Well, he won't be the last. This is a demographically interesting district to represent and Demos will work to find a better candidate because with Rick leaving 26 makes the short list for GOP takeovers.

Yes, it will. This is interesting:

"I'm also aware of a political reality," he says. "This is going to be a challenging and vigorous race, and I'm going to be best positioned to win it."

Read: "The Dems don't have a better candidate, I'm the only one out here. Ya boo."

Without the Obama factor, and given the slimfast nature of the margins, I'd say the GOP has a good chance of winning this one.

And I am still waiting to hear from a Bus Project volunteer who is excited about knocking doors for Barton based on his environmental record.

I wonder why he voted against the Metolius protection bill. That would have been some nice information to include in your article. Otherwise, interesting political reporting. Say what you want Matt, he covers lots of stuff.

Barton said he didn't vote for the Metolius protection bill because he didn't like the way it was written.

I said, "show me a well written bill in Oregon, and I'll give you a million bucks," adding that I'd be prepared to overlook a few concerns about land use planning precedents and so-called "due process," if the end result meant protecting one of the state's outstanding areas of natural beauty.

Barton said "you should see some of my bills."

But we agreed to disagree on whether voting for something based on outcome or the intricacies of its language is the right approach.

Very weak answer. But if he's marginally competent with good values, I guess you could a lot worse. Thanks for responding, Matt. Keep up the good(?) work.

Hmm...very interesting, Matt. Thanks for covering this story. Say, with Arthur Sulzburger no longer reporting on Multnomah County, will you be doing some reporting work covering the new Charter Review Committee at Multnomah County?

I guess it reminds me of the Democrats opposing health reform because they're not sure about the nuts and bolts. You can come up with a process concern about any old thing. The question is, are your process concerns more important than the broad thrust of the reform?

If they're not, and in the case of some of the democrats asking bullshit questions about the public option, this is definitely the case, then are you just asking the question to fuck up the reform?

Call me a stickler for good old fashioned integrity, but I'd prefer a straight shooting republican any day than a Democrat who smiles to your face while fucking the progressive cause.

Speaking in (mostly) abstract terms, I mean.

@ Around

"But if he's marginally competent with good values, I guess you could a lot worse."

"Barton got a bad rap in some quarters following his vote with Republicans against a bill to protect the Metolius River from development, earlier this year. Barton's law firm, Perkins Coie, happened to represent the developers, Dutch Pacific, who were planning to build a resort there. Barton filed a "potential conflict of interest" on the measure before voting, but still, voted against it anyway."

Maybe competent with marginal values is more like it?

RT,

That would cause me more concerns, I guess. It starts with wanting to do the right thing. The Metolius is a treasure. Its great that against all odds the state managed to protect it. A democrat who wasn't willing to pull his weight on protecting our state's greatest asset, its natural beauty, is probably not my kind of democrat.

And remember, this only got protected, in the end, by ONE VOTE.

(Little behind on this as it's dropping to the bottom of the page but..) I'd be curious to find out who and what else his law firm is representing, as this will obviously effect his voting record in the future. It will also effect my voting record. I just hope another viable candidate steps up. This Metolius issue is a deal breaker for me no matter how poorly the bill was written.