That big “D” you often see next to Sen. Ron Wyden’s name could stand for “detriment” instead of “Democrat” as far as the senator’s popularity in Baker County is concerned.

The Republican “R” holds sway around here — 4,630 Baker County voters claim that party affiliation as compared with 2,861 Democrats.

(Another 2,105 voters have no affiliation, and 510 are registered under some other party.)

But Wyden isn’t a typical Democrat.

The better measure of a congressman is not how many town halls he schedules, but what he does when some of his constituents are suffering from the worst flooding in a quarter century.

When Baker County’s Eagle and Pine creeks topped their banks in early June this year, Rep. Greg Walden was here before the water had receded. Walden met with flood victims and pushed regulatory agencies to streamline the permitting process so landowners could quickly repair irrigation ditches.

That’s his job, sure. But Walden did it well, just as he’s done during his 12 years in Congress. We urge voters to re-elect Walden and give him two more years in Washington, D.C.

Walden has been a consistent advocate for Baker County on vital issues such as a reasonable policy for managing public lands, and the federal government’s obligation to compensate counties for declining timber revenue. He is a staunch supporter of Ash Grove Cement Co.’s Baker County plant, which is in jeopardy due to new federal mercury emissions limits.

Walden could become an even more effective legislator if the Republicans regain control of the House, as many pundits predict.

Voters should give Walden that chance.

Oregon voters have some tough choices to make on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Measures 70 and 72, though, are easy ones.

Unless, of course, you don’t think the state’s military veterans should be eligible for low-interest mortgages, or you’re opposed to the state saving tens of millions of dollars in interest payments on public construction projects.

We’re confident, though, that an overwhelming majority of Oregonians agree with us that veterans do deserve that benefit, and that the state should save those millions.

We recommend “yes” votes on both measures.

Oregon has a money problem.

Two of them, actually.

We’re spending too much money on state government.

And we’re not collecting enough in taxes.

The result is an estimated shortfall of $3.2 billion for the two-year budget cycle that starts July 1, 2011.

In the midst of this fiscal crisis, voters will decide whether John Kitzhaber or Chris Dudley is the more likely, as the state’s next governor, to deal effectively with these twin dilemmas.

We think it’s Dudley.

Kevin Mannix’s latest attempt to toughen Oregon’s criminal justice system gets it half right.

But the half of Measure 73 that goes astray, unfortunately, is the half Oregon can’t afford.

We urge voters to reject the measure on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Mannix has persuaded voters before. In 1994 Oregonians passed his Measure 11, which requires mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of any of 16 felonies.

But Mannix should have split Measure 73 into two parts.

South Albany High School’s campaign to, in effect, scrub with soap the mouths of students who cuss in the halls has spawned more publicity than we’d have guessed.

South Albany’s principal, we’re confident in claiming, isn’t the first school official to notice that teenagers’ language is not always pristine.

But even though we’re a trifle amused by the attention South Albany’s cursing crackdown has gotten, we’re more pleased.

As a policy statement, Baker County’s draft Natural Resources Plan contains much that we like.

The 47-page document emphasizes how important the million acres of public land in the county are to our economy and to our quality of life.

Those acres, which comprise slightly more than half the county’s land, contain, among other vital resources:

• the bulk of the water that we drink, use to grow crops and that sustains fish and wildlife;

• the grass that nourishes many of the cattle that are a mainstay of our economy;

• the majority of the forests, meadows and mountains that attract hikers, hunters and other visitors whose patronage benefits our local businesses

Yet, because two federal rather than local agencies — the Forest Service and BLM — control the vast majority of those million acres, it’s possible that the interests of Baker County residents won’t be taken into account when those agencies decide how to manage the land.

Baker City building and store owners, along with local government officials, have devoted countless hours and millions of dollars to make the city’s downtown historic district a jewel among Oregon downtowns.

A small, but meaningful, part of that effort is the campaign to ensure that downtown sidewalks look the same.

For more than 20 years a city ordinance required that all new sidewalks in the historic district have two-foot squares scored into the concrete.

That design matches the sidewalks on both sides of Main Street. Those were built when the state repaved the street (which is part of a state highway) in the late 1980s.

The mandatory design was effective. Over the past two decades, sections of sidewalks elsewhere in the historic district were replaced, and downtown sidewalks gradually took on a more uniform — and in our view more attractive — appearance.

But then last year, as part of a broader project to overhaul city ordinances, Public Works Director Michelle Owen proposed changing the sidewalk ordinance.

So why are we pleased by the news that Baker City’s personnel costs will rise by $70,000 next fiscal year?

Because PERS is involved.

And although $70,000 is no trifling sum — that’ll get the city a police officer or a firefighter for a year — it’s a much more shallow gouge in the city’s general fund than some people had predicted.

PERS is Oregon’s retirement system for public employees.

And for workers who were hired before 1996, it’s a shockingly generous system.

Unfortunately, that generosity, at least for those long-term employees, is guaranteed even if PERS investments implode.

Which they did, along with much of the rest of the economy in 2008-09.

Although the stock market has rebounded considerably since, some analysts still predict that for the state, along with the cities, counties and school districts that keep PERS solvent, the worst days lie ahead.

For instance, Phil Keisling, the former Oregon Secretary of State, wrote a report late last year that within five years, some public agencies could have their PERS bill double.