On Friday, the ever-evolving Oregon governor's race wheeled again as it spun - unpredictably - on the axis of one of the more intriguing personalities in recent Oregon politics: Kelly Clark.
He is not an office holder, now, though he was a state representative in the late 80s and early 90s. A Republican, he was the most visible attorney (and evidently the lead) in the 2004 case against the Multnomah County Commission when it authorized same-sex marriage.
In a fascinating profile at that time on Clark, Taylor Clark of Willamette Week wrote, " The question at this point seems not to be whether Clark's mind is open, but what could possibly be going through it. He is a sex offender who has made a mint defending the sexually abused, and he's also a former gay-rights advocate being paid to dismantle the biggest gay-rights victory in Oregon history. Clark sees no inconsistency, because in both cases he says he is motivated by the same dominating passion: disgust with the misuse of power. 'I get to represent the little guy going up against the big guy,' he says. 'I absolutely love that, whether it's the church, the government, insurance companies, banks.'"
Where in all this does his new action, announced on Friday, fit in? When he says he plans to file an action seeking to disqualify Constitution Party nominee Mary Starrett from the November general election ballot for an obscure gray-area possible legal violation, whose power abuse is it that he's disgusted with? (more…)