As documented in THIS STORY, the decision has been made by the combined Linn and Benton County Commissioners, Betsy Close is the new Senator from District 8 in Oregon!
She is a solid Conservative and great part of the Republican Party and frankly I was very surprised that the commissioners chose her. Now she has a tough decision to make: $22,000 a year to be a State Senator or take a chance and win the Benton County Commissioners race and the $70,000 that job pays....(I'd take the Senate seat but her husband my think differently).
So, now I believe we not only have a great new senator in the legislature but a strong candidate in 2014.
4 comments:
Betsy is an ideal choice. Her conservative credentials are top notch. Part of me, however, wonders if she can be reelected in that senate district. Part of me wonders if the commissioners did not intentionally choose someone too conservative to win reelection. Betsy will have to consider that possibility when deciding whether to accept the appointment.
I don't know that district well, but it has been said before that only a moderate like Morse could win there as a Republican.
If Betsy accepts the appointment, the district will have a very good senator - at least for a while.
The reason I am suspicious of the motivation for her appointment is the pattern I have seen in the past. Remember when a certain liberal Democrat governor appointed several key Republican legislators to high paying state jobs, removing them from their legislative seats. Democrats used that strategy to take over the state senate, effectively removing Republican incumbents and creating open seats. That may not be what's going on here, but then it might. Or maybe they really want that commissioner seat Betsy is running for...
Betsy is an ideal choice. Her conservative credentials are top notch. Part of me, however, wonders if she can be reelected in that senate district. Part of me wonders if the commissioners did not intentionally choose someone too conservative to win reelection. Betsy will have to consider that possibility when deciding whether to accept the appointment.
I don't know that district well, but it has been said before that only a moderate like Morse could win there as a Republican.
If Betsy accepts the appointment, the district will have a very good senator - at least for a while.
The reason I am suspicious of the motivation for her appointment is the pattern I have seen in the past. Remember when a certain liberal Democrat governor appointed several key Republican legislators to high paying state jobs, removing them from their legislative seats. Democrats used that strategy to take over the state senate, effectively removing Republican incumbents and creating open seats. That may not be what's going on here, but then it might. Or maybe they really want that commissioner seat Betsy is running for...
I wrote a lengthy and I think astute comment about this post and the likely motivation behind appointing such a strong conservative like Betsy to a moderate seat. I was told that I would log in using my google identity after completing my comment. Instead it took me to a new page and deleted my comment, which it took some time to write. What's with that? In short, if I were Betsy and had a decent shot at the commissioners seat, I would think long and hard about accepting this appointment. It might be really hard to get reelected in that district. Morse was not conservative and Betsy is. Can a conservative win there? I suspect that she would be the number one target in the state two years from now...
Hi Bill.
Comments on this page are moderated (basically because I had some VERY nasty "bots" and other crud coming on). What happens is, you write, I get an email showing me what it is and unless it's one of those "bots" or other spams, I hit PUBLISH and it's up immediately!
thank you for your comments!
bill post
Post a Comment