Rick Dancer (born June 29, 1959) is an American journalist and politician in the state of Oregon. Born in the city of Hillsboro, he was a longtime anchor for KEZI television in Eugene. Among his other activities as anchor, he covered the Thurston High School shooting. He later left broadcasting to run as a Republican for Oregon Secretary of State, losing in the general election to Democrat Kate Brown in 2008.
Rick Dancer | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 30, 1959 Hillsboro, Oregon, USA |
| Education | Pacific University |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, politician |
| Notable credit | KEZI anchor |
| Spouse | Kathy |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | http://rickdancer.com/ |
Early life
Rick Dancer was born on June 29, 1959, to Roy and Betty Dancer in Hillsboro, Oregon.[1][2][3] He grew up there with three sisters and lived in Hillsboro for his first 24 years,[3] graduating from Hillsboro High School in 1977.[4] In high school he worked for the local Copeland Lumber store before attending college at Pacific University in neighboring Forest Grove.[3] Dancer graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Pacific in 1983.[3] In Hillsboro, he married Kathy at the United Methodist Church that same year, and they had two sons, Jess and Jake.[3][5]
Television
After college Dancer moved to the southern Oregon Coast in 1985 and was a reporter in Coquille and Coos Bay at KCBY.[4][6][7] Dancer then moved to Eugene, Oregon, in 1987 and worked as a television reporter for KVAL-TV.[6][7] After a few years he moved to KEZI in 1989, the ABC affiliate in Eugene and continued as a reporter until becoming an anchor a year later.[8][9] In 1998, he was one of the first reporters to arrive at Thurston High School in Springfield after the shooting spree by Kip Kinkel.[2][10] While covering the story he started to cry while on camera, which angered him, but led to additional interviews with students as they felt he cared about the students.[2] In February 2008, he announced he was leaving KEZI in order to run for public office.[9]
Political career
The day after leaving television, he official started his campaign for Oregon Secretary of State as a Republican.[9] He won the primary unopposed and then faced Democratic state senator Kate Brown in the fall election.[1] His campaign focused on advocating for converting the Secretary of State position into a non-partisan position, and also supported Ballot Measure 65 that would have created an open primary system.[11] He ran on the premise of being an outsider having never been in office before, while Brown touted her experience in public office.[8]
Dancer raised around $365,000 in his campaign through late October, compared to around $750,000 for Brown.[12] The biggest of his contributions came from timber companies.[12] Dancer pulled within six percentage points in polling in late October.[11] Brown won the November general election defeating Dancer and Pacific Green Party candidate Seth Woolley.[13] Dancer garnered 785,740 votes compared to 873,968 for Brown.[14] Dancer was mentioned as a possible candidate to run for the Republican nomination for Governor of Oregon in 2010.[15]
Dancer is part of a group of filmmakers who began production in 2010 on a documentary film about former U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield.[16][17]
Electoral history
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Kate Brown | 873,968 | 51.0 | |
| Republican | Rick Dancer | 785,740 | 45.8 | |
| Pacific Green | Seth Alan Woolley | 51,271 | 3.0 | |
| Write-in | 2,740 | 0.2 | ||
| Total votes | 1,713,719 | 100% | ||
References
External links
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