Hello, It's just been brought to my attention that my buddy blackedout, is really Erik Henriksen, from the Merc. Have you heard any same such rumors, or is it just too preposterous?

 

Whoa...and I do mean whoa, but in a good way, not in a 'stop or slow the horse' way.

 

Mark, When Nigel sent out his survey for lobbyists to anonymously fill out and rate our state legislators he made very clear that people were rating David Edwards & not Chris Edwards by writing Edwards, D. He did not do so for Smith. Of course, there are two Smiths in the state house, Greg Smith and Jefferson Smith. Why did he leave out the J? Was it an intentional move on his part to confuse people? If not, how does he or the WW know which Smith they were rating? The instructions of the survey do not state that these are metro-area legislators.

 

Nigel has responded to this elsewhere on wweek.com, but I will republish his response here:

"The instructions clearly state that the survey concerns 'Portland-area' lawmakers. Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) lives 150 miles from Portland. Rep. Jefferson Smith lives in Portland. Greg Smith just served his fifth term; J Reps. David (D-Hillsboro) and Chris (D-Eugene) Edwards entered the legislature the same year and belong to the same party and so could possibly be confused for each other."

 

Nigel's response said that his instructions clearly indicated that the lawmakers being judged by lobbyists were all from the Portland area. These are the actual instructions:

"Please rank each lawmaker on a scale 1 to 10 with 10 being best. If you do not know the lawmaker or have no opinion, please leave the ranking blank. A zero ranking, on the other hand, means you know the lawmaker but think he or she is awful. Please include comments either in the space allotted or add more if necessary. Thank you"

I don't see a mention of the survey being only for Portland area lawmakers.