As a lot of you know, the Speaker of the Oregon State House, Karen Minnis, is up for re-election. Her opponent,
Rob Brading, is a progressive candidate with a strong record of community leadership (including being a President of the Greater Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce). Brading is so cool, in fact, that
Kos and Jerome personally stepped up to the plate to help him. Last time these two faced each other, Brading lost after Minnis dumped just a ton of money into personal attacks on Brading.
Now they're going at it again, and there's indications that Minnis isn't getting the same bang for her buck anymore. Read on....
As you know, I've been doing volunteer work for the Rob Brading campaign. Technically, as a Precinct Committee Person I'm supposed to remain focused on my precinct, but let's be frank:
Diane Rosebaum, who is a good person and who has been a good state representative, has a mortal lock on re-election. The best way for me to help her to do her job is to help Democrats win in other Oregon House districts.
Rob Brading has so far run on a modest budget and a lot of footwork. His opponent, Oregon House Speaker Karen Minnis, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of lobbyist money and aired TV ads.
What do they have to show for it so far? Let's check the results:
Democratic Primaries
State Representative, 49th District
Vote For 1
Rob Brading. . . . . . . . . . 2,417 98.05
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 48 1.95
Republican Primaries
State Representative, 49th District
Vote For 1
Karen Minnis . . . . . . . . . 2,307 96.33
WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 88 3.67
There's still a loooooooong way to go, and it's going to take a lot of work, but we can win this. And winning this could make the difference between continued corruption and malfeasance and genuine progressive leadership.
Wanna help?
(On a strictly personal note: after working out the finances and talking it over with my fiance, I will be at YearlyKos. See you there!)