Heaven knows there are way too many p.r. flacks on the public payroll in Oregon. The taxpayers' money comes back to them in the form of endless spin. But while government budgets for public relations don't seem to be shrinking, the press release output from Salem definitely is. We've just computed our final tally in the 2011 press release sweepstakes among four top state officials, and it's clearly down from 2010.

Here's 2011:

And here are the comparable numbers from the first two in 2010:

You know that John Kroger's zest for public office has dissipated when he churns out 30% fewer media alerts than the year before. And Kate Brown's down 49%.

The newcomers to our meter made a strong showing in '11. For example, in the month of December, Ted Wheeler pumped out 4 releases, surpassing Kroger and Brad Avakian at 3 each. Brown, as far as we can tell, was silent for the month.

What will 2012 bring in the media handout department for these four? Kroger's retiring, and so we'd project his output to be down again, substantially. Having been shellacked in his bid for Congress, Avakian is up for re-election this year; so is Brown. Wheeler's got another three years on his term; so does the governor, whose job the last three would doubtlessly like to have.

We're setting the over/under for the whole pack of four at 175. Good luck, gamblers!