I think everything you said sums up how I feel about Bus trips, but the one thing you left out are all the amazing people you meet, from people at the door to amazing volunteers you ride on the Bus with. Oh, and the Bus Project will also be going back to districts 49 and 50 for Nick Kahl and Greg Matthews on Sept. 6th.

Way to go Bus! It's good to feel the energy picking up as the elections approach. I used to live in Cowan's district, which was reliably R for years, until she came along.

good work, T.A. and the bus volunteers! Too bad that you're unable to canvass a population that is unable to hear political speech because candidates like Judy and Brent and Toby Forsberg can get into mobile home parks. And given that every Republican in Salem voted against legislation last year that succeeded in spite of their votes and that enabled five cities and Clackamas County to protect these vulnerable citizens when their communities close, these homeowners have good reason to vote Democrat in the fall. See our website at www.mhclosure.com and click on Editorials to get the particulars.

sorry about that last post--it should read "candidates like Judy and Brent and Toby Forsberg CAN'T get into mobile home parks." Thanks Bruce for the heads up.

Back in 2005 at a State Central Committee meeting, a researcher did a presentation on the 2004 election and voting patterns. She reported that she was surprised at finding Democrats east of the Cascades. I went up to her and told her it was highly insulting to be discussed in those terms. Why in the world would anyone start with the assumption of my non-existance? Why would anyone think that an entire political spectrum doesn't exist everywhere, the variance being the relative strength of one side or another. Has there ever been a contested election where one side got 100% of the votes - NO!

So Barnhart you surprise me.

Why do some Western Oregon liberals deny the existance of liberals/progressives West of the Cascades? What is the mentality of discrimination that only urban people can be liberal/progressive?

I really don't get why "progressive" people discriminate to the point of denial of existance.

There are Democrats, liberals, progressives everywhere in Oregon. From our cities to the smallest crossroads corners of this State. We are gaining in numbers, but we have always been here.

Good God I hate having to write this same message 10 times a year to this group. Get a clue.

Well, this sounds like good work, but as Pat Ryan hinted at it's pretty easy to guess which part of Bend you were in.

I'm gonna guess you went nowhere near Deschutes Market Road or Tumalo or anywhere on the east side of 3rd St. or Deschutes River Woods, and certainly not Redmond or La Pine... but if you saw an abundance of Tibetan prayer flags, you can only have been somewhere between COCC, downtown and Colorado Avenue. I'm not trying to show off, but the people who live here are very different, politically speaking, from the rich Californian conservatives and the more rural conservatives you'll find in the rest of town. There are, of course, some scattered progressives and, well, hmm, let's say, folks with poor political representation outside of the center of town as well, but I'd guess your efforts would be hit or miss there.

Steve is right about the stupidity of "Back in 2005 at a State Central Committee meeting, a researcher did a presentation on the 2004 election and voting patterns. She reported that she was surprised at finding Democrats east of the Cascades."

The "researcher" in question was uninformed and deserves to be slammed. How could a "researcher" not know about State Reps Bernie Agrons (D-Klamath Falls) Wayne Fawbush (D-Hood River) (also a st. sen.) Mike Nelson (D-Baker) and a young man named Payne who I think preceeded him.

St. Sen. Mike Thorne (D-Pendleton) Fred Heard (D-Klamath Falls)

who served in the 1980s and 1990s? Or don't those people matter because the way things have "always" been is only within the memory of those who have been involved in politics since the Republicans won the House majority in 1990, or more recently the Snodgrass, Minnis/Scott years? Some here might not have liked the politics of some of those members, but they were Democrats from E. of the Cascades and someone in their districts got them elected. Seems like there was also once an appointed legislator from K. Falls who later became Dem. State Chair.

Some of us who worked on "forgotten" campaigns in our downstate communities all over the state (too lousy an R to D ratio to be taken seriously, as if Howard Dean's "show up everywhere, contest everything" did not apply to Oregon House races where Future Pac knew better what was needed) and got very tired of hearing we were less important than races like the ones in the Portland area.

Some of us had a part in electing Democratic legislators prior to the last decade and didn't like being told a Democrat "couldn't" win in our district simply because one hadn't won there recently. 20 years ago my state senator and state rep. were both Democrats, even if those positions have been held by Republicans in recent years.

After the 2006 close losses of Peralta and Gilbertson in "impossible" (Yamhill County and E. Oregon) districts, some of us have been very vocal in letting Democrats know we should never have another campaign year where people in certain downstate districts were told they lived in "impossible" districts with "lousy R to D ratios". It is even possible that one reason Open Primary got on the ballot was people angry with legislative caucuses telling them whether their legislative district mattered or not.

So it was refreshing to see on the Oregon Democrats blog recently that some of these "forgotten" candidates and districts are getting attention early this campaign year--Jason Brown, Hanten Day and others in districts which just might provide that 36th Democratic House seat if they are taken seriously.

Search BO comments (and posts?)and you will find comments (like the ones some of us have encountered during face to face conversations) along the lines of "Mult. Co. is the most important county because it has the most people" or someone from that area implying they know better how to win in a downstate district than the people who actually live there.

Last week in the extreme heat there were grass and brush fires, incl. along I-5 where the ignition may have come from something as simple as a spark when a piece of metal from a truck dragged along the highway at high speed and caused sparks.

Some political ideas are like that too. McCain sounds frustrated that not all Americans join him in saying that Iraq has been a glorious war and all good Americans cheer when he says "the surge worked". As if no American has the right to disagree with McCain. (If you didn't hear Republican State Rep. Boquist's speech on the Iraq War from his point of view as a veteran in 2007, it was an amazing speech. McCain would find it very uncomfortable debating an Iraq veteran like Boquist.)

By the same token, those of us who have long grass roots experience in our districts have been told for more than a decade that we don't really count, that there haven't been many (or any) Democrats elected to the legislature from our area, therefore it must be impossible. That someone active in the community without vast connections to professional lobbyists or other fundraisers shouldn't bother running for the legislature because money is really all that matters. That "professionals" looking at statistics about our districts on paper actually know more about our districts than the folks who actually vote there.

This anger has been around for so long that all it takes is a small spark to ignite it. I'm glad Henry Kraemer, Bus Trips Manager, now realizes that "this trip has shown me how much every part of the state wants to move forward."

There have always been people of that persuasion all over Oregon. If asked, some of us could have told Henry that. Even when they had to fight the "established order".(DCCC thought Kopetski didn't have a chance in 1988, but after the recount they changed their tune and in 1990 a liberal Democrat defeated Denny Smith handily in one of the few races where an incumbent was defeated that year.)

Believe it or not, we elected some darned good Democrats to the legislature back in the days when campaigns were locally controlled rather than having the caucus-run campaigns we've had recently.

TA, glad you had a good trip to Bend. But you should be aware that when Judy Stiegler, lost to Burley in 2004 by only 500 votes, she was one of 3 women candidates who were seen to have gotten a raw deal from the caucus establishment, and who lost narrowly.

Finally downstate folks are being taken seriously after years of being told (from what it seemed were all sides in a party which seemed to be acting like only those on a political payroll or with titles knew anything and those people didn't need to explain themselves to ordinary activists) that they should just shut up and take orders.

Being a current or former county chair, a member of state central comm. etc. didn't matter because "professionals" were the ones with the knowledge and power. Of course some of the people who had that nonsense inflicted on them were going to be angry (you should talk to some of the people I've had this conversation with in person!).

The days of "Everyone should give respect to Democrats from Mult. County because they know more than anyone else" are OVER.

TA, thanks, I thought you used to be downstate.

When it comes to legislative races, there will never be 36 votes as long as someone in a central office (FP or elsewhere) is making decisions looking at information in an office rather than talking to people who actually live in the districts.

3 friends of mine ran admirable campaigns in the last couple legislative election cycles. In 2004, a friend who had been in politics for decades was being told by young twerpy staffers that she shouldn't use her own experience and judgement, she should jump through the hoops all candidates should jump through because every district was like every other district.

The district that friend ran in was decided by several hundred votes and a Democrat won it the next time around. There are potentially 3 legislative races in this area this year which might flip to Democrats---even if the people who ran in them in 2006 were ignored, forgotten, told they should know how to raise money if they were going to run (as if all local citizens learn that stuff in their daily lives), told other districts were more important than theirs, etc.

The single best thing anyone in Mult.Co. politics could do is keep their ears open. And if they hear ANYONE use language like "lousy R to D ratio", remind them that:

a)that sort of nonsense is why some people distrust Portlanders and consultants/paid political staffers

b) people registered outside major parties can vote in general elections (in some cases can knock a supposedly secure incumbent down to a victory margin below the number of voters registered outside of major parties) and the whole "if you want to vote in a primary, you have to register with a party" attitude may explain where the signatures came from to put Open Primary on the ballot.

I knew Phil Keisling when he was a legislator. Norma Paulus was my state rep. Neither of them was part of a "my caucus right or wrong" voting bloc--just the opposite.

In the early 1970s, the financial and other laws regarding women were so behind the times that in some cases it was hard for women to be business owners or otherwise financially independent, esp. if married. A bloc of 10 women state reps (across a political spectrum as wide as in this decade being from Kate Brown to Karen Minnis) decided to change that during Norma's first session. It was a 31-29 session, and a bloc of 10 had real power. I believe Phil and Norma want Oregon to return to those less polarized days, and their presentation before the Public Comm. on the Legislature was impressive.

There is a whole wide world out there, folks. Elections in the past have been decided by simple things (the local government person who got the stop signs at a dangerous corner and earned respect from voters, the neighbor who has people over for a candidate coffee and lo-and-behold 45 people show up, friend convincing someone to go see a candidate in person and make up his own mind, "I'll tell a positive story about my candidate and you can then tell a positive story about yours" from someone who knows full well the other candidate doesn't have any positive stories, etc.).

A couple of decades ago, the Democratic Party (then with the state party office in Salem) was much stronger across the state. Theories abound about why that changed. But 20 years ago a "researcher" claiming to be amazed by Democrats E. of the Cascades would have been laughed to scorn by friends of Bernie Agrons, friends of Wayne Fawbush etc. among the folks who regularly spent time in the state party office. Fawbush was first elected state rep. long before Peter Courtney, and in the early-mid 1980s we had a very interesting Oregon House with Agrons, Fawbush, Courtney, Darlene Hooley and others. With any luck we will have a similarly interesting House again in 2009.

I didn't know Steve Bucknum until recently, but he is very much like a lot of the people I knew when I was on State Central Comm. 2 decades ago. He writes what a lot of us old timers have been thinking for years.

There is an old saying, "Once burned, twice shy". It is important for Democrats to truly be an open party, open to ideas like a 36 county strategy, respecting the diversity of Democrats across the state. Sometimes people from Portland say things which they may not realize hits the ears of others as harsh. We do best when the diversity of Oregon Democrats is realized.

Never underestimate the ability of some Democrats to find a reason to pick a fight. I was the last person to be elected D.A. as a Democrat, and had a fairly significant part in Mike Thorne being elected to the State Senate four years later, in Umatilla County, and remember my then spouse almost bursting into tears when a Portland liberal referred to our living "in the hinterland," so I think I have some understanding of the so-called "urban-rural divide." (From my experience it is something encouraged in no small part by folks on the right who find it useful to have a bugaboo -- the "urban liberal" -- to blame things on.)

T.A. acknowledges he and others have had a learning experience, and that becomes an excuse to condemn them for their prior ignorance! Yikes.

C'mon folks, aren't there enough things that deserve fighting about that we don't need to be looking for opportunities to criticize each other like this? Joe Smith...or maybe I should say "Bob."

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