This Week in the Mercury
Friday, September 26, 2008
Politics Justice In Action
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 1:10 PM
We're in the midst of endorsement interviews for the November election - meaning we meet all the candidates and then tell you who vote for - which involves herding all the candidates from each race into one windowless room at the Mercury offices for one long hour of discussion. This morning, we learned some really crazy facts from the attorney general candidates. Check this out:
Number of lawyers in Oregon's Attorney General's office prosecuting...
mortgage fraud: 0
environmental crimes: 0
civil rights violations: 0
So while laws exist on the books to keep people scamming someone out of their home, dumping toxic sewage or refusing to hire you because you're gay, enforcement of those laws on a state level is - well - let's just say "under staffed."
Don't worry! None of that stuff is probably going on anyway.
Update: Attorney general spokesman Jake Weigler just called to say that he's heard this comment a lot recently and thinks it's somewhat off base. Currently, the attorney general's office isn't responsible for mortgage fraud or civil rights investigations, that falls to other state agencies. "There is the opportunity for increased enforcement," says Weigler, but "the idea that there's no one enforcing this at a state level is misleading." Candidates John Kroger and Walt Brown don't seem to think the other agencies are doing enough: both spoke adamantly in favor of hiring civil rights enforcement prosecutors for the attorney general's office and Kroger said the number of mortgage fraud investigators he would hire would be "as many as we can get."
Bonus trivia question! How often is meth present in homes where the Dept of Human Services has to forcibly remove children?
Take a guess and then compare with the really awful answer below the cut.
90 percent of the time!
aaa!
That means 90 percent of the cases of severe child abuse and neglect in Oregon can be linked in part to meth use. Gawd, meth is the least sexy drug ever.
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Yeah, 90% was my guess, sadly. What percentage of that is in Springfield?
I'm confused. Attorney General candidates, as in plural? Didn't John Kroger accept both the Democratic and Republican nominations (The Repubs didn't field a primary candidate. Kroger won their primary by having the most write-in votes and I believe he accepted the nomination).
Who the heck else is running?
John Kroger snagged most of the endorsement, both the major party's nominations and has raised roughly $830,000 more than any of the other candidates, but there are three other names on the ballot: Ashlee Albies (Working Families Party), Walt Brown (Pacific Green) and James Leuenberger (Constitution).
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