Oregon’s Republican politicians and would-be politicians clearly think Gov. John Kitzhaber has run his string with the people of this state. Six of them are competing in the May primary election for the opportunity to take him on in the general election.

Only one, state Rep. Dennis Richardson, 64, has a chance — albeit a small one — of beating Kitzhaber in November.

Richardson aside, the challengers are:

• Tim Carr, a 56-year-old businessman from Portland. He believes there’s money to be made in legalized marijuana. Living in the state’s largest city, he says, gives him the only real shot at Kitzhaber. He believes Kitzhaber has wasted money, both on Cover Oregon and on the now-dead Columbia River Crossing bridge.

• Gordon Challstrom, 58, retired, from Medford. He believes the state needs to focus on job creation, particularly by reducing taxes and shrinking government. He would get rid of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and decentralize secondary education.

• Bruce Cuff, 53, a Salem-area real estate broker. Cuff would gradually lower income taxes, allowing economic growth to replace lost revenues. In addition, he would cut state spending and return about 60 percent of what’s spent on schools to parents in vouchers.

• Darren Karr, 44, a small-business owner from West Linn. Karr wants to get the money out of politics, end the lobbying of lawmakers, and persuade voters to dump the two-party system. He is not advertising and his campaign, an Internet affair, is being run only by volunteers.

• Mae Rafferty, 52, a hardwood store owner in the small Josephine County community of Selma. While she shares the concerns of many conservative Americans, she seems out of her depth when it comes to describing what she would do to improve things.

Richardson, a lawyer, is from Central Point. He was first elected to the Legislature in 2002 and serves as the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

He has long been a critic of Cover Oregon. He believes neither the state nor federal government will be able to pay for it over time. He has said for months that the state bungled the rollout of the system and ignored warnings it was doing so.

Like his opponents, Richardson believes the state’s economy could use help. Unlike them, he’s enough of a Salem insider to understand what’s realistic and what is simply good sound-bite material. He believes the state should build its export business and work to increase the average income of Oregonians, which has been falling in recent years.

Beating Kitzhaber in the fall is no easy task for any Republican, if history is any indicator. This year, the candidate with the best — only — shot at doing so is Richardson.