My Page: Dan Richardson

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Election 2006

UPDATED, 11-7

These results are initial, people, but it looks like Ted has pulled out the win. The Oregon Secretary of State’s office has voters supporting incumbent Ted Kulongoski (D) for governor over Ron Saxton (R), by 54 to 40 percent.

This is as of 8:45 p.m., Tuesday, with 291,583 votes cast.

Oregon’s election results won’t be official for some days — but, check out how the commentators and informed observers predicted the results (they guessed Kulongoski would beat Saxton handily). That’s right, it’s the 2006 Oregon Punditology Challenge!

Oh, you want election results? They’ll be available beginning at 8:05 p.m., here.

Other early results show a sweep [more]

Heavy Weather

Heavy autumn rains are swelling rivers and closing roads around Oregon this election evening. And it’s not just the coast and the Willamette Valley getting hammered — highway officials have closed Oregon Highway 35 south of Hood River at White River due to boulders and debris on the the road. (This is as of Tuesday evening.) The Hood River itself Tuesday rose as high as the railroad bridge. (Photos courtesy of Dave Waag, of Hood River. Thanks, Dave!)

For more, and larger, photos, click to the jump. [more]

Northwest Land

There are several interesting little property rights stories floating around just ahead of the big vote in the West this week on various Measure 37 spinoffs.

• First... across Ol’ Windy in Skamania County, property developers are threatening to sue the county if it enacts a zoning plan around Swift Reservoir. Their beef? They say that putting in protections after they’ve bought spec land with hopes of building hundreds of houses would be — you guessed it — illegal taking. The threat comes just ahead of Washington’s vote on a statewide takings initiative, I-933.

• Second... [more]

The Property Rights Revolt

We Oregonians, hoping to fend off intrusive government, passed Measure 37 two years ago by a muscular majority — but we wouldn’t if the election were re-voted today.

That’s the upshot of a recent poll of 405 Oregon voters.

Voters would oppose Measure 37 today by 2-to-1, according to the poll by the lefty statistics-mongers at Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner. The turnaround in public perception is stunning; or, it would be if you haven’t been reading about the spawn of Measure 37. See, it’s hard to miss the point when you hear things like one Oregon farmer saying of a neighbor’s mega-development, “This is not what I voted for.”

The poll, showing what the pollsters called “buyer’s remorse,” comes out this week just days before voters around the West will cast ballots on similar property rights initiatives... [more]

The Future of the Gorge

There’s a court case quietly underway that may affect everyone who lives in or has a stake in the Columbia Gorge.

At issue: The future of the preserving — often irritating, sometimes stifling — land-use rules that have kept ambitious land owners from turning the Oregon side of the river into a vast entertainment and housing development.

The case on the docket of the Oregon Court of Appeals is titled the Columbia River Gorge Commission vs. Hood River County, and it’s scheduled for oral arguments on Dec. 7.

We might more accurately call the case Oregonians In Action vs. the Gorge Commission, for those are the real actors here.

In the court case, two Hood River-area property owners say that Oregon’s Measure 37 supercedes the National Scenic Area rules developed by the Gorge Commision. The men, Stephen Struck and Paul Mansur, want to build a few houses on their land; under current rules designed to protect the Gorge from sprawl, they don’t meet minimum lot sizes.

Land-use rules have unarguably preserved the Gorge from hyper-development. They do so by frustrating many property owners’ wishes, though. Land rules are at the heart not just of this case but of Oregon’s future in many aspects... [more]

Oregon's Next Governor

As a fellow with a history in newspapers, including a little time writing editorials, I always read a paper’s opinion pages, letters and all. Those pages, especially the letters, are the pulse of a community, so they are always interesting — but rarely surprising.

Enter the Sunday Oregonian, with its endorsement for the Oregon governor’s race. The O picked Republican lawyer Ron Saxton, writing that “Change begins at the top.”

The O’s endorsement was one of three that Saxton has garnered recently from the state’s main newspapers, running just ahead of two for Gov. Ted Kulongoski.

Oregon has all sorts of issues — like, off the top of my head, a growing population with a shrinking state police force, a wobbly tax system, a struggling public education infrastructure and legislators so ethically challenged they make Tony Soprano look like a stand-up guy. ... [more]

Google In The Gorge

There’s been plenty of ink spilled about the almighty Google and its new, semi-secret plant in The Dalles. (Read previous thoughts here and here.) But Wired magazine’s article by George Gilder this issue lays out the technology, the competition between search engines and the future of the Internet — what Gilder calls the “new global ganglia of computers and cables” — as clearly as I’ve seen anywhere.

Gilder’s answer to The Question — why in the world did Google locate their server farm in The Dalles? — is the most thoughtful and cogent yet. The answer remains pretty close to what we’ve thought already: Cheap power and high-speed fiber. But the ramifications, and the specs, are interesting.

Consider, for example, that some analysts predict that the insatiable need for air conditioning and other power needs of the massive server farms and the rest of the Internet’s physical infrastructure could eventually consume half of the world’s electrical output... [more]

Gorge Geology

There’s a surging interest in the Ice Age floods (aka Missoula Floods) that rolled down the Columbia River channel thousands of years ago, carving out much of our modern gorge. All sorts of things are washing up in the new tide of interest, including Congressional action and a new Columbia Gorge interest group.

The Ice Age Floods Institute is a group of Missoula Floods devotees with a number of local chapters. The newest chapter is in the Columbia Gorge, with about two dozen people thus far, according to organizer Terry Hurd. (Email: iceagefloods@yahoo.com.)

The group will meet at different sites around the Gorge; its next meeting will be in Stevenson a week from Thursday, on Oct. 19, at the Interpretive Center, starting at 7 p.m. ... [more]

Ad usum proprium

The Dalles Chronicle has reported that the usual activists, the property rights rebels against the crushing might of the Columbia Gorge National Scenic Area, have transmogrified. That’s right, Gorge Landowners United is no more. Now, the activists rally under the banner of Gorge Land Use Equity.

GLUE. As in, sticks like. As in, they’re all over the property rights front, struggling to right the wrongs foisted on hapless property owners by the over-weaning Gorge Commission, and they’re not going anywhere, thank you very much.

Heroes, really. That’s how I think of them. Each has a story to tell about standing up to The Man. (Or, really, since the Gorge Commission’s most recent and past executive director have been women, and since the patron saint of the pro-planning Friends of the Columbia Gorge is also female, The Woman.) And now, they’re telling them loud and clear.

(Okay, actually, they formed GLUE back in July and didn’t really tell anyone in, like, the media.)

But they have a common voice. From GLUE’s Internet manifesto:

“Regulatory power has exceeded its authority and has established land use prohibitions and restrictions that have deprived affected Gorge landholders of the reasonable use of their property without compensation and adversely affected all Gorge residents by inhibiting reasonable economic development necessary to their future.”... [more]

A Political Rant

If only my Congressman, Greg Walden (R-Hood River), made as strong a stand for the Constitution as he has for trees and mountains. If only he’d fight for 800-year-old limited government ideals as he will for Mount Hood.

Despite his consistent Republican Party voting record — or, if you prefer, his rubber-stamping — Walden’s bipartisan push to protect a modest 77,500 acres of Mount Hood wilderness with the Legacy Act (along with Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Portland)) has run into hurdles from the Bush Administration. Loyalty with Bush and friends apparently runs along a one-way street.

Walden, though being stymied on a signature piece of conservation, continues to toe the party line — even voting in support of historically bad legislation. Twice in recent weeks, he’s sold out Oregonians in favor of GOP bills with unmissably gross flaws.

First, he cast his vote for torture... [more]

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