I wanted to take a few weeks and seriously evaluate whether I should get into the race."

Until now, Kitzhaber has been largely silent to the media about his intentions.

A decision by him to run would be a bombshell for Oregon politics. A poll earlier this year put Kitzhaber and Kulongoski neck and neck among Oregon Democrats.

Kulongoski confirmed that he and Kitzhaber had spoken by telephone Thursday. He said, however, that the conversation was about health care, and that Kitzhaber did say that he was "not going to make a decision (about the governor's race) for a couple weeks."

"In fact, (Kitzhaber) expressly said, `I've always supported you, and I still do,' ' said Kulongoski, who added that he responded by suggesting a joint press conference next week at which Kitzhaber would endorse him.

Kitzhaber declined the invitation, Kulongoski said.

Kitzhaber said Kulongoski was "very gracious" throughout the telephone conversation, and that Kulongoski told him that "at the end of the day, he thought I would make that decision based on what I thought was best for Oregon."

The two agreed to resume the conversation during the holidays, said Kitzhaber, adding that he expected to make a decision "soon after the first of the year."

Kitzhaber, who was governor from 1995 to 2003, said in a telephone interview Friday that the odds of him getting into the race were "50-50, maybe less than that."

Kitzhaber has come a long way since September, when "draft Kitzhaber" talk was buzzing among Democratic activists.

At that time, Kitzhaber said publicly that he was being asked to consider running, but he seemed to all but rule out the likelihood.

Kitzhaber told The Oregonian in September: "It would take an awful lot to make me believe that I could do more good ... with another four years as governor rather than with what I'm doing privately." Kitzhaber is currently active on health care issues nationwide.

During Friday's interview, Kitzhaber said he was trying to reconcile the top priorities of his public and personal lives: his career-long desire to reform the health care system and his parental relationship with his 6-year-old son, Logan.

Kitzhaber said the allure of the governorship was the opportunity to be a "change agent" with a platform to champion state-level reforms to a national health care system that has left millions without medical care and hampered businesses' ability to expand.

He said his own candidacy would depend on how willing Oregonians are to back an overhaul of the way that Oregon deals with health costs and the uninsured. Oregon could serve as a model that could lead to reforms by Congress at the national level, he said.

Runaway health care costs facing state governments have prevented them from adequately dealing with other needs, including education, Kitzhaber said.

Kitzhaber's first attempt at the daunting task came with the Oregon Health Plan, which he authored and championed. The plan expanded government-funded health insurance coverage beyond traditional populations of needy people to include the working poor by limiting the treatments that would be covered.

The program faltered when the recession hit Oregon and has withered under Kulongoski's governorship.

However, Kitzhaber said he did not blame Kulongoski for the elimination of coverage for close to 70,000 Oregonians in the past three years.

"The fact that the Oregon Health Plan's resources were cut, that would have happened no matter who was governor," he said.

He said his biggest reason to stay out of the race was his son, who had accompanied him to a health care conference in Florida and "is sitting right on my lap, trying to show me what he's doing with Donkey Kong."

Kitzhaber's call to Kulongoski came a day after state Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, had postponed her own announcement about a gubernatorial bid. She said she was holding off because of Kitzhaber's serious interest in running and her desire to stay out of the race if the ex-governor got in.

No Oregon governor has been elected to a third term. The last attempt was made by former Gov. Tom McCall, who ran but lost in the Republican primary in 1978.

Kitzhaber said he had decided to explore a run that many, including he, had deemed highly improbable, because "I want to at least, if I decided not to do it, particularly, be able to look back and tell myself I made an informed a decision about the role I could play."