I understand your sense of frustration. It's not an easy choice. I supported Atkinson, but didn't vote for him, having moved across the river a few years ago to improve my take home pay.
There are worse things than a do-nothing Dem, an activist RINO, for instance. Kulongowski hasn't *done* much wrong, or much good either. From a conservative point of view that's not a bad place to be.
I don't remember what Saxton is for, acutually. But I would probably tend to vote for him anyway because shaking up the political machine is a good thing. Kulongowski, as I mentioned above, is certainly at the heart of it.
For the same reasons replacing the corrupt Katz administration with Potter was a plus, even if it didn't fundamentally change the politics of Portland going from far-left, socialist nutcase-led to mid-left soft-socialist semi-rationalism is a good thing.