You don’t say!
LaVonne Griffin-Valade, the former Portland city auditor and one of my favorite local politicians of all time, has been appointed the new Oregon secretary of state, replacing Shemia Fagan. LGV used to try to talk sense to the City Council back in the reign of the Sam Rand Twins, and at one point I was hoping that she'd run for mayor. Instead she left City Hall, got a degree in writing, and started penning mystery and thriller novels.
Now she's one heartbeat away from being governor, and charged with keeping an eye not only on elections but also on the many bureaucracies running around loosely in the state capital. I'm sure she'll do a difficult job with smarts, excellent judgment, and measured calm.
But it isn't going to be easy. Salem can be a toxic place where bad things happen to good people, including their turning into bad people themselves. Not a lot of good things come out of there. I hope LGV classes up the place and doesn't get dragged down into the muck while she's doing it. She survived Admiral Randy, but the scene down there is a whole 'nother level of ugly.
That said, it's a good day for the Beaver State. Most of Governor Kohoutek's appointments have been bland at best, but this is a good one.
being a long-time reader of the bojack 1.0 blog, i figured you would have something to say about this. and i agree on all points.
ReplyDeleteShe's wading into some shark-infested waters with the crypto donation scandal.
DeleteShe has competence and the confidence to do the job right!
DeleteIt’s a daring political move for the Governor to appoint someone so supremely competent to the post. We will know in a few months whether that’s an aberration or an intentional change in policy from the prior administration.
ReplyDeleteWasn’t Ted well respected when he was in Salem.
ReplyDeleteThe Weed has been getting AWFUL close to finding the truth about...something. Between Mean Girls 2.0, the suitcases of cash, and le scandale Pappy, there's lots to uncover and clean-up. Better to rip the band-aid off now than wait for the Weed to finish the job in a year or two. Else it could all be blowing up right in time for the election and we could unwittingly end up with Governor Hieb.
ReplyDeleteGood appointment, and props to Gov. Kotek for it.
ReplyDeleteBut it still highlights that Oregon needs a Lite Guv position, either separately elected (as in WA and many other states) or as a VP-style job elected on the same ticket as the Gov.
And then get the Elections Division under the control of the Secretary of State who is NOT first in line for the Gov. Chair if something happens to the current one. We’ve recently seen that SOS’s become Govs in unpredictable ways; I welcome someone like LGV as SOS but I do not want to see someone who has never run anything statewide be governor.
We should fix this when we add impeachment to the Constitution and call these two the only good things to fall out of L’affaire Fagan.
Correction: welcome someone like LGV as SOS but I do not want to see someone who has never run FOR anything statewide be governor
ReplyDeleteI think she just took the job to get a lot of great ideas for her crime and corruption novels...
ReplyDeleteit surely couldn’t be for the salary (~$75,000).
DeleteFYI LGV is not next in line for guv. B/c she’s appointed and not elected, Treasurer Dopey Tobi is next in line.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that. But that makes the issue even more pressing — our backup Gov is someone that 99% of Oregonians couldn’t pick out of a lineup if their lives depended on it. We need a Lt Gov and L’affaire Fagan is the perfect opportunity to get that done and fix the line of succession for the Gov chair.
DeleteI clearly recall her past Portland life. Her appointment is the only good that I have read of in Oregon politics for many years. Personally I am very glad to have left the squalor of the city of Portland, Multnomah County, and the state of Oregon.
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