Oregon: Peter Courtney

Monumental Jackassery:Tiernan has filed an ethics complaint against Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and says that he thinks there should be an investigation of Courtney's handling of a $175 million public works package. That bill, which calls for the state to borrow money to quickly begin work on a series of job-producing maintenance and repair projects, includes $30 million for Courtney's employer, Western Oregon University. Tiernan filed an ethics complaint against Courtney after the Salem Democrat did not declare that he had a potential conflict of interest on the public works bill when it was passed by the Senate on...

PORTLAND -- State Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) said Thursday he was considering a run for governor in 2010, but at the moment the race was far from his mind.

“If you’re asking me if I’m thinking about it, the answer is yes I’m thinking about it,” Courtney said at the Oregon Convention Center outside of the Leadership Summit meeting.

“But I got another project I got to finish first, and that is the Oregon legislature.”

Speculation over former Gov. John Kitzhaber being appointed to president-elect Barack Obama's administration barely had enough time to die down on Wednesday before the Associated Press, KATU, and Willamette Week began questioning whether Kitzhaber might be thinking about another run for the state’s chief executive.