PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Nobody was going to break the story of Republican Rick Dancer's decision to run for secretary of state but Rick Dancer.

So Dancer, who has spent some 20 years in the anchor's chair at KEZI, Eugene's ABC affiliate, made the announcement himself at the top of the 11 o'clock news on Sunday.

The three-minute segment included a question-and-answer session with an on-air colleague; there were also promotions for the spot throughout the prior program, the Oscar telecast.

That's a lot of exposure for a race that hasn't yet attracted much attention from the media, even though four Democrats are competing against each other for their party's nomination.

And it has raised some ethical questions about equal time for other candidates, particularly since the station's CEO, Carolyn Chambers, is a staunch Republican who has given nearly $90,000 to Republican causes and candidates over the last 13 years.

Carolyn Chambers did not return a call from The Associated Press. But her son, Scott Chambers, who is the president of Chambers Communications, said the decision to allow Dancer to announce his candidacy on air had nothing to do with his mother's politics.

"The decision was arrived at based on the length of time Rick had been on our air," Scott Chambers said. "After 20 years in the market, with the popularity that research has shown that he had, we needed a public way to tell the viewer where he went."

Dancer would have been given the same opportunity if he was running as a Democrat, Scott Chambers said.

It's not uncommon for media figures to enter politics. Former Oregon Gov. Tom McCall was a reporter at KGW-TV in Portland before he made the jump to public office. Another secretary of state hopeful, state Senator Rick Metsger, D-Welches, worked as a sportscaster at KOIN-TV in Portland.

But the way KEZI handled the transition is unusual, said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the nonprofit Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"The standard practice is that the person resigns or takes a leave of absence at least a couple of days before they make their announcement independently from the station," she said. "The problem is that the news staff, the people who are supposed to be providing fair, distanced, clear-eyed coverage of political campaigns, apparently have been co-opted into one of their own staff members' campaigns."

Dancer did not immediately return two calls seeking comment from The Associated Press. But he told The Register-Guard newspaper of Eugene for a story in Thursday's edition that his decision and subsequent departure from KEZI was, "a big story, because, number one, it's the first Republican out (in the race). Number two, it's a pretty well-known guy in this community."

Under Federal Communications Commission rules, broadcast stations must provide equal airtime opportunities to political opponents, particularly for commercial ad space.

But the "equal time" rules do grant exceptions, including one that applies to news interviews and scheduled newscasts. And potential violations are only investigated if someone files a complaint.

Reached on Thursday, two of the Democrats running for secretary of state, Metsger and former Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, D-Portland, declined comment on the matter, saying they were focused on the primary. A third, state Sen. Brad Avakian, D-Beaverton, did not immediately return a call from The AP.

The fourth candidate, state Sen. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, said she had not ruled out filing a complaint with the FCC.

"I was stunned that this man who was in my living room every night announced his candidacy on the evening news," she said. "It just didn't seem like something you could do."

McBride, from the Poynter Institute, said that in many cases, when a reporter or a news anchor runs for office, "there is normally a plan in place to ensure fairness to all the candidates in that particular race. Sometimes that includes hiring a freelancer or extra levels of editing."

Scott Chambers said those were steps his newsroom might consider.