I’m voting for Kotek. I still expect better.

I’m a new dad, and I want us to make the world better for Clementine. I don’t want her generation inheriting problems we knew how to address and decided were too expensive to bother with.

I still care about what things cost. I care even more about whether the money helps. Good schools, affordable housing, and a livable climate are worth investing in. So is a government that respects people’s rights and can be trusted to do its job.

That leaves me voting for Tina Kotek and Jeff Merkley this November, and leaning toward Pam Treece for Washington County chair. It also leaves me with plenty to criticize. I want my choices to hold up beyond party loyalty, including when someone I disagree with gets something right.

Kotek set a goal of building 36,000 homes a year. Oregon authorized 14,839 housing units through building permits in 2025. Permits aren’t completed homes, so those numbers aren’t a direct scorecard. They still show how far the pipeline is from the scale we need.

Interest rates, construction costs, and local decisions matter. A governor doesn’t personally build apartments. But if housing is your signature issue, getting past those obstacles is your job. Kotek has signed laws supporting infrastructure, middle housing, and fewer development barriers. I want that work to move faster, with clear numbers separating homes announced from homes people can actually move into.

Education has a follow-through problem, too. A September 2026 audit found that the Department of Education had fully implemented one of eight recommendations from its earlier High School Success audit. Five were partly implemented; two weren’t. Oversight of the fixes was inadequate.

That concerns a specific program, not every classroom. ODE also reported modest proficiency gains in 2025–26, and Kotek signed SB 141’s accountability changes in 2025. Good. Now finish the fixes and show whether they help students.

The Measure 110 audit found fragmented services, poor oversight, and insufficient information to determine how many people were served or what outcomes the program produced. People struggling with addiction deserved a system that could connect them to care and tell whether it helped.

Measure 110 passed in 2020, before Kotek became governor. Its problems span administrations and repeated legislative changes. She isn’t responsible for every failure, but improving the system she now oversees is her responsibility.

Before asking for more money, show me what the existing money accomplished and what you’re changing when it didn’t. I expect useful government for the money we already pay.

The strongest case for Christine Drazan is easy to understand. Democrats have run Oregon for a long time, and people want better results. Her emphasis on permitting, literacy, affordability, and spending accountability addresses real problems. I’d take a good idea from her.

But her plan calls for repealing the Climate Protection Program. The program limits the fossil-fuel emissions it covers, aiming for 50% reductions by 2035 and 90% by 2050. Scrutinize the costs and results, absolutely. I still want a workable path to lower emissions. Repeal doesn’t answer that for me.

Drazan also was a chief sponsor of HB 3872 in 2025. It proposed making in-person voting the default and requiring government-issued photo identification. Mail ballots would remain available under specified conditions, including by request for people unable to vote in person. It proposed referring those changes to voters and did not become law.

Oregon’s system gives voters time to read about candidates and measures at home. I see no good reason to replace that default with more hoops. The bill matters more to me than a general assurance of support for vote-by-mail.

She voted against HB 2010, the 2025 bill extending taxes supporting Medicaid funding. Six Republicans joined Democrats to pass it. Opponents raised procedural objections about the voting threshold; that vote wasn’t a proposal to abolish Medicaid. Still, keeping coverage funded matters, and I prefer the side that got it done.

At the October 1 debate, Drazan acknowledged human-caused climate change, said Biden won in 2020, and opposed banning abortion. My disagreements with her are about the policies above.

I’m choosing Kotek because I prefer her direction on housing, climate, health care, and voting access. If she wins, I want clear housing numbers, completed audit recommendations, and evidence that treatment programs work. Her opponent being worse doesn’t lower those expectations.

Measure 114 shows why I’m willing to disagree with my own side. I’m a gun owner and a gun enthusiast. I’m also pro gun control. I think this is a bad measure, and the checks on government power are a big part of why.

It isn’t on the 2026 ballot. Voters passed it in 2022. As of October 13, HB 4145, enacted in 2026, moved the application date for its transfer requirements and magazine restrictions to January 1, 2028. The state constitutional case remains unresolved.

The permit system puts an important decision with local law enforcement. It does include safeguards: qualifying applicants are supposed to receive a permit within 30 days, denials require written reasons, and applicants can seek circuit-court review. There is no unlimited sheriff’s veto. Those protections are in ORS 166.505 and 166.508.

But imagine a domestic-violence survivor whose abuser is the local sheriff. A police chief with jurisdiction may offer another application route, but the statutes don’t expressly create a special, independent licensing route for that conflict. Court petitions are supposed to be resolved within 15 judicial days or as soon as practicable afterward. I want an explicit conflict-of-interest process guaranteeing an independent decision-maker and timely review.

I understand the argument for screening buyers and reducing the harm someone can do before reloading. I still care about who gets the power, who bears the delay, and how someone challenges a bad decision.

That’s relevant to this election even though the measure itself isn’t on the ballot. I’m choosing people who will write and administer laws like this. Supporting the goal doesn’t excuse a poorly designed system, and voting for Democrats doesn’t require me to stop saying so.

I want a Congress willing to stand up to Trump. I think he’s a fucking lunatic, and I don’t trust his promises on the economy. There are real results to look at, though, including some good ones.

Prices are still rising. The latest available inflation report, for August, put consumer prices 3.4% above a year earlier, with food up 2.7% and energy up 16.3%. Freddie Mac’s October 8 average for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.40%, versus 6.30% a year earlier. No president controls every price or mortgage rate, but this is a tough combination for household budgets.

There’s good news, too. Real GDP grew at a 2.2% annualized rate in the second quarter. Continued growth is encouraging. It gives the country a better chance of improving living standards, and I want it to continue. That’s a good result under Trump. It doesn’t tell us who benefits or erase the affordability problem, but there’s hope here. Dismissing it because I dislike him would be dishonest.

AI investment could be good for us as a country, too. Fed Governor Michael Barr describes a buildout already supporting business investment, with potential to raise productivity, incomes, and living standards. I want us to make the most of that investment and help workers adapt. Governor Lisa Cook also distinguishes announced investment from money actually spent. There’s a real opportunity here without treating every announcement as a completed success or giving Trump credit for all of it.

The Iran war is making the energy picture worse. The Energy Information Administration’s October outlook describes damaged infrastructure and disrupted exports and shipping. September U.S. averages were $4.35 a gallon for gasoline and $6.29 for diesel. Those costs also affect moving goods around the country.

The administration has now authorized certain Russian diesel transactions and imports until early April 7, 2027. That opens a sanctions exception for Russian fuel, though it doesn’t prove deliveries have arrived. I find the energy-dominance sales pitch hard to take seriously when this is where we’ve ended up.

Then there’s the $5,000. In his September 9 speech, Trump promised every adult American citizen a payment if Republicans kept both chambers of Congress, with the money to be spent in the United States. As of October 7, there was no formal plan. Congress would have to authorize the spending.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated roughly $1.2 trillion and warned it could add to deficits and inflation. Dangling that payment before an election looks like a campaign sales pitch to me. Show the legislation, the funding, and the tradeoffs. The same questions I ask Democrats apply here.

I want that scrutiny in Congress. Merkley’s stand against Flock’s surveillance network makes him an easy yes for me.

On October 2, he joined Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in unveiling the Ban Flock Act. It would restrict federal use of automated license plate readers and access to their data, and use federal funding conditions to push state and local governments away from those systems.

It’s proposed legislation. The text covers plate-reader systems beyond one company, includes limited exceptions, and doesn’t ban every private security camera.

Moving around in public shouldn’t automatically mean having your movements collected into a searchable surveillance system. I want limits before that infrastructure becomes harder to undo. Merkley is pushing in the right direction.

The Washington County chair runoff is a nonpartisan race between commissioners Nafisa Fai and Pam Treece. I care about keeping costs down, but a modest increase for roads and transportation can be worth paying.

Treece supported the phased county vehicle-registration fee increase; Fai voted against it. For a typical two-year passenger-car renewal, the county portion rises from $60 now to $80 in July 2027, $100 in July 2029, and $120 in July 2031. That’s on top of state DMV fees. The revenue is restricted to transportation, with 60% going to the county and 40% to cities, including maintenance of existing infrastructure.

I see that increase as reasonable, and it leaves me leaning toward Treece. This vote isn’t either candidate’s entire record. I still expect them to show what the money accomplishes. More revenue doesn’t automatically produce better roads.

There are no statewide ballot measures this November and no Washington County-wide measure. Local races and measures depend on your registered address. Check your ballot and the county voters’ pamphlet.

Election Day is November 3. Oregon’s registration deadline is October 13; counties start mailing ballots October 14. The state recommends mailing yours by October 27. Official drop boxes accept ballots until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Sign the return envelope and check your registration and ballot status through the Secretary of State’s election page.