Josh Marquis |
When we wrote on October 27 about the ballot issue to provide a salary supplement to the Clatsop County prosecutor, we suggested that the fairly well-known attorney - Josh Marquis - might get a pretty good reading from this vote of his real popularity in the county. After all, district attorneys are not often defeated for re-election absent some hot controversy, and Marquis' professional capability doesn't seem in question. Astoria has, after all, only so many attorneys.
The results are in. (Quick background: Many of Oregon's smaller counties provided supplements to the state-provided pay for their DAs; Marquis' was pulled because of a squabble with the county commission. The campaign over the ballot issue was heated.) But it's hard to know what to make of it.
Measure 4-123 appears to have gotten 6,596 favorable votes and 6,666 against: Losing by 70 votes.
Hmm. Not an overwhelming endorsement, but certainly no great rejection either. Marquis may be mulling on this for a while.