• Marion County pamphlet
• state voter pamphlet

Races with no filed candidates have been omitted from this list.

• Jo Rae Perkins (Republican, Constitution)
• Dan Pulju (Pacific Green)
• Ron Wyden (Democrat, Independent)
• Chris Henry (Progressive)

Unsurprisingly, I want absolutely nothing to do with Perkins. I'm frankly disappointed that she (and other Constitution Party members) are even on this ballot. I don't think I need to dig too deeply into her platform. (WTF is “ballot harvesting”?)

Pulju's platform is mostly agreeable, though it features a few eyebrow-raisers: “Free Assange!”, “Pro-choice on[…] Covid 'vaccines'”, “Make peace with Russia”, “De-globalize”, “Dissolve NATO”. Some of those are complex issues that I admittedly haven't researched in depth, but they raise some questions about deeper ideology. I'm definitely concerned about the quotes around “vaccines” — what is he trying to imply here?

I am intrigued by some of Henry's ideas.

• Lori Chavez-Deremer (Republican)
• Jamie McLeod-Skinner (Democrat, Independent, Working Families)

I have received a lot of campaign mail for Chavez-Deremer. Much of it stressed her accomplishments as Mayor of Happy Valley but was surprisingly short on detail; her statement in the official pamphlet essentially retreads the same shallow points. Only a few minor sentences betray her ideological ground. One such line involved “keeping politics out of the classroom” (translation: whinging about CRT).

The rest of that campaign mail attempted to make McLeod-Skinner sound pretty rad. Though I don't quite think she'll live up to that intense hype, I do find her priorities generally reasonable. I don't share her stated support for police, but her platform is otherwise much more palatable than the alternative.

• Tina Kotek (Democrat, Working Families)
• Donice Noelle Smith (Constitution)
• R Leon Noble (Libertarian)
• Betsy Johnson (Nonaffiliated)
• Christine Drazan (Republican)

Let's ignore the low-hanging fruit about Kotek's name.

Can we just start calling the Constitution Party fascists?

An anti-choice smear ad claimed that Johnson left the Republican Party over the question of abortion. Such ads are hardly reliable, but I can believe it in this case.

One of the worst campaign ads I received was for (though not necessarily authorized by) Drazan. While opening with “no one should be living on the street”, it featured several headlines implicitly connecting homelessness with crime. To top off the whole fiasco, the ad was paid for by the National Association of Realtors Fund, a fact I found to be in incredibly poor taste. Her official statement is no better, pledging to “clean up our communities”, “get politics out of classrooms”, stop “treating police like criminals and criminals like victims”, and “repeal [the decriminalization of] hard drugs”. Thanks, I hate it.

• Ed Diehl (Republican, Democrat)
• me (write-in)

Riddle me this: how does one end up on a ballot as both a Republican and a Democrat? I'm sure there's some food for thought in there about the parties' mutual compatibility, but I don't buy it with Diehl, especially since his campaign signs all proudly read “CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN”. And if he's the only candidate on the ballot (ugh), then why did he have so many campaign signs to begin with? I find his platform strongly distasteful and will be writing in my own name.

As a minor but annoying side point, he lists as prior governmental experience “20+ years in business and community on the receiving end of government overreach”. That's not what that section is for, jackass.

• Kevin Cameron (Republican)
• Andrew Dennis (Democrat)

• Mark Wigg (Democrat)
• Colm Willis (Republican)

• Christina E. Stephenson
• Cheri Helt

• Kristina Hellman - Incumbent

• Anna M. Joyce - Incumbent

• Amy Queen
• Erious Johnson, Jr - Incumbent

• Jennifer K. Gardiner - Incumbent

• Sam Brentano

• Darin Olson

• Rochelle Koch

• Scott Walker

Amends Constitution: State must ensure affordable healthcare access, balanced against requirement to fund schools, other essential services

This was a surprisingly tough one to decide. I absolutely believe in the spirit of this measure: (affordable) healthcare is a right and should be treated as such. It's the second half that troubles me. Public schools are already desperately underfunded, and “other essential services” is a very vague umbrella. The wording seems to imply that this care is to be provided by state funds, either paid directly to patients or used to subsidize private insurance costs (the financial impact statement says this is up to future legislation). However, the state has other means to secure affordable healthcare that don't involve direct expenditures (not that I'm opposed to such, but the “balance” part concerns me). For example, it could establish price ceilings for providers and private insurance companies doing business within the state.

Amends Constitution: Removes language allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for crime

Yes. This is probably one of those cases of out-of-date language remaining on the books long after anyone actually upheld it (I could be wrong about that). In any case, it should definitely be removed.

Amends Constitution: Legislators with ten unexcused absences from floor sessions disqualified from holding next term of office

Yes. A legislator who fails to appear for floor sessions is refusing to perform their job.

Requires permit to acquire firearms; police maintain permit/firearm database; criminally prohibits certain ammunition magazines

Shall psilocybin product manufacturing and service centers be prohibited in Marion County's unincorporated areas?

No. Let the people have their shrooms, dammit!