Especially for sandnsea (and anyone else from Oregon)

[MH1]

Check out this fellow running for State Rep in Oregon. Is he anywhere near you?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/18/161425/115

He has posted very supportively of John Kerry in the past so I thought you all might be interested. Especially if it's your district or nearby!

He also apparently runs this great website:
http://www.senatedemocrats.net/

[sandnsea]

1. Better than his opponent

She introduced legislation to roll back the minimum wage to $5.15 for the first year of employment. He ought to be able to win on that alone, considering all evidence is that we've created jobs after the new minimum wage bill. I don't like all his positions, but he's a damned site better than her.

[JohnKleeb]

2. Yeah Min wage is an issue you can win on in many places

Seriously why would anyone support rolling it back, I am not advocating we make the min wage 20.00$ because that would be bad economics but at least increase it 2-3$.

[sandnsea]

3. Our restaurants have to pay min wage

In most states, they don't. So the minimum wage is a huge issue for our restaurant industry, which is also huge because this is a tourist state. The bigger problem though, as I understand, is the alcohol laws and what kinds of establishments can serve hard liquor. I don't entirely get it because I don't drink, but apparently restaurants in other states make a huge profit on their bar sales. So Oregon has both the min wage issue and the bar issue to deal with.

And yet, the only thing that seems to hurt restaurants in my little town is when they serve extraordinarily bad food. I have to say extraordinarily because none of it is all that good to start with. :)

Still, nobody has gone out of business since the min wage law passed around 5 years ago. It's tagged to inflation too, so it's $7.50 hr now. And unemployment has gone down in that time. We lost a ton of tech business back around 2000, that's been the biggest problem. Now, they've closed the ocean to commercial salmon fishing, that is going to hurt alot of my fishing charter clients, and likely me too. *sigh* It's always something.

[JohnKleeb]

4. I thikn its still 5.15 around here

Unions never got off in Virginia as shown with Kaine's pick for the Commonwealth Secretary postion I believe it was who was a former state AFL-CIO leader and an awowed opponent of Right To Work.

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. Have to tell you a story about Kilgore

My daughter works at a restaurant in Richmond close to VCU, and this big group came in and someone said isn't that some big politician?. Then asked my daughter if he was Dem or Repub, she didn't know who it was, so she said you'll find out when they tip, if its bad, its a Repub, if its good, its a Dem. Well the tip was bad and someone informed them that it was Kilgore. They asked my daughter how she knew that, her answer, because they could care less about us, Dems care.

She makes 2.13 an hour plus tips, and usually her paycheck is 0 and by the end the year she usually has to take money out of her tips just to be right on her taxes.

[JohnKleeb]

6. I got a couple of friends who go to to VCU

and that story about tipping does ring true from my dad waited tables when I was younger and waited on plentoy of big shots. I got a brother who works at a restaurant downtown now. Everything about Kilgore during hte campaign told me the man was a Prick with a capital R.