Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Election 2008 Is Sho Dozono Breaking His Fundraising Pledge?

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz on Wed, Apr 30 at 12:14 PM

After Sho Dozono was booted out of the public financing program, he stepped back into the race as a privately financed candidate—but pledged to stick to “the spirit” of public financing, and cap his contributions at $200,000, the same amount a publicly financed candidate for mayor gets.

“To stay true to our community and to the spirit of Voter-Owned Elections, I will accept no contributions over $500 to my campaign, and will pledge, like my opponent, to cap fundraising at $200,000,” Dozono said in a statement on March 25. “It will take every penny and every volunteer to make our grass-roots effort successful in the limited number of days left before the ballots go in the mail, but as and the owner of a once-struggling business, I know how to spend wisely.”

I could take issue with that last bit on spending wisely, given the recent reports that Dozono owes thousands in back rent to the city, for his Bush Gardens restaurant at the bottom of a downtown SmartPark garage. (And according to local filmmaker Matt McCormick, Dozono’s excuse—that construction limited access to his restaurant and hampered business, as far back as March 1, when he started withholding rent—is bullshit. And he’s got the videotape, though it isn’t posted.)

But let’s stick with the fundraising cap. Dozono has already surpassed it. ORESTAR records as of today show that he’s raised $205,766.62 in cash, plus $10,957.19 in in-kind contributions (that massive poll isn’t reflected in those numbers, either).

And just today, his campaign started selling tickets to a May 9 fundraiser at Jimmy Mak’s, for $20 to $100 per person. I’ve got a message in to his campaign, to ask why they’ve already surpassed the cap, and are about to leapfrog even further beyond it.

Indeed, those pledges are malleable. Over at Adams’ campaign, he bumped up his original $200,000 cash contribution pledge to reflect Dozono’s pricey poll and an offer Dozono made to the Adams campaign when the poll was under scrutiny. “We’ve said 227,295 cash for the primary, per accepting Sho’s offer in his sworn statement,” says Adams’ campaign manager Jennifer Yocom. “We had never placed a cap on in kinds.” Adams has raised $189,592.47 in cash so far, with another $21,641.43 in in-kind contributions.

But Dozono hasn’t given a public reason for raising more than he said he would.

“It seems that now Mr. Dozono is going back on his word yet again,” says Yocom. Will Adams raise his cap again? “I will have to see what our campaign considers. With his spotty track record on honesty, I don’t trust Mr. Dozono to be honest with the public or the press on what his caps actually are. We are not going leave ourselves undefended in this race.”

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Comments

Just keep bashing Sho...it actually helps him when you do, because people realize they don't want someone who the hipsters like (aka Scam). Your grandstanding for SCAM Adams is disgusting Amy! Adams is ruining this city!

You do have nice big boobies though!

Posted by FoSHO | April 30, 2008 1:13 PM

These caps, on both sides, are silly and specious. Just wait until the independent expenditures start hitting. "Well," they'll say. "We can't control what other people do."

Posted by Dave Lister | April 30, 2008 1:26 PM

I actually love the universal and constant one-sided bias of the Merc. It may not be credible any more, but it is highly entertaining.

Posted by Joe | April 30, 2008 2:22 PM

Just curious: Have any of you Sho supporters actually MET Sho? Or better yet, ever heard him put together a single coherent idea of how he could improve Portland?

Posted by J.Z. Thomas | April 30, 2008 3:14 PM

Yes, I've met Sho (once, at a lunch thingie a month or so ago).

And no, I don't support him. I don't really dig either candidate, but in the end I'll probably vote for Adams under the "lesser evil" banner. That doesn't mean I still can't be highly entertained by the laughably biased "coverage" of the campaign on this site, however.

Posted by Joe | April 30, 2008 3:24 PM

Yeah, "facts" have a funny way of making me biased. It's weird, really.

Posted by Wm. Steven Humphrey | April 30, 2008 3:25 PM

When you report some and ignore others, obviously yes. Or did you skip that year at journo school to watch American Idol re-runs all day? And no, it's not weird. It's funny.

Posted by Joe | April 30, 2008 3:46 PM

What are these facts the Merc is supposedly leaving out? Did Sam fail to pay for his chicken license, and the Mercury is covering it up for him? Because that's a story I'd like to hear.

Posted by Jessica Roberts | April 30, 2008 3:53 PM

I assume that the Merc would skewer Sam as mercilessly as they have Sho if Sam had no idea what he really wanted to do for the city, if Sam ILLEGALLY withheld permit and taxes owed and then went on TV to brag about it (withholding rent, so long as said rent goes into an escrow account pending resolution of a landlord-tenant dispute is usually legal)and if Sam's solution to every problem were to form a committee to look at the issues. Could this election be anymore clear cut? Sho will make a great trade ambassador for the city, Sam will make a good, perhaps great mayor.

Sho gets this kind of treatment because he deserves it. Show us some facts that support calling Sam "SCAM", a scam implies personal financial gain. You got evidence? Or even a rumor you didn't start yourself?

Posted by redcellpolitical | April 30, 2008 4:01 PM

Both candidates suck, is nobody asking about the $879 million public debt portland has set to take in just the last 6 months???

Posted by gl | April 30, 2008 5:08 PM

Strange as it may sound, many people rely on journalists to ferret out facts and present them for general consumption. Its called being informed. It can be hard to gauge if there are facts missing surrounding a particular issue or not if the journalists charged with reporting it are too busy schmoozing the subjects they are covering.

Posted by frank bonema | April 30, 2008 10:27 PM

If there's "a particular issue" you'd like me to ferret in, drop me a line—amy at portlandmercury.com. I'm game to poke into any candidates' background.

Truth be told, though, dirt on Adams is hard to come by. You may disagree with him up and down on the issues—everyone's got an opinion on him and his personality—but he seems to have a knack for not leaving big messes behind. Unless there are ones I'm unaware of. Like I said—let me know, and I'll look into it.

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz | April 30, 2008 11:52 PM

In 2002, mayor Katz, with Sam as chief of staff, started working with OHSU's Kohler on the south waterfront project. The goal was the creation of a huge, biotech industry cluster. Kohler successfully lobbied Katz to pursue the public investments in infrastructure, including the tram, to support the development.

In an interview with Brainstorm NW magazine that same year, Ralph Shaw predicted that biotech was not going to happen with OHSU in the South Waterfront. He suggested that BNW ask to see Kohler's business plan. BNW was promised a meeting by Kohler, but it was postponed several times and finally just died. Shaw told the editors of the magazine that the reason the meeting never happened was because there was no business plan.

Despite sound predictions of the failure of biotech, Adams picked up where his mentor left off and saw to the completion of the tram and the massive public investments in south waterfront.

We now know the truth. OHSU is broke, the public has paid for a health club for the doctors and condos for speculators, Adams admits the project is bankrupt and the needed improvements cannot be completed and there are no biotech jobs. Never will be.

Meanwhile, we are told that fees must be raised to fix the roads, the police stations are closed at night and basic city services continue to suffer massive cuts.

How's that for leaving a mess?

Posted by Dave Lister | May 1, 2008 9:23 AM

And then of course you could point to the fact that he never returned the phone calls from Columbia Sportswear when they wanted to move corporate hq's to the East Bank. Ask Tim Boyle about that Ms. Ruiz. Otherwise just keep printing stuff that Mark Weiner sends you.

Posted by J Ramsay | May 2, 2008 1:26 PM