"while Allen Alley has to convince them he's a Republican."

No Kidding!!!

BTW, No surprise that Jack RINO Roberts would support a Democrat but mildly surprised he's not already supporting his buddy Kitzhaber.

Here's the problem, folks. There are people falling into the "past performance = future results" trap.

Just heard a commentator on OPB talk about "the kind of people who vote in primaries".

Oh, really. Every Obama and Clinton voter in the 2008 presidential race, every Merkley and Novick voter in the Senate race, had voted in several previous primaries?

For years there were self-satisfied middle aged politicians and journalists who said, "young people don't matter because young people don't vote".

Oh really! And how many young legislators served in the 2009 session? All of them elected exclusively by voters over 35?

It is time we had serious debate in this state about problems that need to be solved. Not about RINO and DINO--does anyone really believe someone will win a statewide election by alienating over 500,000 voters from the Measure 65 nonpartisan election measure last year?

I've got news for you--if every Republican and every Democrat in 2010 vote straight party ticket, the voters registered outside those 2 parties decide the election.

Let's hear tax and budget reform proposals debated, or else an intelligent defense of the status quo. About education, let's talk about new programs used in some places to make middle school the target in preventing high school dropouts. How about transportation--do folks outside the Portland area deserve a well-funded way to commute, shop, and otherwise travel if they are not young and healthy enough to ride bikes? How do towns like Dallas, Coos Bay, Prineville, Hood River have products delivered to their stores?--not likely to be by rail.

In a healthy society, which is smarter--paying for a heat stroke victim to be taken by ambulance to the ER, or paying for a room air conditioner for a shut-in so that the heat stroke never happens?

How many of the ideas in the Public Comm http://www.leg.state.or.us/pcol/
can a candidate for Gov. talk about intelligently?

I thought one of the highlights of the 2008 Sec. of State primary debate was when Kate Brown expressed an opinion about one of the election reform ideas in those proposals. She thought the idea was stupid, I think it has merit, but at least she introduced it into the public debate.

If Jack Roberts or Jason Atkinson wants to speak out on those issues, more power to them.

But let's debate real issues and stop the partisan sniping. Or is that too much to ask?

It is a serious overreach to postulate that debate from a politically partisan position is going to alienate all or even most of the voters that approved the flawed "Top Two Primary" initiative last November. I'd point out that the initiative failed with 34% approval; not close.

Jack Roberts could capture the GOP base and win the GOP gubernatorial nomination himself if he would just announce his undying admiration for Glenn Beck and his unshakeable conviction that Barack Hussein Obama aka Barry Soetoro was actually born in a hyperspace wormhole connecting Kenya, Indonesia, and the dark side of the moon.

Jack, you've out done yourself. I don't believe you'd vote for DeFazio. And for the record, your joke was in poor taste.

I would personally love to be able to vote for Peter DeFazio for Governor. I don't have anything against Kitzhaber; he seems to be a very capable guy, would be an improvement over what we have. DeFazio, however, could ignite a fire in Oregon that would burn as a beacon for the entire country, and together with John Kroger as the AG, actually begin to create some of the changes here that we have voted for as a country. DeFazio has integrity, guts, intellect, and the ability to reach across the so-called Oregon divide. And now he brings with him the contacts and experience from DC that may well come in very handy.

Either way, it will be interesting.

Ed, do you know for a fact they were voting for "top 2" and not showing their support for nonpartisan elections?

I have no trouble with the level of partisanship we saw in the presidential race.

There are people who are only registered with a major party because they want to vote in primaries.

There are people tired of "my party right or wrong". No matter what the percent was, that was still over 500,000 voters---and for all anyone knows, it could have been for 50 diff. reasons or 500 diff. reasons.

DeFazio won't run for Governor and here's why:

He'd loose his seat in Congress and that's what his whole adult life has been about- Don't worry he will see right past Robert's ruse- it's pretty much the same thing he and the other Weaver staffers did to Weaver with the Weaver for Governor boomlets- if they could talk Weaver into running for Governor they could grab the Congressional office for themselves and no longer have to cater to Jim's idiosyncrasies. Ever since DeFazio came on Weaver's staff he worked his whole life around getting that seat- first getting out of the DC Staff and moving to Oregon- a place he only knew from a distance- setting up shop in Springfield- the blue collar belt in the district and running for Springfield's seat on the county commission waiting only for Weaver to retire which came about in part again by the staff engineered Weaver for US Sebate bid- akin to placing him on an ice berg and sending him to sea. DeFazio's big challenge then was to beat Bill Bradbury & Margie Hendricksen- no small task and the real battle field became South Eugene which seemed like Hendricksen country for sure since it was in her Senate seat. I'd supported Margie for years but they made a fundamental error of assuming her district was safe for them and fixating on Coos County where they thought they needed to undermine Bradbury. Instead DeFazio undermined her in South Eugene enough to put together a win. Bradbury's ploy of campaigning to Dead Heads in Eugene actually was fairly successful and he pealed off enough votes to hurt Margie on the green left. DeFazio had been scheming on the race since day one and had a network of Weaver supporters and staffers who saw him as Weaver without the Jim- I love the guy but maybe you know what I mean. Bradbury ran well on the coast and Margie didn't really dent Coos Co. that much as I recall but Bradbury made a play for conervatives by backing whatever little stinking war was in place at the time and he was hurt in Eugene despite his Springfield Creamery ambiance. South Eugene is a place where foreign policy really counts and that's been DeFazio's strength in Congress IMHO.

Now don't you see that I continue to make my case that Lane Co. is the tail that wags the dog of Oregon.

Like Jack Roberts- how does this guy keep going? Former Labor Commissioner- like that means something- honestly it's more like a disease- just ask Mary Wendy. But don't forget before he was former Labor Commissioner he was Lane County Commissioner.

Now I laugh everytime I read that Governor elect Kitzhaber is from Roseburg- that's a good one- you know where he is really from don't you- South Eugene of course. His mother Annabelle Kitzhaber was President of the League of Women voters which is probably who taught him his non-partisan mantras and developed his disdain for partisan politics. His father Albert was a distinguished Rhetoric and English Composition Professor at Dartmouth and the University of Oregon. It was fairly typical for the University wives in that era to be involved with good-government type interests where they could promote social good without ruffling feathers. Not that surprising then that John ended up a Dartmouth is it? Roseburg is just a hope down the highway and a lot closer to what he really loves fishing along the North Umpqua River.

Bradbury v. Kitzhaber v. DeFazio - if that happened it really would be all one big Lane Co. dejavu super match- and don't forget Bradbury's wife Katy Eymann's father was Speaker from Lane Co. who also was a Dartmouth alumni as well as former Dem. Gov. Bob Straub another Dartmouth alumni- Like Kitzhaber Straub also liked to paint himself as kind of a country bumpkin- what did Delores Atiyeh used to call the Straubs- Ma and Pa Kettle.

Enough said tonight- Peace Out from the High Desert-

It is perhaps regrettable, but the only useful purpose of the Republican party in 2009 is as a honey pot for the mentally challenged angry white losers in our society. When we get the death panels up and running, the Republican party membership lists will prove useful. The rendering facilities can turn Republicans into bio-diesel, and our government can give their confiscated trailers and shacks to poor black people as partial compensation for slavery. Once we outlaw southern accents, America will be back! All hail Marx and Obama!

Steve,

Perhaps I should note for you that it was conservatives that backed junta governments in South America which did just such a thing (tortured and eliminated political enemies).

John, there is an element here you have forgotten:

".....South Eugene which seemed like Hendricksen country for sure since it was in her Senate seatInstead DeFazio undermined her in South Eugene enough to put together a win."

There were women fans of Margie who were trying to force every woman in the district to vote for Margie. I knew women who very wisely said, "I've been voting for Peter for County Comm. and Margie for Legislature and long ago decided which one I believe more suited to serving in Congress."

I was in a carload of women driving from a dinner in Clackamas County to the site of the 1986 Democratic Platform Convention at a hotel in Washington County. I made the mistake of saying during a conversation that a friend of mine who lived in Eugene was one of the women who thought like that. The driver of the car yelled at me ANYONE WHO DOESN'T SUPPORT MARGIE HENDRICKSEN DOESN'T SUPPORT WOMEN!

Truth was, many who had observed Hendricksen for US Senate 1984 believed Margie had her chance and ran a lousy campaign.

And what kind of a radical were people like me who said only 4th Dist. voters could cast votes in that election and the rest of us north of that district should let those voters make up their own minds!

I was at a primary night party for a state rep. candidate and only one other person in the room that I knew of was rooting for Peter, as there were mostly women at the party. That other person and I were old friends. When Peter's victory was called by the TV station, that friend and I just grinned at each other.

This is why you may find women who believe in women's rights but are not feminists--extremists who thought women should always support other women candidates and not make their own individual decisions.

One other thing-----whatever his roots, Dr. John Kitzhaber represented a legislative district including Roseburg. Some of my friends were officers/ active members of Douglas Co. Democrats in the 1980s, and they regarded John Kitzhaber as one of their won.

<h2>I will be happy to choose between Bradbury and Kitzhaber. While I am happy to have Peter DeFazio as a Congressman in DC and he'd have had my vote for Senator I don't believe DC is a training ground for Governors.</h2>