N E W S R E L E A S E

Rick Dancer Announces Run for Oregon Secretary of State

SPRINGFIELD – Rick Dancer, long-time reporter and news anchor for KEZI-TV in Eugene, closed his last television broadcast Sunday night by announcing that he was leaving the broadcast booth to enter the race for Secretary State. Dancer, 48, will be seeking the Republican nomination in the May primary election.

“I’m running for Secretary of State because it’s so close to what I do now,” Dancer explained. “It’s about keeping government accountable and getting people involved in the process. I look at this position as a way to build trust among people and help restore their confidence in the fairness and openness of government. That’s what I’ve been doing as a TV journalist and in many ways I see this as an extension of that same work.”

If he wins, Dancer will be the first nonpolitician elected secretary of state in Oregon since Tom McCall. McCall, who was also a TV journalist, worked for KATU-TV in Portland prior to his election as secretary of state in 1966.

Dancer is the first Republican candidate to declare for any of the three partisan statewide offices on the ballot this year. One of the issues Dancer is expected to raise in his campaign, however, is his support of making the Secretary of State’s office nonpartisan. Even so, his candidacy is expected to receive strong support from Republicans who have not won any of the partisan statewide offices in state government for more than a decade.

“Oregon needs a Secretary of State who is not a professional politician. Someone who can bring new energy to Salem and hold the government accountable on behalf of the citizens,” said Vance Day, Chairman of the Oregon Republican Party. “I am proud to have Rick Dancer as a Republican candidate for Secretary of State.”

Dancer will formally announce his candidacy in a press conference at the Capital Press Room in Salem at 10:00 a.m., then address a small rally and press availability at the Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza outside the Lane County courthouse at 125 E. 8^th Avenue in Eugene at noon.

Agreement on Dancer’s departure from KEZI-TV was not reached until last week. Because of his position as a TV journalist, Dancer has not been able to assemble his campaign team or make arrangements for organizing his campaign prior to Sunday night. Further details will be announced as they become available.