Kate Brown and Ben Westlund have a lot in common in their respective races for Secretary of State and State Treasurer. Each is raising more money and has more endorsements than his/her opponents, but, most important, each of them is vastly more experienced and qualified for those statewide offices.

Kate Brown for Secretary of State

Brown is running against Eugene Republican Rick Dancer, a former television journalist with no political experience. In fact, the issue statements on his campaign website are so vague they could be for just about any political office.

Brown has had plenty of experience. Elected in 1991 to the Oregon House of Representatives, she moved to the Senate in 1996. There, she became the Democratic Majority Leader and guided the Democrats from a 10-20 minority to an 18-12 majority. Often called pragmatic, she has the ability to negotiate compromises, something that’s earned her respect across party lines.

She chaired the Senate Elections Committee where, under her watch, campaign disclosure laws were strengthened. In fact, Brown has pushed for ethics reform since the 1990s.

Her experience with budgets and state agencies will serve her well because one of the secretary’s oversight responsibilities is the audits division, which ensures government accountability.

Brown was a chief architect of the current congressional districting plan in Oregon. Since that task could fall under the Secretary of State’s office in 2010, she has promised she would form a bipartisan citizen panel from which she will seek advice.

Besides elections and audits, the secretary’s office supervises the archives division, which oversees access to permanent government records, and the corporation division, which enforces business regulatory requirements.

Finally, the secretary’s office is responsible for the executive division, which provides strategic, legislative and policy guidelines for the agency. Without a doubt, Brown’s legislative and policy-making experience closes our argument that she should be elected Oregon’s next secretary of state.

Ben Westlund for State Treasurer

Along with our endorsement of Ben Westlund for state treasurer, he has received the endorsement of Oregon’s Democratic and Independent parties and, at one time, that of the Republican Party as well. Of course, the Republican endorsement was before Lake Oswego businessman Allen Alley entered the race, but several high profile Rs are sticking with Westlund, including former Secretary of State Norma Paulus, current legislators Patti Smith and Gary George, and former legislators Lane Shetterly and Lenn Hannon, among others.

The state treasurer hires and monitors the professional financial managers who invest money in Oregon’s pension fund. The treasurer is responsible for coordinating and selling state bonds, and meets with Wall Street rating agencies about Oregon’s credit worthiness. But it’s also a political position because the treasurer works with the Legislature to help set fiscal and investment policy. Westlund supports investment in new energy sources like wind, wave and solar. He voted to reduce the interest rate school districts pay, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.

Alley spent time in the 1980s and 1990s with a Boston venture capital firm, Battery Ventures, eventually becoming a general partner. But he’s best known as a co-founder of Tualatin-based Pixelworks in 1997, initially a successful semiconductor chip maker. He’s still chair of the board of Pixelworks, but the firm now has such a grim outlook that it faced delisting with the NASDAQ stock exchange in June.

Alley entered the public sector when he was hired as deputy chief of staff for Gov. Ted Kulongoski and advised the governor on business and economic development matters. Kulongoski has endorsed Westlund.

No stranger to business failures himself at times, Westlund succeeded in his international animal husbandry business selling bovine genetics and founded the company that made non-toxic substances from marine life fossils used in the manufacture of cat litter.

He was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican and during his tenure was co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee from 2001 to 2003. The committee oversaw drafting of the state’s $11 million budget but was forced to cut state spending in the economic downturn of 2002-03.

After an unsuccessful independent campaign for governor in 2006, Westlund switched parties and became a Democrat. He is considered fair and straightforward by legislators on both sides of the aisle.

In our view, Westlund has both the business and legislative experience to make him an effective state treasurer.