My congressman, Earl Blumenauer, is making headlines by actively noncampaigning for mayor of Portland. All of a sudden he's holding coffees all over town to talk, not about federal issues, but about strictly local matters.

Just having conversations with his constituents, he says. Hasn't made up his mind whether to run for mayor or not. Yeah, right.

Earl will make a formidable mayoral candidate, if for no other reason than the campaign war chest he's amassed running against the perennial GOP candidate in his district, Nobody, in the last few congressional elections. As I understand it, the guy's already got nearly $300K in the bank that he can use to run for mayor. That ain't hay.

Given Blumenauer's track record, the fact that he lost the mayoral election to Vera Katz years ago is actually in his favor. He lost his first bid for the City Council, too, as I recall, but cooled his heels over at the Multnomah County Commission for a few years before eventually making it onto the City Council dais.

I like Earl as my congressman, but I'm not all that hot on his bid to become mayor. To me he looks like Vera Katz in a bow tie (figuratively speaking). All snuggled in nice and cozy with the old West Hills money, he probably loves the public funds giveaways in the Pearl District; would like to be right there to cut the ribbon on the OHSU aerial tram; has no problems with the tens of millions in city funds that will build Homer Williams's next mint, North Macadam; and has a lovely mutual admiration society going with the kindly gentlemen over at the Portland Business Alliance. I heard that he was firmly behind the Pioneer Courthouse Square ice skating rink, and I'm sure he gets all sorts of sweet nothings whispered into his ears by lobbyists like Neil Goldschmidt, whom he doubtlessly admires. The fact that Blumenauer and Katz are, ahem, shall we say, coordinating their planned candidacy announcements surely does not paint Blumenauer as an agent of change.

No, I'm not rushing out with an Earl for Mayor lawn sign just yet. But I do get a kick out of his likely opponent, announced mayoral candidate and City Commissioner Jim Francesconi. Jim was quoted in the paper yesterday as follows:

"I think I know what the issues are," Francesconi said. "We have to have a new kind of leadership that focuses on the issues of jobs, education and keeping essential neighborhood services of all kinds in our city."

Watching Earl and Jim try to out-"outsider" each other will doubtlessly provide months of amusement.

[UPDATE, 1:13 p.m.: Congressman Blumenauer isn't slacking on his current job. Emma of The Oregon Blog points me to an op-ed piece that Earl and Rep. Jim Leach (R) of Iowa have on the op-ed page of today's New York Times. They're calling for reform of the congressional redistricting process, and it's a thought-provoking piece. Which I would have known about had my Times carrier not failed to deliver last night. Grrrrrr!]