Kroger will be taking down the bad guys until one of them is a friend of the Gov or a legislator. That's when we will see if he can swing a big enough stick to keep them them away. Mr. Kroger, go-get-'em!

He may well take out white collar criminals, but the real question is can he actually manage a very large law firm and get their budget through the Legislature? That's what AG's do every day--plus provide legal advice and counsel to state agencies. The DOJ hasn't been exactly energetic on any front lately and does need an overhaul. But I continue to question whether Mr. Kroger has the slightest qualifications to do most of the work the AG has to do.

I continue to question whether Mr. Kroger has the slightest qualifications to do most of the work the AG has to do.

You haven't worked with him. John is more than up to the task -- every bit as much as Hardy Myers ever was.

The one thing I don't think Kroger will do is go along to get along -- which sounds like what you want. Sorry.

Thanks for providing me - and possibly others - with a little bit of hope. I need it these days.

Having had a chance to spend time around John Kroger and the people that worked for him, I have to agree with Jack. Not only is he smart, energetic, and driven, he surrounds himself with smart, energetic, and driven people. Anyone who spent anytime around the people working on John Kroger's campaign knows what I am talking about.

Is anybody actually looking for Fred? Maybe they could hire a bounty hunter?

I think Fish and Fritz are two additional bright spots in an otherwise lackluster election night. I'm surprised that Novick and Mannix didn't win.

Hello Congressman Schrader!

Not without a very nasty fight -- you watch.

These days, it's enough for me to find a little bit of hope in a D-dominated election cycle; in a D-dominated state.

Whatever.

I hope Kroger is my guy. Myers is/was a cipher at best. I hope that Kroger doesn't simply settle into a do-nothing mode like his predecessor. There's plenty of ripe fruit for the picking. It will only take an energized, principled person, who's not beholden to a partisan gang, to "get busy".

Like PLM, I hope for the best, but can't help fearing the worst.

Kick ass and take names!

I actually think Brown will be quite active in Salem, mostly because she needs to build name recognition outside of Portland for her inevitable run for Gov. in a few years. That's what has annoyed me so much about her campaign: that it's so clearly a springboard to higher office.

Jack,

I'm about as conservative a 5th District Voter as there is, and I'll vote for Schrader over Erickson.

Stick a fork in him.

Congratulations, John! It was great to follow the race - just wish I could have voted in it.

I thought you liked Westlund. Or at least you seemed to 2 years ago when he was flirting with running for the governorship as an independent.

As a late comer to the Novick camp, I now need to shift allegiance for the greater good of dumping Gordon. Maybe Merkley can hire Novick as a surrogate to keep the race interesting? The future of Smith's continuing decision making will be, (what would Bush do?) We need a maverick - dammit, someone with spine. I hope Merkley is up to the task

My slam on Kroger is he's smart and hard-working and lean and mean ... 'did that in Cassius seem ambitious?'

TOO go-getter smart hard-working, and doesn't stop with 'taking down' criminals and criminal enterprises, and then some plausibly related shady characters at the periphery of criminality, and then on beyond zebra into 'taking down' some ones that look to him like they may be criminals or may be thinking about turning into criminals, he'll know 'em when he sees 'em ... and, hey, a 'rising star' gunslinger can't have too many notches on his handle, like, oh, I don't know, migrant workers, panhandlers, street musicians, hippies, goths, skate-boarders, hacky-sackers, ne'er-do-well's, the unemployed, the poor, the disadvantaged, the medically crippled/lame/insane blackholes in Oregon Health Plan budgets (after all, they are only here for the suicide -- give 'em a hand), pot smokers, jay walkers, tree huggers, dam busters, eco blissers, devout peyote poppers, mescaline munchers and 'shroom-heads, anti-war marchers, 9-11 Truthers, turban-wearers, kaftan-wearers, saffron-wearers, berka-wearers, yarmulke-wearers, Old Glory-wearers, and those who strip down to nothing ... you know, all the unAmerican undesirables undeserving of equal rights and justice under the law for just us, in the style and mein of that other fast-rising, smart, hard-working, go-getter, ambitious world-beater: Hitler.

Folks I talk with at the Oregon Justice Department are saying they have never seen such an implacable intractable spiteful rift in morale and professional decorum -- utter venality, as Kroger's candidacy galvanized. So the hallmark to watch for, the prognosis of that diagnosis, is a mass exodus of institutional memory and encultured Oregonian civility. We shall see what we shall see.

(For my outspoken affront and dark allegations, I expect my phone is tapped and DMV-fingerprint file is LEADS-ed on every patrolcar LCD-matrix screen and DNA drops are a right-click away in ChoicePoint's uber-Interpol lagoon. Or maybe for no reason at all, just as 'general principles.')

Good thing I got that in before 4:20.

a mass exodus of institutional memory and encultured Oregonian civility.

And inertia and complacency, I hope.

Kroger will kick ass and take names and that's what I want my AG to do.

In addition, I wanted Macpherson to be punished for those loathsome TV ads and the snarky and supercilious overall tone of his campaign. Further, the Oregon DoJ should not be allowed to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Stoel Rives.

But I am still in mourning for the Novick campaign, and probably will be for some time. Merkley's got my vote, and my desire to get rid of Smith, but it's going to be very tricky for me to muster any enthusiasm for the guy after the sleazy primary campaign he ran and the way he was saved at the end by Uncle Chuck. I'm despondent, sad, angry, bitter, and cranky. In fairness, though, only the first four of those are something unusual for me.