Nice. The WW was shameless with that story and the earlier one. Way for the OEA to call them out.

I appreciate the OAE weighing in on the recent smear tactics by the WW. Merkley has been a strong advocate for Oregon's public schools and has worked tirelessly to increase public school funding. I'm glad to see the OAE put the WW in their place, someone needed to.

Oops! OEA OEA!

Beth Slovic really has been shameless in going after Jeff Merkley. Her latest attempt to portray Jeff's wife Mary Sorteberg as sexist for feeling the perfectly natural parental drive to help their child clean up a mess of spilled blueberries really is beyond the pale. But there's nothing new about it. Beth Slovic has used Willy Weak to pimp Steve Novick for months now.

Since Speaker Merkley entered the Senate race the Willamette Week has falsely accused Jeff of being a slumlord, a pimp, and a sellout

A pimp?! How did I miss that?! Pointer, please!

Merkley isn’t the first public official to advocate one course of action for himself and his family and another for the rest of us. He won’t be the last, either.

I consider that a good thing. No, I consider it a GREAT thing. The capacity to separate personal from public is central to why we enjoy the freedoms that we do. Indeed IT IS THE VERY PREMISE of the separation of Church and State doctrine.

A disappointing response by OEA, but not completely unexpected.

I think it's probably important to note here that this letter was written by five local OEA leaders - not the state leadership of OEA, nor is it the official position of the OEA.

Does Merkley discuss his private family affairs with the heads of the OEA on a regular basis?

This may come as a surprise to some, but the OEA endorsement is this weekend - and the candidates seeking their endorsement (in many races) have been traveling the state and meeting with local OEA leaders for weeks now. After the WW hit piece, I'm sure quite a few of them asked him about it.

[Full disclosure: I built Jeff Merkley's website, but I speak only for myself.]

The PPS custodians and food-service workers held a rally in front of school-district headquarters before the 7 p.m. meeting. Oregon House Speaker Jeff Merkley, who's running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, was there pimping the union vote. State Rep. Tina Kotek (D-Portland) also came out to support the union members' efforts to avoid significant pay cuts.

How disappointing. I was hoping for something so much more ... lurid.

The capacity to separate personal from public is central to why we enjoy the freedoms that we do. Indeed IT IS THE VERY PREMISE of the separation of Church and State doctrine.

Actually, Kevin, I think most people would say that the very premise of the separation of Church and State is freedom of conscience for all. I think you are on a slippery slope when you start glorifying political figures who in their private lives fail to live up to the public policy positions they take in their public lives, and if you slide any further down that slope you are going to trip over Larry Craig's widely-stanced foot.

Actually, Kevin, I think most people would say that the very premise of the separation of Church and State is freedom of conscience for all.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Just different ways of saying the same thing.

What's interesting is that you then go on to make a lame case for denying freedom of conscience. But strangly enough, only to one public person. You've been strangely silent about Mr. Novick's year with the ODE. Having spent some time with Google looking into his time there, I can't say as I blame you for not wanting to talk about... how did you put that? Ah yes... "the public policy positions they take in their public lives."

It will be interesting to see if Beth Slovic's work for Steve these last few weeks pays off for him this weekend. What will they do if it backfires, though?

The OEA membership faces a choice between a candidate with a stellar public record of support for their causes and a candidate who seems to be hiding from his public record as it relates to the OEA. Might that be why Ms. Slovic was enlisted? To try to distract OEA members from wanting to look too closely at Mr. Novick's record with the ODE?

There's a common practice school people call, "school shopping" or "teacher shopping." Mom's and dad's or what ever family configuration...gather in the springtime waiting to pick up their kids; their talk turns to anedotal reports of the best teacher, that great school someone heard about, and more. Strong opinions about the two Honor's English teachers or the best Physics teacher are common. Teachers do the same thing for their own children. Students have a variety of learning styles and teachers have a variety of teaching styles..the search for a good match happens every spring in anticipation of a good successful school year in the fall.

It is common for families to explore options. Every OEA member knows this.

What's the bit about Novick working at the Oregon Department of Education..must have missed it.

What's the bit about Novick working at the Oregon Department of Education..must have missed it.

He was Legislative Liaison for the ODE in 2003, but you'd never know it by reading his website, Facebook page or any of his Wiki pages. It was a hugely important senior staff position and one in which he dealt with very important people, including from the federal DOE. Which is why it's conspicuous absense from any of his campaign-controlled sites is so... curious.

Miles, there is nothing to reconcile.

1. I've never said that Novick lacks policy experience.

2. Novick lacks ANY legislative experience, "real" or otherwise. He has never been a legislator. Lobbying does not a legislator make. If it did then Rob Kremer would be as qualified as Novick. Furthermore, it's noteworthy that many of the most successful lobbyists are themselves former legislators. If there was no fundamental difference between experienced legislators and those who have never done that job then former legislators wouldn't be in such high demand as lobbyists.

"even as a novick supporter, i've backed up merkley on this issue. it really doesn't matter if he wants send his kids to a charter school or even a private school."

But it does if they're going to lie about it, which the campaign did.

And I love Kevin's spin that telling others where THEY can or cannot send their kids, but reserving the option for yourself, is a good thing--as opposed to the rank hypocrisy that most people correctly label it as.

Jeff must REALLY be nervous about the OEA vote if he's getting supporters to obfuscate his attempt to deceive teachers. I suspect he should be nervous; they both have to speak to them before the vote, and we all know that's his weakness compared to Novick. What if Jeff gets up there and not enough teachers wake up in time for the vote?

I'm sure he's shaking, TJ. He is the one with a legislative record of accomplishment, after all.

"I'm sure he's shaking, TJ. He is the one with a legislative record of accomplishment, after all."

And the journalistic record of lying to teachers about where he considered sending his children, too! If he weren't nervous, he'd still be ignoring Novick.

And I love Kevin's spin that telling others where THEY can or cannot send their kids, but reserving the option for yourself, is a good thing--as opposed to the rank hypocrisy that most people correctly label it as.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

TJ, unless I woke to a totalitarian regime this morning, EVERYONE has the right to send their kids wherever they want. That's utterly irrelevant to voting to fund and protect public schools and the teachers who work in them.

journalistic record of lying to teachers about where he considered sending? his children

Hey, this is progress TJ. Your crew has finally gone from "tried to enroll" to "considered sending", which is true if by "considered sending" you mean that his wife filled out a form one day, in accordance with school policy, as a prerequisite for touring the school, and then did nothing further.

This is the whole story, at least according to your allies Rob Kremer and the Willamette Week's designated Merkley assassin, Beth Slovic.

If any of you had anything else, I'm sure we would have heard from you or your buddies by now.

Allright, Miles. Fair enough. You wanna parse how many definitions of the word "is" there is?

Steve Novick has never been a legislator. Steve Novick has never been elected to any public position. Steve Novick DOES, however, have experience lobbying actual legislators.

Let's sum up here:

Jeff Merkley = experienced legislator with proven record of getting progressive legislation done within his chamber as well as going above and beyond the call of duty to pressure the other chamber to do likewise.

Steve Novick = zero experience as a legislator... may or may not be capable of performing on par with average legislators much less exceptional legislators like Jeff Merkley. Unlike Jeff Merkley, Steve Novick does have experience as a lobbyist.

The question before Oregon Democrats is whether they want a skilled legislator or a skilled lobbyist representing us in the United States Senate - a legislative body.

BTW, here's a bonus question before Oregon Democrats: Why is Steve Novick's time as staff lobbyist (aka Legislative Liaison) for the Oregon Dartment of Education conspicuously missing from his website, Facebook bio and various Wiki bios? After all, it constitutes a huge percentage of his "legislative experience."

Lobbyist A person who discusses issues with representatives of a governmental body for the purpose of influencing a decision to be made. Lobbyists may be paid or volunteer.

That is an apt description of at least part of what Steve Novick did while Legislative Liaison for the ODE. He was, of course, paid rather than volunteer.

What Miles doesn't want to aknowledge is that anyone who knows how to use Google can find reams of both agency and legislative hits from 2003 formally labeling Steve Novick's job title as "Legislative Liaison. "Legislative Director" is an abberant formal description in terms of most commonly used title references to him.

I think I come in the middle here. Yes, Steve Novick does indeed come under the classic definition of a Lobbyist for his work as "Legislative Director" for the ODE. However, what most people think in terms of lobbyists is private people who work as hired guns for the highest bidder, effectively selling inside access to plutocrats. And that doesn't describe Steve at all.

To me, the much bigger issue is Mr. Novick having no legislative experience whatsoever. You have to be smoking some pretty strong stuff to think that someone like that is going to be in a strong position against a sitting Senator - no matter how many kudos he gets from an alternative Portland weekly supported by the nudy-house/call-girl industry.

ISTR that Wayne Morse had never been a legislator or held elective office of any kind when he was first elected to the Senate, and that worked out rather well for the state of Oregon.

JADP

I guarantee that everyone who has held a similar position in state government lists "significant legislative experience" on their resumes.

Everyone except Steve Novick, apparently. Which just underscores how odd it is that he would not even list it on his political resume.

What is it that he's hoping nobody connects the dots on vis-a-vis his time with the ODE?

Why would he not want Oregonian Democrats to be able to make an informed choice in this race? Surely such "significant" job experience is highly relevant to the choice facing Democrats in a couple short months.

"Novick gained significant legislative experience in his role for the state's Department of Education."

Not to mention his role as Chief of Staff to the state Senate, working with people like Kate Brown and Cliff Trow to reverse the curse in Senate elections (picking up 3 seats in the 98 cycle).

Thanks for the link, Jack.

From the piece:

Both Novick and Merkley said they opposed immunity from prosecution for telephone companies involved with warrantless wiretapping, and that they'd support impeachment proceedings against President Bush, with Novick quipping that it was warranted "if only out of historical fairness to Richard Nixon."

Jeff is my man now and will be in November too. But I gotta say that Steve's quip there cracked me up when I read it!

Maybe the Senate could create a position for an official Senate Jester. Y'know... to balance out the Senate Chaplain position. Steve would be great at that! Those kinds of one-liners would probably get laughs on both sides of the aisle. That way Jeff could do what he's good at and Steve could do what he's good at. Win/win

LT, a data point is just that: a fact, a neutral thing in and of itself.

This whole discussion is starting to remind me of Hillary Clinton's "3 AM" commercial. And not in a good way. I'd rather vote for someone whose judgment I trust than someone who got suckered into voting for a pro-Iraq war resolution because the Republicans were canny enough to include a few kind words about the troops.

We honor the troops much better by keeping them out of reckless misadventures like this stupid war.

Now, if anyone supporting Steve is saying "believe Rob Kremer because his public statements should never be questioned", they are doing Steve no favors, and I hope Steve and his campaign realize that.

HUH?

Where on earth did you get that? No one is saying that. Since the actual application forms have been uncovered and posted online, we don't have to believe Rob Kremer. We can look at the forms for ourselves. And right up at the top they say "Enrollment Application."

<h2>One interesting tidbit: is it possible that Jeff Merkley was not yet using personal email in March 2004? He did not include an email address on either form despite a blank field requesting one. How retro.</h2>