Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 This week's Fickle Finger of Blame falls again on last week's victim, the City Club of Portland. As we reported last week, the City Club is hosting a series of fall candidate debates, beginning Oct. 6 with a forum for state treasure hopefuls: Democrat Randall Edwards, Republican Jon Kvistad and Libertarian Mitch Shults. It's Shults' inclusion that caught our attention. After all, minor-party candidates normally don't get the City Club treatment. The inclusion of Shults, a well-financed but little-known high-tech exec, was all the more odd given that the club has not included under-funded but well-known activist Lloyd Marbet, of the Pacific Green Party, in the Oct. 13 secretary of state debate. Last week, in an effort to explain the different treatment City Club officials justified Shults' inclusion by saying during an Aug. 29 interview that in that race, they had invited all three candidates running for the office. Oops. It turns out that the day before, Carlos F. Lucerno of the Constitution Party and Leonard Zack of the Reform Party filed their candidacies for treasurer and will indeed be on the ballot. This puts City Club officials in a bit of a bind. As we see it, they can now do one of three things: 1. Invite Lucerno and Zack to join the treasurer's debate. 2. Uninvite Shults to the Oct. 6 debate. 3. Admit that this is a subjective call, let Shults stay in the debate and add Marbet to the Oct. 13 lineup. In our view, option 3 is the best choice. Here's why: If Shults makes good on his promise to spend $250,000 on this race, he will be a credible candidate, and the public deserves the chance to see his views expressed in something other than campaign ads. Marbet doesn't need a healthy bankroll to warrant serious consideration. He knows the issues and is running an active campaign. Both of Marbet's rivals, GOP candidate Lynn Snodgrass and Democrat Bill Bradbury, say they'd love to have him join them in Portland. As of Tuesday, however, the City Club was sticking with its lineup. We urge you to write the City Club and let your feelings be known. Mail it to: City Club of Portland Program Committee, 317 SW Alder St., Suite 1050, Portland, OR 97204. Fax it to: 228-8840. Or email your views to info@pdxcityclub.org.