Originally published in The Oregonian — May 17, 2012 – Primary 2012 aftermath: Lawyers and judges steal the show this election You know it’s an unusual election when the most interesting statewide races are those in which only lawyers and judges are running. Despite indications from a recent SurveyUSA poll, the magnitude of Ellen Rosenblum’s [...]
Clackamas County Electoral Challenges Mirror Dynamic of National Election — From the May Northwest Connection There was a time, back before the Great Recession, when adherents of a green, “sustainable,” and quasi-Socialist environmental agenda made significant inroads into Clackamas County. Small groups of conservative watchdogs, like the members of Americans for Prosperity Clackamas and [...]
The Oregonian reported yesterday that two environmental groups have filed suit to stop a proposed wind farm just north of Steens Mountain. This report from 54 40 or Fight includes the map below showing the location of the proposed wind farm in relation to Steens. One thing to remember is that this would not even [...]
Red is unhappy on international happiness index. When you keep losing the game you have two options: get better and win, or play a different game. Writing in today’s Oregonian, Republican Party Chairman Allen Alley says that Oregon Governor Kitzhaber has opted for the second approach. Rather than measure Oregon’s performance on the traditional standard [...]
Many Oregonians like to think of Oregon as the anti-California. But if you read Allysia Finley’s interview with Joel Kotkin in today’s Wall Street Journal, you can’t help but come away with a sense that in many respects California is just Oregon writ large. Finley writes: “Mr. Kotkin also notes that demographic changes are playing [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian — April 19, 2012 — Oregon Supreme Court race provides intriguing primary candidates – With the Republican presidential nomination apparently decided and only Democrats having any candidates for Oregon attorney general, not to mention the labor commissioner race being bumped to November, the major choices left for all statewide voters [...]
And there were not many to begin with — Last week Oregonian columnist Dave Lister wrote “that the Democratic Party establishment is intent on replacing Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz.” He went on to identify several financial backers of Fritz’s challenger Mary Nolan. Apparently some of those individuals or entities complained to the newspaper that [...]
The following article from Stateline compares the success of the equally divided Oregon House of Representatives to the stalemate in the equally divided Virginia Senate. Everyone in the Oregon House deserves credit, but without the leadership of Co-Speakers Bruce Hanna and Arnie Roblan, little would have been accomplished. – CONTENTION AND COMPROMISE IN VIRGINIA, OREGON [...]
Secretary of State Kate Brown’s surprise decision to move the Commissioner of Labor election from May to November may prove to provide Knute Buehler with his strongest issue in challenging Brown in that same November election. – Originally published in The Oregonian — 04-05-12 – Why the labor commissioner election controversy won’t die – Questions [...]
JOHN LUDLOW RAISES STAKES IN BID FOR CLACKAMAS COUNTY CHAIR: Northwest Connection Interview by Mark Ellis: With Multnomah County irrevocably under the jurisdiction of a Euro-Socialist voting bloc that resoundingly elected Tiger-Dad David Wu enabler Susan Bonamici, it increasingly falls to free-market, limited-government activists in surrounding precincts to draw battle lines aimed at keeping Portland’s [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian — 03-23-12 — Did Kate Brown mishandle the labor commissioner election decision? Knute Buehler, the lone Republican candidate for secretary of state, just got a significant in-kind contribution from an unlikely source — his opponent, Secretary of State Kate Brown. Generally, the job of secretary of state is so nondescript [...]
Democrat Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and his challenger Republican Senator Bruce Starr learned last Friday that the election they thought was to take place in May is now scheduled for November. Both had campaigned for months on the assumption that the election would be in May. Now they must figure out how to finance a [...]
It seems unlikely, but according to Michael Barone it could happen. Barone does not speak specifically to Oregon, but he does describe past changes in what we come to view as permanently red and blue states. Read more here in The American.
Bob Caldwell’s passing is an enormous loss for The Oregonian and for Oregon. At a time when newspapers everywhere are struggling to survive, and too many have become mouthpieces rather than objective news sources, people like Bob have become rare in the news business. Although I disagreed with Bob far more often than I agreed [...]
Originally published in The Oregonian — 3/8/12 – With no governor or U.S. Senate race on the Oregon ballot this year, can voter interest be stirred by the four intermediate nonjudicial statewide offices that are up for grabs? History suggests not, but at least two of those races deserve special attention, particularly since they should [...]
The Cascade Policy Institute has been a long time and steadfast supporter of choice in public education. During its 2011 session, the Oregon Legislature took a major step in the direction of greater choice by allowing students to freely transfer from one district to another. Districts could not prevent students in their geographic area from [...]
Oregon farmer Mark Dickman writes in yesterday’s Oregonian on the Governor’s lack of attention to job creation. Once the Governor thought he would get what he wanted, says Dickman, he threw his Republican and business collaborators under the bus. Putting in it most favorable light, the best one can say is the Governor and his [...]
Has the battle for social justice come to Lake Oswego? In terms of citizen involvement, it was a standing-room-only success. I haven’t seen them packed in like that since Dana Carvey at Roseland. But the Lake Oswego Planning Commission public hearing on lake access was no laughing matter. Judging from the testimony of the community [...]
