You know it’s a party when the Lieutenant Governor has to admonish State Senator Derek Kilmer—not once, but twice—to settle down. The rakish, usually quite affable, and always polite Senator Kilmer was clearly pissed last Friday as he raised his voice against the “backroom deal” that had brought a Republican budget to the floor.  It…

So the legislature found a bunch of money in the couch cushions and now it looks like everybody might get to go home on time to start what promises to be a rollicking 2012 election season.  Both the House and Senate Democrats have proposed sane budgets that don’t include any contentious revenue/referendum items.  A special…

An Open Letter to Nick Hanauer Our friends over at Publicola have recently been hosting a rousing debate between big bucks Democrat Nick Hanauer and WEA President Mary Lindquist on teachers’ unions and K-12 schools.  Here at the blog, we have a hard time resisting sticking our nose into issues we don’t know much about,…