Every State. Every race. Right here.

This is number ten in a planned series of 50 entries between now and November, looking at each of the 50 states in terms of every race on that state's ticket--Presidential, Gubernatorial, Senate, House, State legislatures--the whole old growth forest.  Special attention paid to identifying and promoting the most important contests per state.

And, hey, look at me! I’m a fifth of the way there already, on my tenth state! To celebrate (and now that we’ve finally picked a nominee for our top tier Senate race), I’m going to look at my home state of OREGON today!

Hi, I'm torridjoe from Loaded Orygun, Oregon's Progressive Community. We cover a lot of things, but lately we've been pretty darn focused on putting a dream candidate into the Senate to replace Gordon Smith:

STEVE NOVICK.

Steve has been a revelation to many Oregon voters: you CAN tell the truth, politics CAN be fun, and we DO NOT have to settle for more safe, middle of the road Democratic politicians. He's running ahead of his Dem competitors in all the polls taken so far, introduced himself with an ad many are still calling the best of the cycle nationwide...and of course, his policy positions are whip-smart, rock solid, (multimedia!) and pretty damn voluminous.

But of course, like every politician in these "money talks" times, Steve is coming to the close of the most vital fundraising quarter for Oregon candidates: the one right before May 20's primary, that ends one week from today.

How can you help? How does turning $20 into $400 sound?
{details, below}

Ever had a great idea for a diary, but felt it was too "Oregon-specific" to post here?  Wanted to talk to other progressive Oregonians about Measure 49 (fixing 37), bridging the gap between the "two Oregons," the Chalkboard Project, Getting "on the Bus," whether Jeff Merkley should throw his hat into the Senate race, or something even more squarely within arcane Oregoniana?

Ever thought it would be great if there was a mini-Daily Kos just for Oregon issues?

If so, and you haven't already heard it somewhere else yet, there's good fantastic news after the fold!

DONATE NOW TO HELP OUST GORDON SMITH! BOOST STEVE NOVICK'S 2Q BOTTOM LINE, TO GET DSCC'S ATTENTION! GO HERE, USING ACT BLUE

Every time we see a newspaper or tv fluff piece on Gordon Smith it's enough to make us want to scream. But given that screaming has a limited effectiveness ratio, we've decided to try something more constructive.

In our eensy weensy capacity to create ripples, we've decided to declare this The Summer of Steve Novick!

To that end, we're having a mini fundraising drive this week for the Novick campaign. This is the last week for Steve to raise money before the end of the reporting period and we want to give him some momentum.

{jump down, brudda!}

Haven't heard the final District 49 result yet, but either way, Minnis won't be Speaker.  $1.3 million for a minority rep with no power.  $1.3 million for 300 votes.

And Minnis has been exposed for the hypocrite she is.

She and Wayne Scott can sit at a lunch table by themselves and commiserate about the good ol' days of running the legislature like a couple of thugs.  We will move on past them without a second look.