Having read the writing on the wall: Stuart bails.

Look: Steve Stuart had no chance of re-election, and he knew it.

No matter what reason(s) he give(s), that's the bottom line.

Stuart cannot win; no democrat can.  The people of Clark County hate the CRC Scam generally and loot rail particularly.  It is impossible for Stuart to separate himself from the pet project he has ignored the people over for so many years: he knew that he was likely to get blasted right between his political eyes if he ran again.

It is equally impossible for any other democrat to run in this county and NOT have the CRC Scam draped around their neck.

Thus, it's better for him to move on than it is to be thrown out.

But make no mistake about it: the excuses he gives will be anything BUT the truth.  He may whine about "ideology" but the "ideology" out of touch here is HIS.  He knows he would lose.  The result?

Walk away on your own terms.

When he babbled this:

"And I've said it before: I don't speak for the people.. I will NEVER speak for "the people," I speak for Steve and some of you are going to agree with me and some of you aren't."

I thought: What a bizarre philosophy of governance.  That he'd actually say this on video must mean that he's not running again, or else he's got a political death wish.

(YouTube courtesy of Lew Waters)




You people... what you need... what you want... none of that means a damned thing to me, Slimeball told us.

It became fairly clear that he was done. This video alone would have found him slaughtered at the polls countywide, because there is no excuse for this kind of rank arrogance.

Well, I appreciate his honesty in the matter.

And I do.  It's refreshing that a politician would come right out and tell those he would govern that they're meaningless in his deliberations.

Somehow, I expect that he'll land on his feet.  Expect some high dollar job promised him in return for his vote to screw the people of Clark County by bending us over for TriMet.  On the way out, expect him to work with the democratian to drag up every issue, real... or imagined... that makes his colleagues look bad.

Cowards do that.

There is much whaling and gnashing of teeth by his fellow fringe-left nutters under the article; pathetic, actually.  But in time, they'll get over it.  The only question for us is how many decades will it take to repair the damage his tenure caused.

So, who runs?