Tag: oregon

#rsrh Oregon legislature tries cronyism reform. Again.

Background: in 2009 there was a bit of a scandal when two Democratic legislators (one from the Senate and one from the House) parlayed their positions in the state legislature to score cushy government jobs*.  In response, the (Democratic-controlled) Oregon House of Representatives passed a bill imposing an one-year moratorium on taking state jobs on exiting legislators, unless those jobs were “publicly advertised and the state seeks out at least three qualified applicants.”  The bill died in the (Democratic-controlled) Senate, apparently because the Senate didn’t want to offend the two aforementioned legislators.

But it’s 2011, and the Oregon House is now split 50/50 Democratic/Republican, and the bill (House Bill 3446) has been reintroduced in the House – and passed unanimously by that body.  The ratio is still pretty lopsided Democratic in the Oregon Senate, but there may be more movement this go-round.  If it doesn’t… well, it may become a bit of an election issue: apparently Oregon state politics are a bit notorious for their revolving-door system for legislators.

So we’ll see.

Moe Lane

*This interpretation of events will no doubt offend some, but then I’ve never really felt bad about hurting the feelings of people who voluntarily apologize on behalf of other people who can go from $22 grand/year salaries to $95-122 grand/year salaries simply because they don’t feel like running for elections anymore.

#rsrh This David Wu thing has gone on long enough.

If the man was blacking out and wandering around unattended on Election Day because of his reaction to “a common mental health drug” – do I even want to know what that’s an euphemism for? – and if this is part of a pattern of behavior that led to the end of his marriage and the mass resignation of his staff*… then maybe this guy shouldn’t be a Congressman.

Moe Lane

PS: Even in Oregon, “crazy” should not beat “Republican.”  Just to make that clear.

*Who, by the way, don’t get any credit for that, given that they all deliberately went and got somebody who they all think is crazy re-elected.  We’re just all fortunate that David Wu’s apparently fragile mental state is more conducive towards “dressing like a tiger” than it is something more, ah, problematical…

CPAC 2011: John Kuzmanich.

John’s the head of the Oregon Tea Party, former Congressional candidate, and may be a possible Congressional candidate again.  We talked a little of the state of the state of Oregon (which is better than you’d expect, in practical terms):

There’s also some interesting bits on David Wu.  Check it out.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Kitzhaber (D CAND, OR-GOV) supporter(?) punches cameraman.

I got tipped on this by RedState diarist BigGator5, who is as gobsmacked as I am that this happened to a (presumed) Chris Dudley (R CAND, OR-GOV) supporter.  Short version for those who can’t see/haven’t seen the video: a guy was filming Democratic candidate John Kitzhaber at a political event held in a church.  He was asked to turn off the camera: he refused, on First Amendment grounds.  Now, let me establish, for the record: this is a shaky argument, at best, when it comes to private property – even when the site is hosting a public event.  So, I can easily enough concede that a duly-authorized representative of the church, Kitzhaber campaign, and/or group hosting the event may have indeed had the right to demand that the man turn off his camera.

I do not concede that said representative had the right to smash the guy’s camera in his face.

Note the use of a second camera, which is useful for establishing that no violent activity on the cameraman’s sparked the assault and battery. That was pretty much an unprovoked attack, there: and I’d like to know whether or not the assailant was involved with the Kitzhaber campaign or not. I’d also like to know whether the Democrats quite understand that if you want to punch back twice as hard, you have to wait for your opponents to actually punch you in the first place…

Moe Lane (Crossposted)

Meet Scott Bruun (R CAND, OR-05).

Scott’s running a campaign that’s making the DCCC nervous – to the point where they’ve decided to throw money at his opponent as part of their DOOMList – and we spoke this morning about that and other matters.

Scott’s site is here, and it’s a measure of the cycle that we’re legitimately talking about taking seats in Oregon. Roll on November…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.