The Wandering Eye

Politics 101: When your guy is ahead in a poll, trumpet the news. When your guy is behind in a poll, either (a) question the value of the poll or (b) say the other guy should be FURTHER ahead or (c) both.

Those Gordon Smith ads chiding Jeff Merkley because the Oregon Legislature spent millions on redecoration during his tenure as House speaker prompted a snarky editorial from The Oregonian yesterday.

Is it just our imagination, or is Bend looking weedier (and seedier) than usual this summer?

Ballot Measure 59, an initiative pushed by professional anti-tax crusader Bill Sizemore, would cost Oregon more than a billion dollars in revenue over two years and benefit only the most affluent 25% of the state's nearly two million taxpayers.

The state treasurer campaign of Democrat Ben Westlund, hit last week by a Republican revival of an old "sex scandal," has struck back with charges that one of rival Allen Alley's top campaign aides was involved in shady practices four years ago.

Democratic state senator and treasurer candidate Ben Westlund, under attack from Republicans over an 11-year-old "sex scandal," got help from an unlikely quarter: the conservative blog Oregon Catalyst.

File under "Yeah, THIS Is Gonna Fly": Oregon Senate Republicans want to sell Oregon water to "water-poor" out-of-state customers.

The blogosphere - or the Republican neighborhoods in it, anyway - is abuzz with news of a "sex scandal" involving Democratic state senator and state treasurer candidate Ben Westlund and a former State Capitol aide.

With the economy tanking, gasoline prices soaring, the war in Iraq dragging on and the war in Afghanistan heating up, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has trained his sights on … dangerous cigarette lighters.

Remember John Hummel, the local lawyer and Bend city councilor who abruptly resigned and launched a major career change? He's alive and well and blogging in Liberia.