By Melica Johnson
and KATU.com Web Staff

PORTLAND - Independent candidate for governor, Ben Westlund, stepped out from the shadows of Tuesday's primary and opened his Portland campaign office Friday with the goal of letting Oregonians know they have a third choice in November.

Oregonians eager for a change in state politics stopped by to sign a petition to get Westlund, a state senator, on the November ballot for governor.

"[I'm] basically tired of the left or the right," said Ben Philow, an Oregon voter. "It's a ping-pong match that distracts people from thinking about the actual things that affect our lives."

With his Portland office open for business, Westlund began airing radio ads Friday promoting his message that he's running to represent every Oregonian and not just a single party.

In a Zogby Interactive poll conducted earlier this year, Westlund received 10.3 percent of the vote, while Gov. Kulongoski pulled in 32.5 percent, and Saxton 33.7 percent.

The poll seemed to indicate Westlund could siphon votes away from Kulongoski, which may explain why 13 hours after Tuesday's primary, the governor and the Democratic Party fired volleys of attacks against Westlund accusing him of being "the other Republican candidate".

Westlund fired back on Friday. "The Democrats call me a Republican. The Republicans call me a Democrat. They don't get it. I'm an independent," he said.

"Senator Westlund has been there for 10 years and he's been a Republican for all 10," Kulongoski said Tuesday after winning his party's nomination for governor. "I'm running against two Republicans, and I can beat them both."

Westlund is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and gay rights, which doesn't package him neatly into any political box.

"We are where we are, mired in mediocrity because extreme partisan politics all too often trumps good, common sense public policy," Westlund said.

Westlund has put 40,000 miles on his car campaigning across the state and practically lives out of it. He showed off his electric razor in his car on Friday and the piles of campaign literature stacked in the front seat.

He may, however, still have a long drive down a bumpy political road. His immediate challenge may be to gather the necessary 19,000 signatures by August to propel him officially into the governor's race and onto the November ballot.

He has hired a professional signature-gathering firm to help collect those signatures, and Westlund says he is confident he'll have the signatures by the August deadline.