Laugh about it, shout about it

We Oregonians had all better start paying attention to the primary election that's right around the corner. Pretty soon the ballots will be in our mailboxes, along with the election porn.

In the race to replace Earl the Pearl Blumenauer in Congress, thus reducing the heavy, skunky smell of cannabis in the House break room, I'm still going with Maxine "Sinister" Dexter. I was disappointed in her marsupial response to the Weed's loaded question about the governor's wife. But honestly, given the trashing that Doctor Dex's main opponent, Sushi Jayapal, has laid upon Multnomah County in her time on the county commission, I'm all in for Dexter.

And so who will replace Dexter in the Legislature? The O gives us a look at three candidates today, here. It's a pretty lame look. They all gave written answers to a questionnaire, and sent in cute campaign photos that the cheapos at the O shamelessly ran. But at least it's something.

I don't have an actual vote in that race, and all three of the contestants make me mildly nauseous, but the one who seems to have at least the possibility of some common sense is Grabiel, the enviro lawyer. He said a couple of things that were closer to coherent than most of the noises emitted by the other two.

He said he would also support the creation of large shelters to reduce unregulated camping in Portland.... “Schools that are not meeting educational standards should be subject to additional guardrails and given additional resources to meet the state’s and citizens’ expectations,” Grabiel said.

Meanwhile –

Isadore said she would ensure that the state’s housing and development-focused agencies have sufficient money and resources to help cities promote development and ensure that cities use their state dollars effectively.... Duty said he would prioritize making sure housing development dollars lead to new housing quickly. “If we do not see a substantial increase in affordable units,” he said, “we should revisit subsidies and incentives to further reduce the cost of development.”

I dunno, they all look pretty bad. But Peter Grabiel looks the least bad, and so he'd be my pick, barring any other revelations.