Don't forget "Dear Mother Gretchen" waiting for daughter Debbie Kafoury to make her move to City Council. Then she can groom more to fill the County pipeline. We love the political DNA gene pool getting shallower each year.

It's funny that the people you want to keep the least are the one's who want to get rid of term limits. It is an implicit admission that they have no hope for work off the public teat.

JUST SAY NO to the repeal of term limits.... DARE TO KEEP POLITICIANS OFF THE PUBLIC DOLE

The heck with the county; I want term limits for the US Congress. It's become a total joke, as had Multnomah County's government. Anytime you start a lifetime employment program in the government, you are going to cease getting the best and the brightest.

(Oh, dear Lord, I sound like my dad.)

This can't possibly end well. This must be what Deborah Kafoury meant when she muttered darkly that now that Ted Wheeler is gone things would be different. For whatever reason, County politics seems particularly prone to silliness and incompetence. These changes would only institutionalize it. At least with term limits and keeping the sheriff elected by and answerable to the voters there are tools for voters to shake things up.

Talea, your Dad sounds like a pretty smart man.

What difference would it make? Multnomah County voters always elect the most incompetent corrupt morons anyway.

I hate to say this, but maybe Cogen ain't so bad after all. It's gotta be a step up from Sammy.

I just wish someone would step up that had an IQ above room temp.

I really feel for Mult County people that actually expect some services like bridges that aren't on the verge of collapsing.

Convention Center hotel, baby! Can't wait.

So....who would you rather have over Cogen as mayor? And who could beat him?

Bragdon? Novick? Hales? Anyone from clans of Dozonos, Naitos, etc?

I'm afraid Novick would be a disaster in local politics: he's an intellectual with enormous ambition. It would be like asking Steve Jobs to run a Subway Sandwich shop: he'd be bored to tears before the week was out.

How about Nick Fish for Mayor? He couldn't be any worse than Bragdon or Hales.

How about Dave Lister for mayor, oh wait, not one of the cool kids with ideas that have no basis in reality, he isn't a sim city playing planner type. He only earns a living.

Term limits: voters should have the right to decide who to represent them, not some smoke-filled back room full of cronies. Vote yes.

Appointed Sheriff: who wants to take away the right of voters to determine who their law enforcement officer is?

Got something to say? Come out of the shadows and comment at a public meeting. Or move to Iran.

As much as it pains me and as much as I disdained Hales, he's better than the Fireman, the Tramwhore, and Saltzman. I am undecided about Fish but I wouldn't want him for mayor.

I've long opposed term limits. I see their obvious emotional appeal, but the fact is that legislating is something that takes most people a while to become truly effective at doing. Also with term limits there is a loss of institutional memory among legislators, but not among lobbyists, so every few years so you get a bunch of newbies who are easy prey for the old hands who know how things really work and are only too happy to "show 'em the ropes." We already have term limits -- they're called elections. Yes, incumbents have certain advantages that can reasonably be called unfair but term limits are way too blunt an instrument for dealing with that issue. Another thing to consider is that good politicians (meaning those who take the job seriously and make a real effort to respond to their constituents' needs) are far fewer in number than mediocre and bad ones, and if you term-limit out a good one, mathematically the chances are you will end up with an inferior replacement. Do you really think Ted Kennedy should have been forced to leave the Senate after two terms? Or (for you conservatives), Strom Thurmond? Seriously?

Yes and yes. Twelve years of both of those clowns would have been enough. And eight years in Multnomah County is more than enough. Then they can go on to the city and the state legislature and Metro, and we can all benefit from their genius in some other jurisdiction.

Seriously.

Rather than ask the voters to set aside term limits why don't they do what Wasco Electric Co-op (a state-sanctioned monopoly utility) did: Simply ignore the term limits provision.

That way they get what they want and if anybody wishes to challenge it in court they must spend their own money (and lots of it) to do it.
Meanwhile the government has virtually unlimited taxpayer funds to spend to defend their actions even if their actions are ruled unlawful.

For more information see http://www.reformwascoelectric.com

I can't imagine what you are imagining is beneficial to having career politicians.

I don't care who or what party it is the notion they can sit there for decades is obscene.
And a couple terms should not get any pension benefits either.

There is absolutely nothing to show the country benefited from having Ted Kennedy or any GOPER serve for decades.

The two-term limit for Governor should be a lifetime limit, as opposed to consecutive terms. Kitz shouldn't be able to get two more terms to destroy rural Oregon.

COMING SOON. THE REVENGE OF THE I TAX

When Kitzhaber ran for Governor (the first and second times) the Oregon Constitution prevented him from running for a third term (whether he sat out or not).

In 2001 he worked with Oregon republican leaders in crafting a bill that required Oregon courts to consider a retroactive challenge to the term limits law (and only the term limits law). Oregon voters had passed term limits in 1992, six years before the (Armatta) multiple amendment rule was first construed by the courts. Nonetheless, the bill was passed (with bipartisan support, of course) and required the courts to look back a decade to review term limits using a standard that came into existence after it passed.

It was a fait accompli. The republicans running the Legislature got a few more terms before suburban voters decided they had overstayed their welcome . Kitzhaber has waited eight years to reap his benefit of the bargain.

If this were one of the mean girls' Facebook pages, you would only see part of Lonnie Roberts' right sleeve in the photo.