Crooks and schnooks

The original.

Another cheating scandal has rocked the "small donors program," Portland's misguided practice of handing out hard-earned tax dollars to worthless mayor and City Council candidates for use in their political campaigns. Sophie, Flower Child of the Weed, has busted about a dozen council hopefuls and a mayoral candidate for plotting, or even agreeing, in writing, to swap campaign contributions with each other. The exchanges would enable them to qualify for matching funds from the city on account of contributions they didn't really receive because they gave up the quid pro quo.

The candidates who exchanged emails about trading donations between Aug. 7 and 9 include Chad Lykins, Michael DiNapoli and Michael Trimble in District 4 and Sam Sachs in District 2. Three others in the email chain, Theo Hathaway Saner, Kelly Janes and Thomas Shervey, invited donations from fellow candidates but did not explicitly agree to swap donations....

Now additional emails obtained over the weekend show that another five candidates for city office—four City Council candidates and one candidate for mayor—also agreed to swap donations.

The candidates are Eric Zimmerman, a leading candidate in District 4; two other candidates in that district, former Alaskan mayor Bob Weinstein and small business owner Ben Hufford; and District 1 candidate Thomas Shervey. Liv Osthus, the famed Portland stripper running for mayor, is also seen in emails agreeing to swap donations....

New emails obtained by WW show that two other candidates appear to agree to swap donations: Luke Zak in District 3 and Cayle Tern in District 1.

The politico wannabes' scheme is of dubious legality, so much so that the Oregon secretary of state, Lavonne Griffin-Valade, has launched an investigation into what the candidates have been doing. LGV should know the ropes well, as she was the city auditor in Portland around the time the system, initially called "clean money," was dreamed up in 2006.

Of course, no sooner had "clean money" been invented, during the reign of genius Erik "Opie" Sten, than it was gamed by a council candidate named Emilie Boyles (pictured), who illegally diverted much of her City Hall handout. She was found liable to pay the city back, but I doubt that happened. She was last heard from on the radio in Glendive, Montana. There was also some highly suspect activity by another candidate that year, Lucinda Tate, but that part got swept under the rug while they crucified Boyles.

Susceptibility to fraud and manipulation is just one thing wrong with Portland's public financing of the local politicians' campaigns. The main problem is that it has failed to produce any improvement in the quality of the people who are elected. If anything, it's resulted in even less capable people sitting in the mayor and council chairs.

Another serious problem with the system is that it's weird. Here's a recent story (paywall, sorry) about how two of the main mayoral candidates, Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio, took the maximum City Hall handout but are still going to get big bucks from the moneyed interests.

The top campaign strategists for Portland mayoral contenders Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio have each quietly departed their respective posts, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned.

Both are now preparing to launch outside political groups geared toward raising and spending significant amounts of money to advance their preferred candidate in the months leading up to November’s election, the pair confirmed Tuesday.

Dean Nielsen, founder of Seattle-based CN4 Partners, said he stepped down as a consultant to the Gonzalez campaign about two weeks ago. Meanwhile, Paige Richardson, a longtime Oregon political operative, said she is wrapping up her work with Rubio within the next couple of days.

Their efforts signal that a small but powerful band of people and interest groups — such as unions, nonprofits and large real estate owners and developers — will likely have an outsized influence in Portland’s mayoral contest. 

If they can do that, how can the "small donors" system say with a straight face that it's getting private money out of politics? It seems to be failing miserably even on its own silly terms.

What will happen next? I suspect the candidates exposed in the latest gaming of the system will all be slapped down somehow, worsening their chances of getting elected. I don't think any of them are part of the Portland Democratic machine, and so they're as expendable to the party bosses as Shemia Fagan was. Off with their heads! And I can't say I feel any sympathy for them whatsoever.

Are you like me, are you fascinated by spreadsheets? I've made up some for the 117 bobbleheads running for City Council, and I put a "$" next to the ones named in the scandal so far. I'll be using these sheets to figure out who gets my endorsement and votes next month. They're here; if they would do you any good, feel free to use them. I'll be updating them with more data as I sort out the crowd between now and the election.

Of course, in any sane city you wouldn't have to have spreadsheets. But this is Portland, City of Roses. Nothing's too weird.