Dear Friends:

Thank you so much for your support, your hard work and your friendship along this adventure of the past few months.  We didn’t get the result we all fought hard to get, but I am proud of the work we did – and most importantly, to my family, friends, supporters and staff, you can be proud of the work you did.  We stuck to our shared values and ran a positive campaign.

I will always be grateful for the overwhelming support from groups who fight every day for working families, for teachers, for equal rights – and those who stand up for justice and go to work every day to hold powerful interests accountable and keep our communities safe.

Thank you to SEIU, IBEW, the American Federation of Teachers, the Oregon Education Association, the Multnomah Prosecuting Attorneys, the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs, and those in the interfaith community, with Basic Rights Oregon and NARAL – and every sheriff and district attorney from communities throughout Oregon who stood with me.

To Attorney General John Kroger, Steve Novick, Dr. Bethel, Wendy Givens, Judy Cushing – our work fighting together for folks who have the cards stacked against them will always be my bedrock; thank you for your support.

And thank you to my family.  To my mom and dad who taught me that justice is something you have to fight for – and that it’s worth fighting for.

Most of all, I want to thank my wife and best friend, Mary Ellen, and my children Terence and Fiona.  Through thick and thin, it always made me smile to know that I could come home each day to the fun and creativity and energy and love of our little family – and yes, also to Nikko, our family dog.

I want to offer my congratulations to Ellen Rosenblum and her supporters, and my best wishes for success as Attorney General.

In closing, a promise:  we worked together through the campaign with a promise that we would not stand by or be aloof, we would move –

• fighting for working families
• making neighborhoods safer and stronger
• protecting consumers
• defending civil rights
• protecting our environment

So today, I pledge to continue this work – to continue moving – and I look forward to making progress together with you.

Thank you again,

Dwight

Dwight Holton has the overwhelming support of Oregon teachers and sheriffs because he knows that the best way to fight crime is to prevent it in the first place.  He is the only candidate who knows that until Oregon gets serious about investing on the front end, in education and drug treatment, we’ll never overcome our law enforcement challenges on the back end.

And because Dwight has a proven track record of being tough – and smart – on crime, Oregonians can trust him to hold powerful interests accountable and keep our families safe.  That’s why teachers, sheriffs – and newspapers across the state – say Dwight is the clear choice.

We like his emphasis on preventative measures in law enforcement, his willingness to take on environmental issues and his tireless reaching out to the people of the state.

Holton served ably as U.S. attorney for Oregon for nearly two years, and has shown us that he could run the AG office. We like his emphasis on preventative measures in law enforcement, his willingness to take on environmental issues and his tireless reaching out to the people of the state. So far, he seems to be an unusual politician who has some modesty and doesn’t need to trumpet his accomplishments even in a campaign. We also like Ellen Rosenblum, but her career as a judge would appear to qualify her more for the Oregon Supreme Court than for the Department of Justice. Having left her seat on the Court of Appeals, she says she wants more activism, but we suggest she consider filling the next vacancy in the high court instead. Both are Democrats; no Republican opposition.

Show your support for Dwight by printing this banner and displaying it in the window of your home, office, car, etc.

Holton Window Banner

Dwight Holton has demonstrated the management and leadership skills that this state needs in its next attorney general.

The University of Virginia Law School graduate earned high marks in leading the 115-employee U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland in 2010 and 2011. Even though he was plucked from the rank and file and not nominated for the permanent job, he was far more than a caretaker.

Showing the political savvy one might expect from an offspring of a former governor (A. Linwood Holton Jr. of Virginia) and a passion for community outreach, Holton convened statewide meetings of law enforcement and health care providers to craft a strategy to combat the problem of prescription painkiller abuse.

After a suspect was arrested in an alleged plot to bomb tree-­lighting festivities at Portland’s Pioneer Square, Holton sent a powerful message of tolerance to Oregonians by reaching out to local Muslims. Meanwhile, Holton persuaded skeptical city officials in Portland to rejoin a terrorism task force.

Before that, for 13 years Holton was an assistant federal prosecutor in New York and Oregon. He led the prosecution in a high-profile case in which an Egyptian shipping company admitted dumping oil at sea and paid a $7.25 million fine.

The other candidate in the race, Ellen Rosenblum, also would make a capable attorney general. After graduating from the University of Oregon School of Law, she spent five years in private practice in Eugene. Next, she worked for eight years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon, handling cases ranging from mail and wire fraud to firearms violations. Rosenblum spent more than 20 years as a trial and appellate judge in state courts in Portland and Salem before retiring from the bench recently.

Oregonians are fortunate to have two such well-qualified candidates. With no Republicans or minor party candidates having filed to run for attorney general, it already was clear that the winner of the Democratic primary would land the job of leading the Department of Justice. But an announcement Tuesday that incumbent John Kroger is resigning this summer to become president of Reed College means either Holton or Rosenblum likely will take the reins sooner than expected.

In recent weeks, several narratives have emerged in this hard-fought campaign, and they merit some comment. These include Rosenblum’s depiction of herself as the only true Oregonian in the race and Holton as an outsider who lacks familiarity with the state’s justice system. She contends that “Dwight has never set foot in an Oregon state courtroom,” which, while perhaps technically accurate, overlooks the many public safety issues of vital importance to Oregon that he dealt with as a federal prosecutor and acting U.S. attorney.

Holton, meanwhile, has suggested that Rosenblum would be a passive “lawyer to the state,” while he would be a dynamic prosecutor and community activist. It’s a simplistic claim that overlooks Rosenblum’s record as a tough, effective federal prosecutor and a highly regarded jurist.

Rosenblum and her supporters have suggested that Holton wants to use the attorney general’s office as a stepping stone to higher office. Holton says he will, if elected, serve all four years of his term; his nearly a decade of residency in Oregon and service to this state surely elevates him above carpetbagger status.

Both candidates have impressive endorsements. Rosenblum’s include former attorneys general Dave Frohnmayer and Hardy Myers, as well as former Gov. Barbara Roberts and former Secretary of State Norma Paulus, pioneering women in Oregon politics who are no doubt eager to see Rosenblum become the state’s first female attorney general. Holton has the endorsement of 32 of Oregon’s 36 district attorneys and 25 sheriffs.

Either would make a strong attorney general, but Holton’s exemplary leadership of the U.S. Attorney’s office makes him the best choice.

“Prosecutorial zeal isn’t enough. Neither is intelligence nor righteousness. To be effective, an attorney general must be able to inspire confidence and change minds.

“Dwight Holton has already distinguished himself as that kind of leader. Voters should choose him next month as the next Oregon attorney general.”

Read the full endorsement article here.

During his 15 years as a federal prosecutor and as U.S. Attorney for 
Oregon, Dwight Holton has appeared in court over 1000 times, successfully 
prosecuting gangs, drug traffickers and terrorists. He’s been tough on
 crime, but he’s also been smart on crime. In Oregon, Holton worked with 
local law enforcement officers to keep illegal guns out of the hands of 
domestic abusers.

Holton also stood up for consumers by attacking mortgage and financial 
fraud, put corporate polluters in prison and defended Oregonians’ civil
 rights.

Holton’s successful track record is why Oregon’s law enforcement and public 
safety community have lined up in support of his candidacy. Holton is 
endorsed by 56 Oregon sheriffs and district attorneys. Not one sheriff or 
current district attorney has endorsed Holton’s opponent.

“It’s one thing to say that you will go after human traffickers, sex 
offenders who use the Internet to target children and those who defraud 
families out of their homes, but Dwight’s actually done it,” said
 Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts. “Dwight is the only candidate with
 the experience and leadership Oregonians can trust to make Oregon 
communities safer and stronger.”

Dwight took on hundreds of cases as U.S. Attorney of Oregon while also making time to stand up for Scooter Givens.

For three years, the Givens family had been fighting the school district to have a service dog attend classes with their 8 year-old autistic son, Scooter. The dog helps in two ways: when Scooter bolts, the dog retrieves him; when Scooter panics, the dog simulates a hugging motion and Scooter calms down.

The Givens family looked to Dwight, as U.S. Attorney for Oregon, for help. When Dwight heard that three years of Scooter’s education had been lost in this fight with the school district, he picked up the phone and asked the superintendent to meet with him. Dwight did not want one more day of Scooter’s education to be lost.

Dwight asked the superintendent to let the service dog accompany Scooter in class for a trial period to avoid litigation and any further delays in Scooter’s education. The superintendent agreed – and the result: Scooter and the dog have been attending class together ever since, and now a child has a chance to succeed.

Watch Dwight on KATU’s Your Voice, Your Vote to hear about how he will tackle mortgage fraud and foreclosure scams – continuing the work he did as U.S. Attorney for Oregon. Under his leadership, dozens of people who took advantage of others were indicted – cases that involved over 140 properties in Oregon with loans totaling about $80 million.