I've sent my Oregon ballot in.

Got it, sent it back already. The sooner you send it back, the faster those political mailings stop, except of course, if a campaign decides to not pay for the ballot return lists.

Here are some of my decisions:

• President: Hillz and Billz. History actually teaches us that revolutions are messy. Mao infamously supported the idea of periodic revolutions, but all you need to do is look at modern China to understand how messed up they'd been for decades. The sort of revolution Bernie speaks of, is a cultural one, and that does not start within politics! Cultural revolutions start from the ground and up, working into the political class supporting the popular will. Plus, Unicorns aren't real.
• Senator: Ron the Terminator Wyden. The guy is the perfect mix of liberal and libertarian, plus, he's gotten a lot done for Oregon, by way of the passage of various laws helping out various Oregon groups. He effectively put the clamps on James Clapper when he got Clapper to offer up a lie that was later revealed with the Snowden files.
• Multnomah County Dist. 1: Brian not a singer Wilson. I had settled on three names: Eric Zimmerman, Brian Wilson and Sharon Meieran. Doing some research turned up some recent difficulties in Zimmerman's life and while I wouldn't normally hold that against a person, it concerns me that he might have to spend more time dealing with personal issues over the county's. I was about to vote for Meieran, but then I pulled up her endorsements and I found Novick and Fritz on it, which was a nonstarter for me. By elimination, Wilson got my vote. That doesn't mean he's the least qualified, but that he had the least red flags of the three.
• Portland Mayor: Jules not Verne Bailey. This is a no-brainer for one simple reason: Bailey is an Economist. You see, an Economist thinks about greatest efficiency to achieve policy, and you'll notice that he's pushing for a lot of smart policies to address affordability except rent control and anti-gentrification laws. Ted Wheeler on the other hand, has pushed for anti-gentrification laws that would actually cost Portlanders more, over time, in rent rates, and kill development of affordable housing. Rent control is a dead end, literally. Rent control serves as a disincentive to make seismic upgrades, and is just a taste of things to come if Portland embraces rent control.
• Portland Commissioner #1: Ann the hair do Sanderson. There was no way I was going to vote for Amanda Fritz after she tried to force the homeless camp R2D2 into a lot under the Broadway Bridge ramp. She attempted to unilaterally force this move against the neighborhood board's stance, and hardly gave a damn about the conditions these homeless folks would be living in. Sanderson fought against the Novick-Hales plan to unilaterally impose a street fee, and that was huge.
  Portland Commissioner #2: Stuart not so little Emmons. Architect, need I say more? Architects are part of a group of thinkers who problem-solve all day long. I trust that his solutions are well-considered. Plus, his advocacy to keep Memorial Coliseum is a value I share.
• 26-174, 5 year Oregon Historical Society levy: Yes. It's a very tiny cost to document and maintain Oregon's history and culture. I can't imagine why people wouldn't want to spend money to preserve that.
• 26-173, 4 year Fuel Tax for Street Repairs, Safety: Yes. We can't have nice things if we're not going to pay for them. Now, while it's true that they could cut elsewhere to fund these programs, I actually support higher gasoline prices to increase efficient transportation use. It's only 4 years, anyway.