Chris Dudley, a journeyman center during his pro basketball career, may have to retire the underdog image if Oregon makes him its first Republican governor in 23 years. Dudley, 45, a 6-foot-11 wealth manager who has never run for office, is nearly even in polls with former Democratic governor John Kitzhaber, 63, who was an emergency- room doctor before entering politics. While Democrats have held the state's top job for six straight terms, Dudley's almost 2- to-1 money advantage may help him pull off a coup, said Portland-based independent pollster Mike Riley. 'There is likely to be an upset, and it will be the biggest seismic change in Oregon politics in the last quarter century,' Paul Gronke, a Democrat and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, said in a telephone interview. 'Our fiscal crisis trumps everything.' President Barack Obama travels to Oregon Wednesday to campaign for Kitzhaber, who served two terms as governor. Republicans may gain at least eight governorships in the Nov. 2 election, giving them 37 out of 50, and are challenging for House and Senate majorities. The recession, bank bailouts and trillion-dollar health-care legislation are sapping energy from Obama's party, with Republican candidates vowing to reduce the size and reach of government. Oregon suffers from 'runaway state government spending' and 'lack of fiscal management,' Dudley says in a position paper on his website. He would stop routine budget increases and set up a team to review fiscal assumptions and conduct regular audits, according to the paper. He also proposes that employees pay for a larger portion of their health-care costs, and would end the state monopoly on liquor sales. Oregon has 10.6 percent unemployment, a point higher than the national average, and more than 200,000 citizens out of work. The state faces a deficit of more than $14 billion over a decade at its current service level, according to the office of Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who cannot run again because of term limits. Schools, prisons, colleges and health coverage are all set for cuts, according a June report from the governor. 'Beginning next February and March, people will see almost daily stories about programs disappearing and very hard choices,' said John Tapogna, president of consulting firm ECONorthwest in Portland. Dudley decided to run after a career as a rare Ivy Leaguer in the National Basketball Association. He's remembered as much for his struggle with free throws (46 percent average versus last year's NBA-wide average of 76 percent) as his workmanlike rebounding (5,457, compared with record-holder Wilt Chamberlain's 23,924). Dudley also built a reputation off the court through his charity work and youth basketball camp. He was diagnosed at 16 with Type 1 diabetes and runs the Chris Dudley Foundation, which provides information and resources to help those with the disease. 'Dudley is fresh, young and interesting,' Gronke said. 'He's portraying the image of a centrist Republican, not conservative socially, that harkens back to the Republicans in Oregon in the '70s and '80s.' Dudley hasn't been associated with the tea party movement and his stands on social issues fit with Oregon's libertarian tradition, said Gronke. The candidate's proposals are tired Republican themes, Kitzhaber said during a Sept. 30 debate. 'He's a new face, but it's the same old ideas,' said Kitzhaber, who was governor from 1995 until 2003. Dudley doesn't have enough experience for tough times, he said. During a recent stop at a Portland machine factory, Dudley spoke to about 40 employees, some in jeans flecked with metal shavings, on a floor the size of two football fields. 'We're not living up to our potential,' said Dudley. He said he wanted to revive a state once known for fiscal restraint and moderate politics and blessed with natural beauty. 'I don't think that's too much to ask,' he said. Dudley and Kitzhaber were tied last week in a Rasmussen Reports and Survey USA polls and in a forecast by FiveThirtyEight, a New York Times political blog. The Cook Political Report rates the race a tossup. Dudley had a $7.7 million to $4 million money advantage over Kitzhaber as of Oct. 15, and the support of 12 percent of Democratic voters in the most recent Riley Research survey. The Republican Governors Association gave him $250,000 in July and $500,000 in August, according to the group's Internal Revenue Service filings. 'It's a fight to the finish,' said Riley, the Portland pollster. With assistance from Brendan McGrail and William Selway. 