Kevin Mannix

Despite surging Democratic voter registration in Oregon's 5th Congressional District, Michael Erickson's campaign said it remains confident that Erickson's fiscal conservative values, balanced with his outlook on energy and health care, will attract voters from both parties to the Lake Oswego businessman.

According to the Secretary of State's office, at the beginning of the year Republicans held a slight advantage in voter registration. But as the race heads toward the general election, Erickson (R-Lake Oswego) and other Republicans running in the district are looking at a 20,000 voter gap in Republican voter registration numbers.

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – Former congressional candidate Kevin Mannix said Wednesday that the media’s coverage of vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter was out of line.

Former CD-5 congressional candidate Kevin Mannix was ecstatic on Friday morning that Republican presidential candidate John McCain (R-Ariz.) chose Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) as his running mate.

“I think it’s a brilliant choice,” Mannix said. “She’s a state executive, she’s a reformer, she’s already got results, she’s old enough to have some experience, but young enough to be dynamic.”

Mannix also pointed out that the addition of Palin to the ticket brings in several unknown dynamics to the race. It’s the first time Republicans have run a female on the ticket. Palin, also being from the western-most state in the nation, will have that strong new west pioneering spirit, Mannix said.

“I think she’ll play really well because it’s sort of like the mavericks against the good old boys,” Mannix said.

Former congressional candidate and Oregon delegate to the Republican National Convention Kevin Mannix predicted on Monday that Presidential nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) would choose Mitt Romney as his vice presidential running mate.

To say Monday has been a rough day for 5th Congressional District candidate Mike Erickson’s campaign is probably something of an understatement.

In a stunning 1,200-word piece published over the weekend, The Oregonian detailed a 2004 trip Erickson took to Cuba which the Republican businessman has said was a humanitarian relief trip. But the paper reported that the jaunt was instead a “pleasure trip” filled with partying and Cuban cigars.

Sensing the potential damage the story could do to a candidacy that has already been roiled by allegations that Erickson paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion, Erickson’s campaign is holding a press conference Tuesday afternoon to address the 2004 trip.

Erickson is facing off against state Sen. Kurt Schrader (D-Canby) for the seat of U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-West Linn), who is retiring after six terms. Erickson defeated former state party chair Kevin Mannix in the May primary.

Steve Mayes reports a must-read story in the Sunday Oregonian on more creative stories by fifth district congressional candidate Mike Erickson regarding his alleged 2004 "humanitarian" trip to Cuba.

WEST LINN—Mike Erickson (R-Lake Oswego) had been quiet this summer. Almost too quiet, to the point that the 5th Congressional District’s Republican candidate had many in both Democratic and Republican circles wondering what happened to him.

After a bitter primary in the spring with sensational abortion allegations in May, there was perhaps some wishful thinking among Republican Party insiders who were hoping to pick a replacement candidate for Mike Erickson (R-Lake Oswego) as the nominee in CD-5.

Looks like convicted tax activist Bill Sizemore and Oregon's favorite GOP perennial candidate Kevin Mannix are back to re-write Oregon law they way they see best.

If Mike Erickson thought the allegations of abortion that his opponent brought up in the primary were behind him, The Oregonian's Monday cover story will be a shock.

It is an in-depth interview with Tawnya, the woman who claims she had a relationship with Erickson (R-Lake Oswego) in 2001. Tawnya gives her version of the events that she says led to her pregnancy and later an abortion paid for by Erickson. Oregonian reporters Janie Har and Steve Mayes corroborated her story with a paper trail and two of Tawnya's friends during that time. The reporters flatly determined, "Their story conflicts directly with Erickson's version."