I'll bet Ted Stevens won't be attending either.

Spent some time in Smith country last week. Took a vacation to eastern Oregon - cow country - rural environs. Jobs are scarce, and don't pay very much. The folks out there live a different reality than we do. People there are independent, and don't wan their freedoms impinged by the government. I can see why they support Smith, and why they hate the fact that Oregon politics is dominated by the Willamette Valley.

Yes, I've observed that since Baker v. Carr, many rural people are furious with the whole idea of democracy and one person, one vote. They much preferred it when urban voters were packed into districts so that their votes only counted 10% of what a rural vote was worth.

George, what the rest of Oregon residents (outside of the valley) are mad about is a lack of representation of their wants/needs/values. Let's be honest, only a couple of counties rule this state due to population concentration. Everyone outside those counties feel like they are left out in the cold and in reality they are.

"Everyone outside those counties feel like they are left out in the cold and in reality they are."

If they don't like it, they should get a bike and a Prius and move into a condo bunker in the Pearl, fer Chrissake!

Darrin, when it works, democracy is like that -- majority rules.

The crowded parts of the state -- the part that pays for everything over the entire state, the part that taxes itself so that it has little things like schools and libraries, the part that funds the many, many miles of roads in the empty parts, and all the state services -- have a lot more votes than the emptier parts.

How do you propose altering that reality? Do you think that people in Portland, Salem, and Eugene should start voting against their interests in order to help the people in Harney County? How do you propose to sell that?