The Oregon legislature met for only a few months in 2010, but that didn't stop corporations, government agencies, and public employees from spending more than $16 million lobbying the Oregon legislature in 2010, according to a report generated by Oregon's Government Ethics Commission. See below for a list of groups that spent more than $100,000:

According to a report released last week by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, more than $18 million was spent lobbying the state legislature during the 2009 legislative session.

As is typically the case in Oregon, Government entities, chemical manufacturers, unions, private insurers, and utilities were among the biggest spenders on lobbying.

Some standout expenditures...

• $468,269 by the Citizens for Fire Safety Institute, which is funded primarily by chemical manufacturers, which appears to be a front organization for chemical manufacturers that produce the toxic flame retardant, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). The group has spent millions lobying state legislatures around the country to block legislative initiatives to regulate PBDE's.
• $193,765 by Bradwood Landing LLC and the LNG Development Company, which sought to facilitate a fast-track permitting process for siting LNG pipelines on private land.
• $585,000 by public-sector unions (OEA, AFSCME, SEIU).
• $274,000 by Oregon's largest private utilities (PGE, PacifiCorp)
• $101,000 by the Oregon Humane Society, which passed legislation to regulate commercial puppy-mills.

Dear Candidate for Congress:

We are all former Members of Congress - and all partisans. We do not recoil from the term, or from the concept of partisanship.

Although political parties were not mentioned in the Constitution or considered directly by the Framers, they have been a core part of American democracy from the beginning and are central to every democracy. Parties are the way we organize to debate our differences; the way we organize Congress to do its work; the way we organize to offer citizens choices in elections. They pave the way for the orderly and peaceful transfer of power.

None of us shrank from partisan debates while in Congress or from the partisan contests getting there. During our time in Congress, partisans on the other side may have been our opponents on some bills and our adversaries on some issues. They were not, however, the enemy.