In Oregon, a Pencil Is Running for Governor

Oregon's quirkiest gubernatorial hopeful is a 6-foot pencil with a blunt message about the state's schools. "Pencil" is the alter ego of J. Schuberth, a former college professor and literacy advocate who's asking voters to bypass both parties and hand-write "Pencil" on their ballots to protest Oregon's worst-in-the-nation fourth-grade reading scores. The costume candidate can't legally become governor, but Schuberth hopes a visible write-in protest will pressure leaders to overhaul how kids are taught to read. "It sends a message that if Pencil starts showing up in the primary, that the governors might want to pay attention to this issue and start doing something," Schuberth told the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

"This is an indictment of the people who are running our state," Schuberth tells NPR. "[Democrats] have had a supermajority, or close to it, for a long time. That's who is determining education policy." Gov. Tina Kotek, who's seeking a second term and faces little primary opposition, agrees the literacy numbers are a problem and points to new investments in reading instruction and a law expanding state power over struggling districts. Schuberth calls those efforts too weak and cites states like Mississippi as models for more aggressive reform. On Portland's streets and at farmers markets, some Democrats say they're tempted to symbolically vote for the anthropomorphic pencil—even as they still want Kotek to win in November—simply "to get the point across."