As Portland, Oregon preps for another elections cycle with Voter-Owned Elections public financing available, Steve Duin at The Oregonian reflects on the results of the New Hampshire primary and the rhetoric of the campaign trail with a pause to note the importance of advancing Voter-Owned elections.


He talks over the characterizations of the candidates, their divisions, and the recurring calls for change:

The dispute is a better measure of the candidates than it is of the mood of moderates and independents. While voters are fed up with the incendiary, partisan fury that energizes the ideological wings of Amerian politics, they are equally disgusted that no one in the middle found the means to unite us in our frustrations, much less our problem solving.


There's a market for constructive anger. "It's less anger than it is the passion to make change happen," said Peter Bragdon, former chief of staff to Gov. Ted Kulongoski. "That's what is hard to come by in this state.


"If you really want to bring about change, it's saying things that are hard to say to people who don't want to hear them . . . and convince them that's what needs to be done."


To cite just one example, you can't loosen the galling iron-fisted grip that money has on politics without voter-owned elections.

Darn right. Incidentally, the three front-runner candidates on the Democratic side that Duin discusses have all gone on the record in support of full public financing of campaigns.