AG: Governor to appoint Ellen Rosenblum
Kari Chisholm
Governor John Kitzhaber announced earlier today that he would appoint Ellen Rosenblum to serve out the remainder of John Kroger's term - roughly six months. Kroger, of course, is due to resign on June 29 to become the new president of Reed College.
There's more from AP's JJ Cooper and the O's Jeff Mapes.
In related news, the Republicans now have an AG candidate - an attorney named James Buchal. He got nearly 13,000 votes via the hilarious write-in campaign that GOP officials organized after failing to field a candidate by the filing deadline.
Buchal's legal resume is here, but it sounds like he's basically a nutball. His website makes some audacious claims:
The basic idea of the campaign is that we need an Attorney General who wants to throw crooks in jail, and not just hold hands and sing Kumbaya with Leftist interest groups. We all know that the crooks are basically running things now.
He's also the author of an anti-environmental screed called "The Great Salmon Hoax".
So, yes, you should support Ellen Rosenblum. Visit EllenRosenblum.com to learn more.
And, incidentally, the Republicans also nominated Tom Cox for treasurer via write-in. He's the fellow who ran for Governor as a Libertarian a decade ago. You can support state treasurer Ted Wheeler here.
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9:19 a.m.
Jun 7, '12
I would take the lack of any comments as a confirmation that her appointment was a no-brainer.
1:41 p.m.
Jun 7, '12
James Buchal may not be the Republican candidate in November. He can resign the nomination, and the Republican Party can then appoint (using internal party rules) a replacement candidate to fill the vacancy any time prior to August 28.
Also, I do not see what is hilarious about the write-in campaigns mounted by Buchal and Cox. Absent those, the Democratic candidates may have won the Republican nominations for Attorney General and Treasurer, as John Kroger did for the AG nomination in 2008. If the opposing major party candidate wins the other major party's nomination by write-in, he can prevent the other major party from having anyone on the November ballot for that position. For example, Kroger in 2008 accepted the Republican nomination. Thus, there was no "vacancy" in the position for the Republican Party to fill. Kroger then declined to list the Republican Party as one of his nominating parties on the ballot, so there was no Republican on the ballot for AG.
This year, the Republican Party avoided that problem by putting a little effort into promoting the write-in candidacies of Buchal and Cox, thus ensuring that the R ballot line in November will not be blank and that the party can, if it wishes (and with the cooperation of Buchal and Cox), choose entirely different candidates for those offices on or before August 28.
Rather than "hilarious," I would say that the write-in effort was rather intelligent.
1:55 p.m.
Jun 9, '12
You make some excellent points that I had not considered. Will be interesting to see if that's what Buchal and Cox have in mind.