When Sen. Frank Morse visited our offices a few weeks back to chat with the editorial board, he was anticipating an afternoon spent with his grandsons.

Of course, we talked of politics, and of his possible run for statewide office - something he would be eminently capable of. But after being the state senator for District 8 in Benton and Linn counties since 2002, the 66-year-old former head of the Morse Bros. aggregate and construction business has a businessman's practicality about the whole thing:

Any Republican candidate for governor is facing long odds. A moderate Republican who has championed tax reform tied to a designated sales tax; who supported civil unions for same-sex couples and who has fought his own party as much as those across the aisle?

Well, he'd give it some thought. And he did. But now Morse has said he won't join Republican candidates Allen Alley, a Lake Oswego businessman, and former state legislator John Lim, who ran for governor in 1990 and represented the Gresham area.

On the Democratic side, Corvallis independent consultant Steve Shields, a former Hewlett-Packard executive, is up against two-time former Gov. John Kitzhaber, who served between 1995 and 2003, and former Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.

Although we still believe that Morse would have brought a valuable combination of practicality, diplomacy and that intangible something - that sense that he could handle the big crises - we understand and respect his decision.

After all, he said that his wife was not all that excited about the prospect, and it is a pressure-cooker of a job.

But we are gratified that Morse plans to seek re-election to the Legislature because that is just where his talents are most needed.

With a Democratic super-majority in power in Salem, he told us that his input wasn't much needed or heeded during the 2009 Legislative session, especially when he warned that putting two tax proposals forth as a way to balance the budget not only sent the wrong signal, it was a waste of time.

He probably was right about that, and we think the smarter folks in Salem will give Morse a greater role, regardless of how the elections go next year. His ability to broker consensus will come in handy when some of that supermajority erodes.

The campaign trail is littered with the failed candidates who were capable but who lacked that essential ability to inspire confidence. Not only does Morse have that in abundance, but he backs his ideas with facts - as unfashionable as that may be in an era when mere perception is declared to be everything.

We are confident that the voters in Benton and Linn counties will return to him to the statehouse for a third term.

And who knows about the governor's race, 2014? Sure, Morse is 66 now. But you know what they (... well, we ...) say: 70-something is the new 50ish.

Related

• Morse decides against running for governor