$17,000 with a big asterisk

Oregonians who watch politics are already talking about whom we'll be voting for for governor next year. Killer Kate is term-limited out.

Here's the Willamette Weed take on it, and when you read about the options, it's pretty depressing. Tina Kotek? Shemia Fagan? Betsy Johnson? Eww, eww, double eww.

But at one point, the Weed lightens the gloom by making a funny:

In such a scenario, some of the three Democrats that hold statewide office would surely run: Treasurer Tobias Read (who’s raised $181,000 this year), Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (who’s raised $17,000) and Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle (who’s raised $179,000).

Of those, Read has raised the most. Read says he’s focused on his current role, working specifically on helping Oregon recover from the pandemic and from the wildfires. “However, I am looking at the best way I can serve Oregonians moving forward,” he tells WW.

Wait a minute. We've been following Ellen Rosenblum's war chest, and although she has "raised $17,000" this year (the number as of today is just over $18,000), the balance in her political campaign account at the moment is $179,000, and so far this year, her campaign has spent $66,000 on something. Meanwhile, Read has $172,000 in the bank and so far this year has spent $76,000. Hoyle is third with $123,000 sitting there and $61,000 spent this year. (The data's available here.)

As the WW article duly notes, Rosenblum is married to a principal WW owner. That makes it tough for the reporters there to write about her. You talk about walking a tightrope. But that paragraph making her seem like Little Bo Peep in the money department is a stinker. It's either a typo or a head fake.