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Friday, March 12, 2010

Politics Does Anyone Still Care About the Metro President Race?

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 3:38 PM

Remember those fleeting golden days (last Monday) before Ted Wheeler was appointed interim state treasurer, setting off a domino effect where eight people leaped into county races at the last minute? Remember how back then, all that time ago, there was only one really contentious local race, the one between Rex Burkholder, Bob Stacey and Tom Hughes for Metro President?

Monday night I attended a Metro President candidate debate hosted by Portland Monthly editor Randy Gragg... and in all the filing day madness, I never got around to posting about it until now.

In contrast the Metro candidates' big, boisterous first debate (held in front of Metro union members at the Kennedy School), Portland Monthly and City Club hosted last night’s debate in the moody, candle-lit confines of Jimmy Mak’s jazz club in the Pearl. The candidates cracked inside jokes about City Club. I spilled water on myself.

Rex played well to this crowd and was the only candidate to get rounds of applause after his responses to Gragg’s questions. The discussion focused on intensely wonky details of the urban/rural reserve plan (What are your opinions on the incorporation of the North Bethany parcel of land? Go!) and business development.

The audience did not have much of a chance to get involved, though. After 70 minutes of debate, Gragg turned to the crowd, “There’s a lot of smart people in the room, I’m wondering if any of you have burning questions?”
“I’d like to hear more about the Columbia River Crossing,” piped up a woman in the back of the room.
“We’ll get to that,” said Gragg, who then returned to asking his own question about David Bragdon’s legacy and the Intertwine.

Finally, twenty minutes later, the candidates got the chance to talk about the CRC.

"How do we move forward from here? The process seems pretty stuck right now," said Gragg.

Hughes went first. "This is the bridge that meets the needs not only for our region but for folks north of the region. This bridge is essential to moving freight around the region. The current bottleneck threatens our port," said Hughes.

Stacey, who replied next, had the exact opposite answer. "We’re not going to build this, it’s not going to happen. And we shouldn’t build it... I say we keep the current bridges and reinforce them."

"I wish Bob would have joined the committee. I think we asked 1000 Friends five times to join the committee and I guess it wasn’t important enough," replied Burkholder, when his turn came. "I agree with Tom, this is not the next Metro president job. It needs to happen today. It’s the governor’s job and the DOT needs to bring it home. If we don’t act now, we won’t qualify for federal funding... Are we going to be responsible enough to stand up and say this is the problem of our generation?"

 

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My guess is that Bob (and 1000 Friends) sent testimony and testified about it. It's pretty clear what 1000 Friends thought of it.

Rex is complaining Bob was too smart to serve on committees that railroad you after just wasting huge amounts of your time (see BTA on CRC Committee)? Weak sauce.

And the idea that we have to act now is completely at odds with what anyone is saying about the federal transportation bill being a couple years away.

Of course, being wrong on facts is par for the course for Rex, who claimed that there was "broad consensus" on this project because enviros and local electeds don't count, I suppose.
Posted by No CRC on March 12, 2010 at 6:18 PM · Report

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