It's been a busy news month so far, and because of it, we've been remiss in not updating our state government press release meter to account for August traffic. In doing so this morning, we discover that labor commissioner Brad Avakian dropped no fewer than eight press releases in our inbox in August, beating his closest rival, secretary of state Kate Brown, by two. Attorney general Ellen Rosenblum lagged behind at four, and treasurer Ted Wheeler, whose flack killed a guy in July, issued only one.

Avakian's running total of 27 through August equals his entire press release output for 2011. Brown has already left in the dust her 2011 annual total of 31.

No doubt the press release volume has to do with election politics. Avakian and Brown are both running for re-election in contested races; Rosenblum and Wheeler are also up for re-election, but without serious challenges. The figures in the press release meter count only releases from the politicians' official state offices; they do not include messages from their campaigns.

One of the interesting questions that the meter always gets us thinking about is who will be the next Democratic nominee for governor once Dr. Retread loses his lust for power. Not long ago, we thought that to be a close call, with four notable faces in the running. These days we'd give John Kroger, Brown, and Avakian far less of a shot at it than before. And we doubt that Rosenblum would go for the gubernatorial gusto. If we had to lay odds at this point, we'd say that the Democrats will be running Wheeler for the governor's mansion in 2014 if Cylvia's boyfriend packs it in.