Who in the hell is John R Kroger?

Yesterday I noticed that Kos had done a rundown of the US Senate picture for a few states. Oregon was included.

Among the names tossed about by "locals" (which locals? who around here talks to Markos, anyway?) to challenge Gordon Smith is John R. Kroger.

I consider myself reasonably plugged in to Oregon politics. That name rang absolutely no bells for me.

I'm supposing that it should. Kroger is a former federal prosecutor who assisted in kicking Enron's ass and apparently some mafia kingpins, too. He's now an Associate Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark.

To beat Gordon Smith he'll need money, a good staff and name ID. I'm pretty sure given my own reaction, he's got a long way to go on the name ID. I'm thinking the other two items aren't there yet either.

Did someone just pull this guy's name out of their ass or what?

Update: I was too busy yesterday to notice that Blue-O had already talked about Kroger. And that Kroger had commented there and has no intention of running for Senate. His real ambition is Oregon Attorney General.