The turbulence that's snared Governor John Kitzhaber's historic re-election bid over the past few weeks refused to ease itself away—not after it came out last week that Kitzhaber's main challenger, State Representative Dennis Richardson, had written federal officials demanding a criminal corruption probe over accusations of ethical lapses involving Kitzhaber's fiancée, first lady Cylvia Hayes.

But the fallout from those accusations, first reported by Willamette Week, has been the subject of some debate—and some conflicting polling. Will that fallout doom Kitzhaber—as suggested in a KATU poll that didn't actually ask likely voters what they thought? Or might it merely mar what had been looking like an easy trip into a record fourth term?

That's one potential conclusion from a new New York Times poll—which showed the governor still six points ahead of Richardson, even though it went out well after the first revelations and accusations about Hayes' conduct were made public.

(But even that's not terribly clearcut: The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes made sure to note that the NYT was out in the field for seven days, which is a long enough time for the steady drip of headlines to have changed the minds of some respondents contacted early in the poll and said they were still backing the governor.)

In any case, nothing that's emerged yet has changed our minds at the Mercury about endorsing Kitzhaber's re-election—mostly because as troubling as the quagmire around the governor has become, Richardson (with his reactionary social views) still remains an implausible and potentially dangerous choice to lead our state.

Here's some of what we wrote in our endorsement of Kitzhaber, one of several election picks in this week's Mercury. (Seriously, mark your ballots before it's too late.)

What details do emerge from Richardson—a six-term lawmaker from Southern Oregon—are troubling.

If anything, Richardson would have been an even more passionate crusader for the Columbia River Crossing and even more unwilling to consider some of the open questions—traffic, debt, smog—that the boondoggle of a bridge would have posed. Richardson's preferred form of rail, it seems, involves trains laden with coal sending their sooty cargo over to Asian countries, who'd burn the stuff and send the particulate back over our own heads. Kitzhaber, thankfully, has been staunchly anti-coal. (Kitzhaber's also more nuanced about alternative energy and timber management, two keys to Oregon's future.)

And no matter what Richardson might say about his out-of-step stances on marriage equality and abortion (he'd prefer not to have either), claiming they wouldn't matter in the governor's mansion—don't believe him. Social issues always matter. Kitzhaber, one can easily imagine, might sign laws toughening Oregon's "safe schools" rules for LGBTQ students. Kitzhaber has already been a leader and a moral example. It's impossible to imagine Richardson being either.

It's also impossible to imagine an Oregon run by Richardson, with help from legislative Republicans, that continues embracing progressive ideals like statewide mandatory sick leave and a meaningful increase in the minimum wage.

You might not like the choice you've been given, but put that all aside. Because it doesn't make that disappointing choice any less clear.

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