SUNRIVER, Ore. — Oregon Democrats got a chance to see leading gubernatorial contenders John Kitzhaber and Bill Bradbury together and up close Sunday in what's shaping up to be a scrappy race between the two longtime political allies.

In a joint appearance at the party's "Summit" conference, Bradbury promised to beef up funding for Oregon's schools. He took an indirect jab at Kitzhaber for failing to do so when he was governor from 1995 to 2003.

"We've been ducking the issue of fully funding education for 16 years, if not a whole lot longer," said Bradbury, who served as Oregon secretary of state from 1999 to 2008.

Kitzhaber said he would offer voters proposals to boost achievement among Oregon's students — not just simplistic campaign slogans.

"I have faith in Oregonians, and I believe they are ready for an honest discussion of difficult issues," Kitzhaber told the hundreds of Democrats who gathered in central Oregon for the weekend meeting.

Sunday's joint appearance also included Corvallis businessman Steve Shields, a political unknown who entered the race recently. He promised to bring fresh approaches to the job.

Also Sunday, Kitzhaber got a few more votes than Bradbury in a straw poll of the party faithful, indicating what could be a closely contested primary election.

Stacey Dycus, a Democratic political consultant who helped organize the nonscientific poll, said Kitzhaber drew 83 votes while Bradbury got 76. Shields was backed by 10 of the conference attendees.

"People expected Kitzhaber to do well in the poll," Dycus said. "The fact that Bradbury did this well shows it's anyone's race — if you want to judge it by what a group of Democratic insiders think."

Bradbury, in his comments in the joint appearance and remarks afterward, made it clear that he is seeking support from the Democratic base by emphasizing his efforts to help Democrats win various election races.

"I've been a proud Democrat my whole career," Bradbury said. "If you look at the track records of the past 20 years, in terms of who's been out there supporting candidates and raising money for Democratic campaigns, it's been Bill Bradbury and not John Kitzhaber."

Kitzhaber, the popular former governor who's expected to bring plenty of fundraising firepower to the race, said he believes he's been a good Democrat, too.

He also said he and Bradbury hold many of the same positions on core Democratic issues around preserving the environment, creating green jobs and improving education.

However, it appears that Bradbury is going to focus a good deal of his campaign focusing on what he says was Kitzhaber's failure on the school finance front.

Bradbury has made the point that Kitzhaber as governor had indicated he would propose a tax plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for schools as well as provide stability for school finances, but that he never came forward with such a plan.

Bradbury said as governor, he would immediately bring together the interest groups to find a way to revamp Oregon's tax system to provide more money for schools.

"I will lock the doors and not let anyone leave until we come up with a solution everyone can support," he said.

Kitzhaber said he would advocate more funding for schools but that just throwing more money at a school system where there's a significant "achievement gap" among students is not the only answer.

"I don't think we can get there just by funding the education system as it exists today. We need to rethink how we structure and deliver education services in Oregon," he said.

Three Republicans are running for governor — businessman Allen Alley, state Sen. Jason Atkinson of Central Point and former legislator John Lim. Former Portland Trail Blazers center Chris Dudley is considering the race.