Today’s release day for our newest book: The Oregon Political Field Guide.

We have a lot more information about it on a separate page. But a here’s a little more.

First, you can order it through Paypal via this button here.

Second, it’s one of a series. The Idaho counterpart (the Idaho Political Field Guide) will be coming shortly. The Washington book is under construction and will be released a little later.

Third: What is the Field Guide? And why do we call it that?

These books are relatives of the Idaho Political Almanac series Ridenbaugh Press published in the 90s (about, obviously, Idaho). They cover some of the same territory, but not exactly the same. The Political Almanacs contained more background about office holders and sometimes candidates, and their stands on issues, performance in office, and so on. The Field Guides are a little different: They’re about campaigns and elections, with heavy focus on the voters – how the voters voted. This edition of the book (there may be more to come, later on) covers in some detail the last decade of elections. That allows you to see how various districts, counties and other areas elected people over time; how the percentages rose and fell, how the numbers of raw votes changed. It’s intended to be a useful tool for political analysis down to a fine level.

If politics in Oregon is your thing, then the Field Guide needs to be at hand.

A quick word about the Oregon Blue Book, and how this relates to that.

We’re enthusiastic fans of the Blue Book, a terrific and gorgeously general reference about Oregon, now celebrating its centennial. (A collection of 17 of the most recent sits prominently near where this is written.) It includes some information about elections, but not in great detail. And as a state publication, it probably shouldn’t include a lot more than it currently does. The Field Guide is designed to fill the gap: To present elections and other information in a way that’s non-partisan but also explanatory and analytical in a way that might be problematic for a state-backed book.

You can find out more at the book’s main web page; a clutch of sample pages also is available. And stop by (and “like,” if you would) the Oregon Political Field Guide page at Facebook.