Saw it coming a mile away (Jack Bog's Blog)

When it comes to representation in Salem, our family's in a goofy position. Although we live in Portland's close-in Irvington neighborhood, whose eastern boundary is something like NE 27th, we have somehow gotten gerrymandered into House District 45, which extends out past NE 140th. Here's the map -- that's us, waaaaaaaay over in that odd little nubbin on the left. What do we materialistic yuppies have in common with the K-Mart wardrobe people in the apartment farms out by Costco? Precious little. Maybe somebody can ask this guy what the heck was going on. He's on his way out, and so he might give you a straight answer.

Anyway, the other day my state representative, Jackie "Bat" Dingfelder, announced that she is going to run for the State Senate seat being vacated by our current senator, Avel Gordly. (The lines for that Senate district are just as goofy as those of our House district, if not more so.) It's a safe Democrat district, and so whoever wins the primary is in like sin.

Dingfelder's announcement is no surprise. She and Gordly, who was technically an independent, had been holding a bunch of joint town hall meetings in recent months, and it seemed like there was some grooming going on there. But if there had been any doubt previously, a week or two ago it became crystal clear that Dingfelder was making a move, because she mailed out an official-sounding "report to the constituents" flyer touting the achievements of the recently concluded legislative session:

This baby had "campaign literature" written all over it, though not in so many words. Glossy paper, greenish ink mixed in with the black, four pages in all. And it's got everything you'd want in good old campaign junk mail:

Curiously, it doesn't say "recycled paper," "soy ink," or "sustainably produced" anywhere on it -- you're slipping, Ding!

The question of the day is who paid for this thing. It's written in a slick p.r. style that political consultants charge big bucks for -- it has an almost Wiener-esque quality. It must have cost a pretty penny to produce. In the postage corner, we find this:

This couldn't have gone out on the taxpayers' dime -- could it?

Comments (13)

Looks vaguely familiar.

Posted by telecom | August 8, 2007 6:01 AM

Guess who is sounding more and more like a Republican?

That's alright Jack, many of us go through a change of life as we age and begin to see a pattern.

Posted by Abe | August 8, 2007 7:00 AM

Those apartment farms are primarily Hispanic now, so perhaps the D's are trying to diversify your ever-whitening neck of the woods.

Posted by PMG | August 8, 2007 7:02 AM

Maybe somebody can ask this guy what the heck was going on.

Sure someone could ask Billy if you don't expect the truth...

Posted by rinowatch | August 8, 2007 7:21 AM

Sending out an end of session newsletter is routine for legislators, whether they are running for higher office, leaving office, or staying where they are... It is considered part of their legislative duty to report back to their constituents what happened during session. Some folks do this via email, but then can only reach out to people who are in their database (maybe 1500 out of 20,000 households). So, to get to more people, this newsletter was sent in the mail.

Based on seeing a very, very similar piece sent out from another D rep, my guess is that the House Majority office had a boiler plate that was then shared with the Ds for them to personalize (Dingfelder had a great session as the chair of the Enviro committee, thus mention of the environment). I am also surprised by the lack of recycle bug, but it makes me wonder if maybe the majority office also got the thing printed? Does not seem like she would overlook that detail...Hunt is not known as a great enviro, so...

I get Cannon's newsletter and I think that he and Gordly did some events together. I doubt that he is running for that seat. I think that the senator and two reps often try to do things together to try to improve turnout for town halls (sometimes dismal). As Gordly's aide Sean Cruz is running for her seat as well (per Loaded Orygun yesterday), I highly doubt that she was grooming Dingfelder.

Posted by Former Capitol Staffer | August 8, 2007 8:18 AM

I may be old a cranky, but I'm not that stupid.

Sending out an end of session newsletter is routine for legislators, whether they are running for higher office, leaving office, or staying where they are...

Maybe so, but this one never sent out anything like this to me.

Since you know everything, are you confirming that the taxpayers did pay for this garbage?

I get... I doubt... I think... I highly doubt...

Nothing like an anonymous windbag to start my day.

Dingfelder had a great session

Depends on whom you ask, I guess.

Posted by Jack Bog | August 8, 2007 8:38 AM

What's most offensive to me is the boilerplate cliches, though most pols are guilty of dumbing down every communication.

"Safe Communities..." "Putting Children First..." etc etc. Ooookay. When I see these general statements I usually toss it, because it's usually nothing more than hollow self-congratulation. I believe pols DO need to keep constituents informed, but damn, can't we do better?

Posted by TKrueg | August 8, 2007 10:44 AM

67.138.101.226 = both "Former Capitol Staffer" and "Disappointed and Soon to Be Former Reader of the Bog" = Troll Who Won't Be Commenting Here Again

Posted by Jack Bog | August 8, 2007 10:58 AM

I guess I'd be more surprised if this didn't go out on your dime, and I'm not surprised you got it now. Even though it may be suspiciously close to election season, it makes sense to send this out if the legislative session just ended.
Here on the other side of the river, I get a brochure like this, with similar platitudes, from each of my local representatives and senators, of both parties, after the session is over and they've had a chance to establish the appropriate spin language.

Posted by Jud | August 8, 2007 11:12 AM

suspiciously close to election season

Actually, it isn't. But it is suspiciously close to her early announcement.

Who wrote the copy for this thing? What did they charge us?

Posted by Jack Bog | August 8, 2007 11:19 AM

When it comes to representation in Salem, we're all in a goofy position.

Posted by Auggie | August 8, 2007 11:25 AM

PMG; Those apartment farms...
JK: I suggest we start calling them Godzilla Apartments or Goszilla apartment farms.

Thanks
JK

Posted by jim karlock | August 8, 2007 1:09 PM

Re: "election season"
Sorry, I was caught up in a frenzy. We got some primary ballots in the mail this week.

Posted by Jud | August 8, 2007 1:31 PM