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The Oregon Sweep

MattusMaximus said:
Wow... that's a surprise. No sarcasm intended, I'm genuinely surprised.
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Yeah, I really thought Dudley had it in the bag. Actually, I think he did, until he made an unforced error where he opined that the minimum wage for waitresses should be scrapped, but that corporations needed tax cuts.

It's hard to argue that waitresses make too much and CEOs make too little and win during a recession. At least in the awesome state of Oregon.
 
eeyore1954 said:
Because they don't care that they are 45th in unemployment rate.
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Alternatively, they could realize the economic issues are complex and rooted many years ago and therefore solutions are complex and won't be quickly realized. Perhaps they were smart enough to not buy into sloganeering and refuse to accept blaming one party over another.
 
eeyore1954 said:
Because they don't care that they are 45th in unemployment rate.
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Or, the unemployment rate has nothing to do with party politics and is related to other factors:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/assets/pdf/J0131639327.PDF

On the flip side, Portland is beautiful, easy going, filled with bike lanes (and people using them), has a better than average public transportation system, a library that's open 7 days a week, a downtown that's walkable and fun to visit, great food, and more public green space than just about any other city or state.

And microbrews.

And no sales tax.

Perhaps, and this is just a guess, people who live here recognize this and don't want Republicans screwing it up.
 
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cwalner said:
wouldn't that be a good thing. being 45th in unemployment would mean they are 6th in employment, right. ;)
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According to how the BLS does the calculations the rank 1 position goes to the lowest unemployment rate.

As a judgement of the last 20 years or so this was a weak turnout for the Democratic Party in Oregon.

Over the past year Construction, Manufacturing, Education and local government jobs are all still being hounded pretty badly. Leisure/Hospitality, professional services, state government and wholesale represent our big gains. We have been stuck in an L shaped recovery as far as job growth goes this past year. Construction is pretty much a dead route unless other sectors start seeing heavy growth. I'm hoping the state government jobs hold firm long enough for the growing sectors to start encouraging the failing sectors. The Leisure/Hospitality growth while looking as if it is recovering is mostly underemployment. We need manufacturing, financials and health services to bounce back to turn around the construction sector. Or some major infrastructure investment.
 
The Fallen Serpent said:
According to how the BLS does the calculations the rank 1 position goes to the lowest unemployment rate.

As a judgement of the last 20 years or so this was a weak turnout for the Democratic Party in Oregon.

Over the past year Construction, Manufacturing, Education and local government jobs are all still being hounded pretty badly. Leisure/Hospitality, professional services, state government and wholesale represent our big gains. We have been stuck in an L shaped recovery as far as job growth goes this past year. Construction is pretty much a dead route unless other sectors start seeing heavy growth. I'm hoping the state government jobs hold firm long enough for the growing sectors to start encouraging the failing sectors. The Leisure/Hospitality growth while looking as if it is recovering is mostly underemployment. We need manufacturing, financials and health services to bounce back to turn around the construction sector. Or some major infrastructure investment.
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The I-5 bridge project is a hot potato right now, but I support it. I think it'll bring lots of jobs, lots of people into Portland, and will continue the expansion of the Max line.

Also, Intel is about to open a new plant and it's supposed to bring in 6,000 jobs.
 
Unabogie said:
The I-5 bridge project is a hot potato right now, but I support it. I think it'll bring lots of jobs, lots of people into Portland, and will continue the expansion of the Max line.
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It is. From what I have gathered informally non-politicians on both sides of the political divide agree with massive infrastructure investment. However, the same holds true with not wanting to pay for it. It is very frustrating in my opinion. My dream is to wake up one day to hear that the proposed I5 corridor superrail is greenlit.

Also, Intel is about to open a new plant and it's supposed to bring in 6,000 jobs.
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Which is great news. Their lay offs a few months back when Fab20 shut down hurt, but in the long term it was an unfortunate necessity to get the rebuild going. As someone who works in the industry, my experience would place the brunt of the permanment employment increase taking place in about two years. There will be a nice construction spike pretty soon regardless and of course the investments in other local fabs will see sooner job hirings. The much smaller company I work for will see some upgrades this winter, but we are talking a dozen new hires, not thousands.

As for the mention of microbrews... :alc: I try to do my part in that industry's growth. I should really get around to picking up a SNOB membership.
 
DavidJames said:
Alternatively, they could realize the economic issues are complex and rooted many years ago and therefore solutions are complex and won't be quickly realized. Perhaps they were smart enough to not buy into sloganeering and refuse to accept blaming one party over another.
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I agree there are many issues and my comment was more meant as a joke than a serious reason.
 
I think it is a combination of some very safe seats and poor challenger candidates.

Earl Blumenauer represents Portland, and the Republican Greg Walden represents eastern Oregon. Those are safe seats where the incumbents really do match their constituencies.

The same is generally true of Peter DeFazio of Eugene, but also his opponent could be considered Michelle Bachman's soul mate.

David Wu's opponent might have given him a challenge, but he was exposed as making a living doing a telemarketing scam a few weeks ago.

Kurt Schrader has a mixed district, was on his first term, and had a relatively close election.

The governor's election was extremely close, and followed the urban/rural cultural divide closely. I'm glad Kitzhaber won. The difference in competence could not have been more stark.
 
I agree. I was surprised at the Republican offerings for the national and gubernatorial offices.

The state legislature netted a more even result. An evenly split House and a closely split Senate as we await the last two senate races that could tip it into a not so closely split senate.
 
I've enjoyed living so much better than when I was in "red" states. I love Oregon!

This election, I'm most excited that Art Robinson did not get voted in. That guy is a whacko.
 
thaiboxerken said:
I've enjoyed living so much better than when I was in "red" states. I love Oregon!

This election, I'm most excited that Art Robinson did not get voted in. That guy is a whacko.
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While I breathe a sigh of relief, I'm somewhat less than thrilled that he still managed to get some 40+% of the voting population. Ugh.
 
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