Forward Oregon

I’m so excited! And so should you be because next Friday, April 11th at 4:30 p.m., U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley will be at the Lucky Lab located at 1945 NW Quimby in Portland discussing the environment and having a beer. This is an excellent way to celebrate Earth Month — with someone who has fought tirelessly for the environment in the Oregon Legislature, enacting many substantial and progressive environmental laws. A few remarkable examples include: increasing the fees that big air polluters face (to help discourage polluting in the first place), creating new recycling programs for water bottles, computers and televisions, protecting our beach estuaries, insisting that by 2025 25% of Oregon’s energy be renewable, and demanding that our greenhouse gas emissions decrease significantly; to be 75% lower than the 1990 emission rate by 2050. If you think that list is impressive, you should come meet Merkley!

Here is the clever video invite for the Green Collar Happy Hour:

I’m definitely attending, I hope to see you there!

Steve Novick got his biggest endorsement thus far in the election, anti-tax activist, signature and ballot measure guru, racketeer Bill Sizemore.   In his ringing endorsement published in Willamette Week, Sizemore made sure to highlight Novick’s negativity that has permeated the Democratic campaign:

If I was a Democrat, [Novick]’s probably who I’d vote for….

Steve is acerbic. He can be very nasty….

Attacking is almost a reflex with him…

Clearly, it takes one to know one.  Sizemore’s endorsement really has little potential to bring Democratic voters into Novick’s camp, but it does show an interesting comparison.  Becky Miller, the former Sizemore employee whose decision to turn state’s evidence led to Sizemor’s conviction, examined the many similarities between Novick and Sizemore, the two ballot meausure political consultants turned candidates over at Preemptive Karma, which is a must read.