It's not as if he has a snowball's chance in hell of winning a three-way race... Maybe ol' Ben has realized that the state would be worse off if Saxton sleezed his way into Mahonia.

A three-way race, while initially intriguing, doesn't work so well when the electorate is so bored/apathetic with it. The bigger issue is, how do we as a state and nation get people to pay attention, especially in voting cycles without a presidential race?

It's alarming how few people truly know what's happening in local politics... Is anyone else as worried as I am?

It would have been a four-way, if you count Mary Sterrett, and I would. I think Ben would have hurt Saxton more than Cool Long.

I dunno... for some reason, it seems most of Ben's current supporters are lefties, or at least his field team seems to suggest that.

Well, that sucks.

Well, that sucks.

No kidding, I guess that part of my ballot will be blank now...

I think some recent polling made it perfectly clear: in a three way race, Kulongoski ahead by a few; in a two way race, Kulongoski ahead by many. Seems about 4-1 Ben's supporters choose Kulongoski over Saxton with Ben out of the way. Now, Saxton must move further to the left to grab some of the Westlund bloc, which makes Mary Starrett that much more dangerous.

Teddy is thanking whatever god(s) he prays to right about now.

You folks are way overplaying Mary Starrett's influence. In the end, she won't get much more than Richard Morley or whoever the Green party person is.

Come on guys - have you forgotten how politics is played in Oregon? If Teddy (I like taxes) is re-elected, within the first six months Westlund is appointed to some cushy job in Teddy's cabinet. Anyone wanna bet?

By the same token, if Saxon gets elected (please God, let it be) - then we've heard the last of Westlund.

Ben was never anything but a fat chance.

I don't know how he ever got the impression he
was viable or the stuff of greater political heights.

It seemed to me to be and combination of Ben's wishful thinking and a media driven delusion.

Ben's likely an OK guy and all but come on.
He had and has absolutely no sing of any base or statewide appeal at all.

Unless I have missed something.

I think he was under the delusion that having good ideas is enough to compensate for the lack of a party machine.

Damn shame it's not... I like that delusion.

I'm never really sure what conservatives in this state have against Ted K... I understand you may not share every belief, but what has he done that stirs anger or outrage? He's a classic, middle of the road Oregon guv... yeah, he's a Goldschmidt-ite, but he wasn't a bad guv at the time. Conventional "Lars Larson" Wisdom says Teddy's a liberal, but he's a centrist in the classic Oregon mold... the talk radio/FOX pundit echo chamber has shifted our debate hard-Right and mostly hard-stupid.

The result? Most of the conservative posters on the net repeat the catchphrase ideology with little or no knowledge of which they speak. Tax-n-spend this, cut-n-run that. Nuance, details, common sense and reality be damned. No liberal I know LIKES taxes, every single one wants a balanced budget and fair taxation like anyone else. No liberal I know wants a wasteful, excessive government. These talking head-talking points never quite seem to hold water in the real world.

That is unless people don't bother to actually learn anything for themselves. Why else would guys like Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr have fiscal conservative cred?? Maybe it's the crazy social conservative policy that keeps the voting Republicans faithful in spite of the obvious contradictions on the ethical and fiscal fronts... lord knows there are scary islamo-facist-lesbian-government workers running amok. Better give away another no-bid contract to take care of it!

More to Steve's point, it seems that Eugene and Bend pols have a hard time getting ink in the 'O', any amount that would give them name recognition in the NW part of the state. Portland is obviously the most populous area, and a guv or U.S. Senator race almost necessitates a name-recognition running start. If a person only watches the evening news, forget it.

I guess it's too hard to make our state legislature news 'sexy'.

I wish Vicki Walker were running as an independent. She'd have the Two Good Old Boys jumping through some hoops.

I had Vicki, Pete Sorenson, and Ben in mind...

I'm never really sure what conservatives in this state have against Ted K... I understand you may not share every belief, but what has he done that stirs anger or outrage?

He's hasnt done a damn thing...thats the problem.

He's a classic, middle of the road Oregon guv

Now that's the funniest freakin' thing I have ever read here...

Teddy K is basically the face of the machine which represents the public employees unions. PERS will probably bankrupt the state even with his begrudging changes (now we are down to 24% of pay is for PERS) and that is my biggest issue with him.

He seems like a nice guy on a personal basis, but more of a manager than leader. I agree that Westlund will probably get a $100K+/year gig in state government somewheres for payback.

As a long-time Rep., I changed my registration to Independent so that I could vote for Ben. I have had it with the rep and/or dem parties. Following your advice, I did not vote in the primary in order to have my name and vote "count".

I would have liked to have heard what the man had to say on the issues at hand, and I believe he sold himself short as to the number of people that would have voted for him. Agreed, he probably would not have won, but he could have given it the good fight and suprised a lot of people and would have paved the way for himself , or others in the future.

I thought that Steve Duin summed it up quite well in the Sunday O.

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