A closer look at Maxine Dexter's primary election win over Susheela Jayapal

Oregon’s District 3 congressional seat is an expensive one to secure, raising the question of how much outside money plays a part in Pacific Northwest politics.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon’s District 3 congressional seat is an expensive one to secure, raising the question of how much outside money plays a part in Pacific Northwest politics.

The seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is considered a safely Democratic position. Despite this, two progressives — Maxine Dexter and Susheela Jayapal — spent more than $7 million in outside spending from around the country, according to financial watchdogs.

"This is the type of district that you would expect to go after the most to elect or select the most progressive candidate in the race," said Lewis & Clark College Associate Professor of Political Science Ben Gaskins.

Gaskins said Jayapal fit the description of being especially progressive among the Democratic primary candidates, with her endorsement from Bernie Sanders and Washington D.C. connection via her sister, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Despite this, Dexter — who far and away surpassed Jayapal in outside spending — has essentially won the contest.

While the votes are still being counted, enough have been tallied for the Associated Press to declare the winner to be Dexter, who spent $6 million from outside spending, according to campaign filings and information from Open Secrets. So was it the dollars that ultimately won Dexter's race or her credentials?

Jayapal touched on Dexter's larger funding capacity from national groups during remarks Tuesday night.

"This race showed so clearly why we need to have real campaign finance reform. Outside super PACs came in and spent an unprecedented $6 million, even timing their contributions so that they wouldn't have to show who was trying to buy this election until well after the votes were cast."

On paper, both candidates were pretty evenly matched — essentially a toss-up. As an Oregon State Representative, rather than a Multnomah County Commissioner like Jayapal, Dexter may have also benefitted from being slightly less associated with Portland proper than her opponent despite also representing a district in the Rose City.

"Dexter is not far different from Jayapal when it comes to most of her policies, but is a little bit less connected to those ... negative feelings that people have about the state of Portland," Gaskins explained.

However, Dexter also benefitted from nearly $1.5 million in spending from the 314 Action fund, according to the Federal Elections Commission. What’s more, Open Secrets reports Dexter spent $4.7 million on opposing Jayapal. She also boasted the backing of several establishment Democratic funding organizations, like FuturePAC. 

While money does play a role, Gaskins said Jayapal’s resume may have played a larger role. Jayapal comes off of serving on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners and has struggled to overcome the perception form the public that she hasn't done enough to solve the problems plaguing Portland, he said.

“Think a lot of voters, including Democratic voters, are just really fed up with the status quo in Portland and took it out on Susheela Jayapal because she was linked with many of the failures that we have seen in the county and in the city. And fairly or unfairly, those kind of hung on to her.”

KOIN 6 News reached out several times to Dexter's campaign asking if they had a response to Jayapal's criticisms but they did not comment.