Fine. Let's hear her ideas--specifics, not generalities.

What does she think of Chris Beck's idea "Call a special session this fall..."?

Does she believe in transparency? Is it OK for a group like OBA to think they could lobby legislators privately and then scream they weren't listened to when legislators think for themselves? Should such decisions as major tax changes be debated publicly in committee or just discussed publicly and then voted on without open public process?

As a friend of mine said in a previous election about choice for Gov., "show me a candidate with a vision for the future and a plan to carry it out".

Where would she want to go as Gov. and how would she want to get there--specific steps.

I have known some very intelligent people from Clackamas County over the years. However, DeFazio represents the 4th Dist. in Congress, Bradbury once represented a legislative district on the S. coastal area of Oregon, Kitzhaber represented a legislative centered in Douglas County. Does Peterson understand the diversity of people living in those areas, or in Jackson County, or over E. of the Cascades?

Is she at all aware of the reports of the Public Comm. on the Legislature and the Revenue Restructuring Task Force? Could she talk about them intelligently incl. any ideas from either and her opinion (from inspired to stupid).

And can we please have an intelligent discussion of education for once which is broader than just funding and the role of the OEA? Do K-8 schools and districts with elementary and middle schools each play a role, or is one better than the other? Why? What about the role of preschool/early education?

Finally, does she plan a grass roots network as part of the campaign, or to basically run ads and spend money without engaging people across the state?

Answers to questions like these are how I will decide if this is a serious campaign.

The grapevine is chattering about Liz Kaufman being close to this campaign.

If true, this primary is getting even more exciting!

Thanks Carla. I noticed this too. One other thing I've noticed is that whoever updates the Lynn Peterson Facebook page uses the third person in all the new updates that have shown up there since Mapes' post about her two weeks ago. Is it a fan? A Clackamas County staffer? A friend or family member? (It could even be the Commissioner herself- unlike the other announced Democratic candidates, Commissioner Peterson is probably young enough to understand "what a Facebook is.")

However you slice it, it seems kind of amateur. Not Jason Atkinson "I'm running but I won't announce right now," but still amateur.

[UPDATE- It looks like whoever runs the page has taken down the "Running for Governor" part]

OK Nick, what you are saying is that all we should do is speculate on whether she would run, do critique on her Facebook page, but never suggest on what conditions this might be a candidate one could support until there is an actual announcement?

Understood. I will not pay any attention to Lynn Peterson until we know whether she is running. I have better things to do then just speculate whether someone will run.

I'm pretty lukewarm on this race as well. I hope Defazio or Novick or somebody else jumps in. I'm not too familiar yet with Peterson, but the more options the better at this point.

FWIW, I'm one of (I believe) quite a handful of people who have been facebook-friended by Lynn Peterson even before I had much of an idea who she was. Using facebook as a way to measure the strength of a political movement is almost always a pretty worthless gauge, but to be fair, the more I hear about her the more I'm intrigued.

Back on September 10th, Jeff Mapes at the O

it will be interesting to see if she gets in the race she would be a breath of fresah air I got to meet her at the Labor Day picnic I'll give her a look.

It's a shame Lynn Peterson won't win the primary, barring some highly unexpected events.

It's time we sent the tired old retreads packing.

Appears to be the final word.

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