This is interesting, Kevin, though I really don't know what it means. I do understand clearly what you hope and are suggesting it means.

"Human Society" endorses? Is that as opposed to the fabled ponies of world peace? ;->

Kari, this man is playing you for a fool--repeatedly violating the rule about exclusivity, and the other promise to write about SOMETTHING ELSE.

For fuck's sake--the Humane Society? Not to bust on them--they're fine--but really, this is absurd. Merkley gets his profile highlighted as "news" and we're literally begged to marvel at what an amazing life he's had--and then Novick's not exactly run of the mill bio piece shows up as scheduled the following day...crickets. Meanwhile, Oppo Jones here is ready with another force job for Merkley.

It sure made canvassing easier today to skip all those houses with a Novick sign already. And not once did I have to circle the "supporting the other guy" number on the tracking sheet. (I'm sure perhaps some opted not to say, but it's the fastest way to get someone off your porch if they don't interest you, and I sure as hell would tell a Merkley person he was wasting his time at my door...)

Seems like a rush job to benefit a campaign in need of some good press.

Check this out (from Kevin's link above):

(May 1, 2008)— WASHINGTON — Citing his support and active leadership on animal welfare policies in the Oregon state legislature, the Humane Society Legislative Fund announced that it has endorsed House Speaker Jeff Merkley in Oregon's Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

The bill is now headed to the Governor's desk for her signature.

What bill?

And what female Governor are they referring to? What state?

(If it gets changed and anyone is interested in seeing the original, I've taken a screen shot.)

C'mon, this post is a serious stretch. What, the Portland Tribune endorsement of Novick doesn't count as an "in the news" post, but this warrants posting? Or the Ashland Daily Tidings? Or the East Oregonian?

The Human (sic) Society? Right.

Thank you, JHL, I was certainly confused by it. Lame.

Actually, I thought this post was fairly interesting. Why would the Humane Society endorse a U.S. Senate candidate?

One data point that's really worth noting here: The Humane Society has 140,000 members in Oregon. Nothing to sneeze at.

TJ, you're right - I don't know why Novick's profile didn't get posted. I'll check on that. I think Nick's in finals week.

Last note: Kevin, I fixed the typo in your headline. :)

I don't know what this endorsement means, either. But I guarantee you if this organization had endorsed Steve Novick, his friends here would be all over it. Since they didn't they have no choice but to criticize Kevin.

Oh, and TJ - I don't know what world you live in, but what Novick signs? I was driving all over Portland yesterday and saw only a handful. You might want to leave your block every once in a while.

Well, now the difficulty proves to be that there isn't a "the" Humane Society at all, but two. So which one has 140,000 Oregom members and is it the same one that endorsed Jeff Merkley. If the American Humane Society is the longstanding charity it seems likely that may be the one with the big membership, and no endorsements. But maybe that's wrong.

Personally, I don't give a whit about the internal politics of the various organizations that put "Humane" in their name.

All I know is that an organization with 140,000 members in Oregon is wading into this race. That's good news for someone, right?

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

Kari, this man is playing you for a fool--repeatedly violating the rule about exclusivity, and the other promise to write about SOMETTHING ELSE.

For fuck's sake--the Humane Society? Not to bust on them--they're fine--but really, this is absurd.

What would be really cool is if there were some other progressive blog that got a significant number of eyeballs. That blog could be a champion for candidates that they felt weren't getting a fair shake here on Blue Oregon.

Seems to me there used to be a blog like that until its owner destroyed his own crediblility with over-the-top rants, obscene and mean spirited rhetoric and innuendo all over the blogoshpere. The result seems to have been that no one bothers to pay attention to that guy any more.

Seems kinda sad, but we must all follow our own unicorn I guess, even if it leads to the destruction of our own personal credibility.

1reader likes this

Thanks for the fixed typo, Kari.

Tom's comments above are interesting to me because I'd honestly never noticed them as an endorsing entity before. That's probably mostly because I'd been NAV from 1990 until a few weeks ago and thus tuned some aspects of partisan politics out as a matter of course.

From having dug through their 206 endorsee data I can report that they do in fact endorse some Republicans and I saw at least one Independent too - so that part of their FAQ assertion does match up with the reality on the ground. However... the overwhelming majority of the HSLF's endorsees were Democrats.

As for "popcorn" endorsements... I would expect a win ratio much closer to 100% if that were the case.

I was just looking through the HSLF's 110th Congress scoring data and saw one state's Senator scoring which strongly underscores the non-partisan nature of the HSLF - Nevada.

Senator Ensign(R) received a 100. Senator Reid(D) recieved a big fat 0.

Some were reversed. Like Ohio's delegation.

Brown(D) recieved a 100+ Voinovich(R) received a big fat 0.

Here in Oregon...

Wyden(D) received a 75. Smith(R) received a 25.

Our Congressional delegation...

Blumenhauer(D) - 100+ DeFazio(D) - 100+ Hooley(D) - 83 Walden(R) - 17 Wu(D) - 83

I bet it's not a "meaningless dog-fighting bill" if you're a dog! Or a person who likes dogs, or a person who doesn't like illegal gambling (or, in my case, gambling of any kind - legal or illegal).

LOL - Dr. JHL

I love it!

I actually do have a "PhD" from an online diploma mill. Albeit from one that was set up as a deliberate spoof of... well... diploma mills.

Although I must express disappointment in BBU having lowered it's standards. I had to buy a six-pack of beer for my academic advisor to secure my PhD. They've since dropped that requirement. But then again... there is a certain internal logic to having lowered their standards.

;-)

"Oh, and TJ - I don't know what world you live in, but what Novick signs? I was driving all over Portland yesterday and saw only a handful. You might want to leave your block every once in a while."

I wasn't on my block, I was in NE. And nobody in any race has more than a handful of signs as you drive around (I think Sho has the most, interestingly). In six blocks of NE around Irvington, I documented 6-10 Novick signs, which I know because I didn't bother dropping lit. I saw two Merkley signs on the ride from Hawthorne up 15th to NE, but none in the turf area I was on.

And in riding through chunks of SW, it was 5-0 Novick.

And I actually saw as many Hillary houses as Obama houses in that little turf area...2-2.

Seems to me there used to be a blog like that until its owner destroyed his own crediblility with over-the-top rants, obscene and mean spirited rhetoric and innuendo all over the blogoshpere.

Do you mean Carla? I wasn't the one who coined the term "Double Dealing Douchebag of Dirt." When it was she who was being obscene, over the top and mean spirited to Republicans, I guess you laughed along.

I'm not claiming piety; Carla's writing style didn't bother me. She writes her way, I write mine. But I think any reasonable analysis would show I'm no stranger to tough rhetoric, but you're describing Loaded Orygun BEFORE Carla left, not after.

And really, calling Merkley out on policy is mean spirited, but what you're doing here--repeatedly, with really no reason--isn't?

"Double Dealing Douchebag of Dirt" is funny and demonstrates a natural gift for creative writing.

"Anal cancer" is neither funny nor demonstrates any sort of gift for for anything other than being gratuitously nasty.

Anyone else read this fascinating piece in today's Oregonian: When volunteering, Oregonians pick their favorite causes instead of joining clubs ?

It illustrates why causes such as animal rights represent such strong political force.

It also cites a very interesting statistic which I wasn't aware of:

The good news is, more Americans donate time to their communities than they have in decades -- especially in Portland. Only five metro areas in the U.S. have higher volunteer rates, a study shows, with Oregonians in every age group out-do-gooding their peers across the country.

Well, as far as I can tell from the above, it does seem likely that Kari's 140,000 Oregonians number is tied to the endorsing organization.

Wayne Pacelle has an Oregon connection -- he was an undergraduate at Reed, graduated in the early '90s I believe. He moved very quickly into the center and upwards in the animal rights world. He was a vocal advocate as a student. In addition to being charismatic, he's bright, organized & energetic, & there seems to be a substantial likelihood that the HSLF has a sophisticated database and will communicate its endorsement directly to its constituency. So this could be a useful name-recognition plug for Jeff.

At the same time, the non-partisan character of the group probably means that a lot of its members are humane Republicans and NAVs unable to vote in the DP primary.

Supposing for the sake of argument that Jeff won the primary, I wonder what this endorsement would augur for the general? On the one hand, if Smith has a 25% rating from HSLF, it seems clear that they'd prefer Jeff. On the other hand, either Jeff or Steve is going to have a tough race against Gordo just because of money, so if they only endorse with a high likelihood of success, is it certain that a primary endorsement would be followed by a general election endorsement?

On my left foot, given the state of the polls between Steve and Jeff, there is evidence that they don't always bet only on sure things, so perhaps the endorsement would be renewed despite the tough fight.

Bottom line this is nice for Jeff.

I don't find Hillary personally akin to cancer; her behavior in he primary is akin to a cancer, however. I chose the phrase properly. Her actions are spreading a toxic sickness, that we need to stop immediately before more damage is done.

The word douchebag is always funny. But it's an easy name that bears no relation to chuck adams' actions. It was just calling him a name.

Which as I said I'm ok with. But it's still over the top and obscene, so pat needed a reality check on what LO was and wasn't like.

And in about six months it may just become known as the blog that backed the guy who flipped Oregon's Senate seat, when it was said that couldn't be done. Hell, even if he doesn't win it's pretty obvious we made the right choice in April 07. This was no vanity candidacy of quixotism.

Supposing for the sake of argument that Jeff won the primary, I wonder what this endorsement would augur for the general?

It wouldn't augur much of anything in the General because it's a Primary-only endorsement - which the HSLF endorsing statement says at the end of it.

Now, given Smith's 25 rating and given that Merkley is the sole Oregonian to receive a HSLF Primary endorsement, I'd guess that the odds are extremely good that they'd give Merkley a General endorsement too. But there is no guarantee of that or even that they'd endorse anyone at all in the General Election.

Keep in mind that the HSLF only made GE endorsements for 2006 in 45 states, with another 6 states only getting a single HSLF endorsement.

Personally, I'm still waiting for Jeff to announce the coveted NAMBLA endorsement.

Please tell me this is someone impersonating Stephanie V.

Because the Stephanie I know surely wouldn't equate the Humane Society with an organization that promotes pedophilia.

I'm not equating them at all, Kari.

I'm just observing that there's been a parade of interest group and organizational endorsements of varying significance, each one trumpeted from the housetops, and idly wondering where it ends.

But you knew that. %^>

Funny.

Try this one, ok?

I'm just observing that there's been a parade of newspaper and celebrity endorsements of varying significance, each one trumpeted from the housetops, and idly wondering where it ends.

Personally, given a choice between an organization with 140,000 Oregon members and some hipster band -- I'll take the former.

Dr. JHL:

Your local animal shelter = American Humane Society DC Lobbyists = Humane Society of the US Humane Society Legislative Fund = Humane Society of the US American Humane Society ≠ Humane Society of the US

I misread the good doctor's "not equal sign" on the last line which led to my accepting Kari's statement that "the Humane Society" has 140,000 members in Oregon.

But now I see that Dr. JHL is say the same thing as George Okulitch:

"The Oregon Humane Society is a non-profit entity completly separate with no affiliation with HSUS."

This suggests that that Kari may be conflating the membership of the non-political organization with the political one, and that my comment about the likely political skills of the HSUS may not apply to the large number of members listed by Kari, since they seem likely to be members of an entirely different organization.

Kari, can you clarify which Humane Society has 140,000 members in Oregon?

"Personally, given a choice between an organization with 140,000 Oregon members and some hipster band -- I'll take the former."

Not in this election, I wouldn't.