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Posts published in “Day: August 18, 2006”

The mind of Kelly Clark

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.

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…)

A methodical Big Look

Their task is large, and they've been given substantial time - about three years - to undertake it. Not such a bad idea, then, that the Big Lookers take their time and move cautiously, even if there's some short-term downside to be had.

Big Look meetingThe immediate concern would have to do results - not many yet, and not a lot to talk about either - and bogging down. A state committee to look at the land use picture in Oregon over the next three years; you can understand where some skepticism might arise since, half a year into its existence, it is still working out the question of how to go about its work. Matters of substance have barely entered the room yet.

For the moment, though, we'll place our bets on some actual results emerging from the Oregon Task Force on Land Use Planning - "Big Look." The group met in Salem Friday, and a review of their minutes to date and their actions at the meeting suggest, rather than a bogging down, a steady pace toward clarification and working out a path to an answer.

These committee members aren't for the most part political people, and the conversations they're having - to judge from the Friday meeting - sound informal, thoughtful and searching toward ideas, for all that they're being recorded and closely watched by an audience. These people aren't staking out positions, as legislators might. Their process seems an evolution.

As such, it's not roaring ahead, but it's not glacial, either. In the course of a couple of meetings they've worked out six areas of intersecting concern with land use: the economy; the role of state and local governments; citizen involvement; infrastructure and finance; growth management; and benefits and burdens. You could split the subject in other ways too, presumably, but these seem a reasonable start. Most of the concerns most people have about the subject of land use regulation in Oregon could fit in those areas. And there's early recongition that they will overlap, repeatedly.

At this stage, they're working in considerable part on information gathering and figuring out how to handle the flood of information they are sure to get. While they're holding their meetings this year around the state - the last was in Lincoln City, and upcoming in Pendleton, Medford and Gresham - they're not seeking lots of opinions, yet. They will later. But first they're trying to develop a base of knowledge and a framework to hang it on, and their moves toward developing it to date seem almost stately.

Given enough time, and the 2009 delivery date may be enough, these guys could produce something interesting.