« Gallery 19 Owner Arrested In "Portland Unite" Graffiti Case | Main | Meet the Contenders: Race for Commissioner Seat #1 »
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Election 2008 Busy Day at City Hall, Part 2
Posted by on Thu, Jan 31 at 5:22 PM
Mayoral candidate Sho Dozono just turned in 4,010 contributions forms, well over the 1,500 he needs to qualify for public financing. He’s the first candidate I’ve seen who’s needed a big box to hold all of the forms. And his campaign manager reports that they were still collecting forms todayor, rather, people were bringing them in. They cut people off at 3 pm, so they’d have enough time to process the final ones and get to city hall by 3:30 to file a request for certification.
He also reports that he’s pulled in about $20,000 in seed moneycontributions less than $100from roughly 300 donors. Combine, that’s about $40K in the bank, and the city will give him another $160K if his contributions check out.
Now, it’s time for the “sprint” toward the May 20 primary. The Dozono campaign will likely secure a campaign office this weekend, and will start to focus on the issues. The short campaign is still “plenty of time to get our message out,” says Dozono. Echoing a certain presidential candidate, Dozono says the voters “want a change in city government,” and he is the change.
He and his supportershe brought about two dozen of them todayshared a group hug, whooped “Go Team Sho,” and headed off.
Not long after Team Dozono departed, Paul Romain and Lila Leathers stopped in to file the paperwork to refer Sam Adams’ $463.7 milllion street fee to the ballot. As city elections officer Andrew Carlstrom went into the back to approve the petition and Leathers’ chief petitioner status, the two told me why they’re making the effort.
Leathers, who owns Leathers Fuels, calls the street fee a “regressive tax.”
“The voters should have the right to decide,” if the city should add it to their water bills, she says.
I asked Romain whether he gamed Adams, as he claimed Adams had gamed his group by splitting the measure into three, and making it nearly impossible to refer; Adams put it back into one once Romain pledged “not to refer the measures,” but Romainan attorneysaid what they agreed to was “very specific.” He didn’t say they’d support a single measure, and points out that in his email, he made it clear his group didn’t support the street fee.
How do they plan to win a campaign against a measure that’s backed by an 89-member steering committee that represents such diverse groups as the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Portland Business Alliance? Romain’s got his eye on the voters. “I can pretty much guarantee if [Adams] thought he had the votes for it, he would have referred it himself.”
Indeed, the original plan for the street fee was for the council to put it on the ballot. Adams told us last month that the decision not to put it on the ballot was “a question of leadership. Im willing to take the heat of enactment, even if that raised the possibility of a referendum effort. (Feeling a little warm, Sam?)
Romain says they might have petitions on the street as early as tomorrow, which gives them 28 days to collect 18,170 valid signatures.
Comments
"Adams plans to ask the City Council to place some or all of the plan estimated to raise $354.5 million over 10 years on the May 2008 ballot." -Portland Tribune, October 2007
"Last Friday, City Commissioner Sam Adams told the Portland Tribune that he has decided to not refer his Safe Sound and Green Streets transportation funding initiative to voters. Instead of including the proposal in the May primary elections, Adams will seek approval directly from City Council in January." -BikePortland.org, Dec 18
The original plan said there were three options. Those are the options I remember being talked about at my neighborhood meeting with Adams. I know it's been in the paper theother way, but when did Adams say it? Just because it was in the Tribune does not make it so. Here's the response to the issue from the editor of the Tribune
Re: Adams: No public vote on street fee
Jim Redden is getting his information about the enactment options, including the option of putting the matter to a public vote, from the literature provided by Adams and company at the town hall meetings:
Enactment Options
1.City council could enact SMSF and Gas Tax (January 08).
2.City council can put either measure on referendum.
3.General Obligation Bond or Vehicle Registration Fee needs public vote.
"Mark Ellis"
Yes, Adams always had either option (1 or 2 the part three is the county part, and they do have to put it on the ballot). As far as I was awareand granted, this was Scott Moore's territory at the timeAdams was leaning toward ballot, then opted not to (the biggest question in our minds was which ballotMay, or November?). When I asked him why he opted to give it to the council, he certainly didn't say "I never said I was going to put it on the ballot"he said he decided to be a leader and enact it.
Anyone that wants to see why we have failed over the last decade in Salem to make meaningful progress on transportation, education, or healthcare for low-income kids need only look into the cold empty eyes of lobbyists like Paul Romain and Mark Nelson. It would almost be funny if you could forget that their actions are resulting in so much suffering...
I can't wait to have a couple of months to use this referral to help Portlanders understand the amazing damage that these two have caused Oregon...
Anyone that wants to see why we have failed over the last decade in Salem to make meaningful progress on transportation, education, or healthcare for low-income kids need only look into the cold empty eyes of lobbyists like Paul Romain and Mark Nelson. It would almost be funny if you could forget that their actions are resulting in so much suffering...
I can't wait to have a couple of months to use this referral to help Portlanders understand the amazing damage that these two have caused Oregon...
Now that Sho Dozano has severed all business ties with Terry Beard (cantakerous obnoxious dishonest new money pig self proclaimed god) of Beard Frame Shops and of TheBigBidet.com, oops, I mean Thebigday.com, I will vote for him. Many business leaders in Portland feel the same way. He really did himself a serious diservice when he decided to trust someone like Terry Beard. After hearing of how Terry Beard has mistreated so many, including his own employees, we couldn't understand why Sho was doing business with him. Thanks Sho for restoring our faith in you. Wow. What if Terry Beard ran for Mayor. That would be a joke. He thinks he is going to write a book on manners when he doesn't have any. I was in the booth next to him at Ringside, and all he did was brag about himself. Sad. Again, many of us are rooting for Sho here in Portland after he got rid of Terry Beard.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).
Our Friends
- UrbanHonking
- Your Daily Awesome
- Portland Metroblogs
- Hype Machine
- Lelo in NoPo
- Furious Nads!
- Oregon Media Insiders
- Huffington Post
- Loaded Orygun
- Food Fight Grocery
- Jesus Christ's Blog
- Willamette Week
- BlueOregon
- Pampelmoose
- The Etchasketchist
Our Enemies
- Russian Amputee Brides
- God Hates Fags (Westboro Baptist Church)
- Portland Indy Media
- Oregon Republican Party
- Jack Bog's Blog
- The Stranger
- Men Who Look Like Kenny Rogers
- Any Dumbass Still Using MySpace
- Portland Monthly
- Life Decisions International
- Courtney Taylor-Taylor
- The Earthly Minions of Emperor Klaktu
When did this happen? I don't think this is correct, Amy:
"Indeed, the original plan for the street fee was for the council to put it on the ballot."