Over the next couple days, I'm going to post on the most exciting legislative races of this cycle, so you'll be able to attach faces to the names that we hope will be checked off on the screen a week from now.
For the long-term health of the progressive movement, it's hard to think of anybody whom I'd rather see win his Senate race than Oregon's Jeff Merkley. Let's get the issue positions out of the way first -- they're awesome but not the most awesome thing. He opposed the Iraq War from the start, is committed to Ron Wyden's universal health care proposal, supports fair trade, and wants to invest in public transit infrastructure. He isn't afraid to trumpet his support for full-fledged gay marriage on his website. He complained so bitterly when Oregon GOP House Speaker Karen Minnis broke the rules to defeat a civil unions bill that she threatened to have him removed by state troopers. Longtime readers will remember the phone interview I did with him a while ago, where he came out in favor of filibustering anti-Roe Supreme Court justices, recognized the insanity of bombing Iran, and thoroughly explained the justification for third world debt relief.
What's really spectacular is his potential as a leader in the Senate, some decades from now. Let's start with the way that he led Oregon Democrats to take back the State House in 2006. He tied down Karen Minnis by running and funding a powerful challenger. With the speaker forced to defend her own seat and spend money on herself, Democrats picked up four other seats and gained a 31-29 majority, elevating Jeff to the Speakership.
The best part is what he did as speaker. Despite having such a slender majority, the Democrats managed to pass every item on the 'Road Map for Oregon's Future' that they had campaigned on. You can see a huge list of new Oregon laws that took effect January 1 2008. I'll list my favorites:
HB 2007: Legalizes and establishes procedures for domestic partnership agreements among same sex couples. [This is the bill that Jeff had fought Karen Minnis on two years before.]HB 2635: Provides for protected family medical leave for grandparents to take care of their sick grandchildren.
SB 10: Enacts sweeping government ethics: Restricts the dollar amount of gifts officials can receive to $50; Provides stable funding for the Ethics Commission; Increases penalties for ethics violations; Places restrictions on the ability of legislators to become lobbyists and lobby their former colleagues; Improves access and ability to understand statements of economic interest filed by public officials.
HB 2700: Requires insurance companies to include coverage for contraceptives if they provide benefits for other drugs.
SB 2: Prohibits discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation.
There are also some that dealt with problems I hadn't thought of, but that seemed pretty smart:
HB 3026: Updates meth legislation to attack problem of meth users stealing metal materials, selling the materials for scrap and using proceeds to buy meth.HB 2096: Allows people living in manufactured home parks to join together to create non-profit co-op to buy land if park owner is selling for development purposes.
HB 2163: Helps to prevent house fires caused by abandoned burning cigarettes by prohibiting the distribution or sell of a cigarette within this state unless the cigarette is of a variety the State Fire Marshal has determined to be firesafe.
HB 2513: Prohibits person from selling gift cards that expires or have a face value that declines over time or with lack of use.
Okay. So, the guy who got all that stuff through off a 31-29 majority is the guy I want as a future Senate leader. If you want to throw some last-minute cash at a Democrat, you can donate to Jeff here and watch the video of Obama endorsing him. Or if you know somebody who lives in Oregon, let them know how awesome Jeff Merkley is! (And if you live in Oregon and somebody emailed you a link to this page and you want to help out, you can see where Merkley's offices are here.)
