Rural Democrats and Portland-area Republicans were the biggest losers in Oregon’s 2008 State House races, according to official tallies released by the Oregon secretary of state on Friday.

The following is a list of the top 10 State House candidates who received the fewest votes (major-party candidates with major-party opposition only):
 

1.      Tom Chereck (R-Salem) 4,656
2.      Steve Oppenheim (R-Portland) 4,738
3.      Randy Uchytil (R-Milwaukie) 5,181
4.      Piotr Kuklinski (R-Beaverton) 6,305
5.      Jerry Sebestyen (D-La Grande) 7,186
6.      Sean VanGordon (R-Springfield) 7,554
7.      Michael DeVietro (R) 8,139
8.      Ben Talley (D-Pendleton) 8,311
9.      John Nelsen (R-Wood Village) 9,093
10.    Tim Bero (R-Vernonia) 9,160

Despite his low vote count, former State House candidate John Nelsen participated in one of the fiercest races against State Representative-elect Nick Kahl.

Kahl took 11,726 votes, meaning Nelsen only lost by 2,633 votes.

As for the rest of the Republicans on the list, only Sean VanGordon was listed as a candidate by the Oregon House Republicans Promote Oregon PAC Web site.

The list also shows that despite State Representative-elect Judy Stiegler’s picking up the HD-54 seat in Bend, Democrats still have a lot of inroads to make in eastern Oregon.

According to Oregon’s latest census numbers, the average population in an Oregon State House district is 62,458. According to the secretary of state’s voter registration numbers, there is an average of 35,899 registered voters per house district.  With the secretary of state reporting that 85.7 percent of registered voters participating in the 2008 election, each house district saw an average of 30,754 registered voters cast a ballot.