Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, the Democrat who’s running for re-election this year against Republican Knute Buehler, has a clear strategy for her campaign. She’ll hunker down and keep her mouth shut as much as possible.

That’s the best way to explain her decision to take part in only three debates this fall, two in Brown-friendly Portland and a third in Medford. If former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt thought Eastern Oregon was the middle of nowhere, Brown clearly believes it’s part of Idaho.

But Eastern Oregon, including the four counties that extend to the Cascades, is a far different world from Western Oregon. It’s dry, sparsely populated, largely Republican and the federal government is the major landholder.

Her chances of carrying most counties in this part of the state are slim, and she knows it. And, perhaps she believes that even in Bend, with a far bigger Democratic registration than elsewhere, Buehler’s status as the hometown candidate puts her at a disadvantage.

Whether or not she’s right, she misses the point. Eastern Oregonians are as interested in the two gubernatorial candidates as those west of the mountains. They have as big a stake in the election as does anyone else. Their problems are different than those in Western Oregon: Great chunks of land are owned by the federal government, and doing business with and next door to Uncle Sam can be difficult at best.

We here in nowhere land plan to vote this fall, and before we do, we’d like at least one opportunity to see major candidates for governor side by side, debating the issues important to us. Buehler is willing to do that. Brown, unfortunately, is not.