On the narcissistic tip, TJ and Carla published a letter I sent to Pete asking him to run for the sake of all Oregonians and BlueOregon picked it up -- my first time on their front page! The nut grafs:

I live up in Portland now. I'm a grassroots political organizer -- a career path I don't think I'd have chose if not for the basic faith in the democratic system instilled by your example and your ability to transcend ideological divisions and forge real solutions for your constituents. It's not much, but I want you to know that if you do decide to throw your hat in the ring, mine will be right there beside it. I'll do everything I can to help out.

But you probably could have guessed that. What you might not have guessed, and what I couldn't have anticipated until just this week, is how many other people feel the same way -- not political people, not wonks and insiders, but normal people -- my roommate who's never volunteered for a campaign in his life but is eager to canvass for you, friends from across the country who grew up in Eugene and remember you fondly and who want to do whatever they can to help out, more than a hundred people who have contributed to the Draft DeFazio fundraising page in less than a week.

We'll fill this ring up, I guess I'm trying to say, with all sorts of different hats.

BlueOregon's Jeff Alworth also helped out with some terrific number crunching outlining why DeFazio can win:

DeFazio represents Oregon's fourth district,  which includes all of Benton, Coos, Curry, Douglas, Lane, and Linn Counties and most of Josephine and part of Benton.  If you wanted to look at a district that mirrored Oregon, the fourth's not a bad choice.  It has urban, liberal Corvallis (Benton) and Eugene (Lane), but strongly conservative, rural counties like Douglas and Josephine.  

In the last three election cycles, Defazio has posted double-digit improvements against Democratic candidates running statewide.  Moving from most recent back in time, here are 2006's results.

So not only is Pete incredibly progressive, some might say Wellstonian, but he also outperforms more centrist Democrats in Republican base areas. Wow.