Oregon Public Broadcasting

It's impossible to turn on the TV in Lane County without catching ads for the Eugene mayor's race -- one of the most contentious and expensive in recent memory.

Incumbent mayor Kitty Piercy is running for re-election, vowing to continue a platform of planned growth, and improvement in quality of life issues.

Her challenger is a man who's very familiar in the community -- Jim Torrey, the former state legislator who served as Eugene's mayor from the late '90s til 2005. Now he says he wants the job back.