Does it count as multi-modal if you get thrown under the bus?

It's too bad the TV show Portlandia is no longer in production. The Carmen Rubio bad-driving-scofflaw scandal would make for at least one good episode. Another epic comedy scene took place the other day, when the ditzy crew at the Street Trust revoked their endorsement of Loose Cannon Carmen over her atrocious behavior as a driver.

You may recall that the Street Trust is a car-hater nonprofit (once known as the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) currently headed by Sarah "Yada Yada" Iannarone, herself an ex-finalist for the Portland mayor's job. They have a separate dark money sister organization, an "action fund," for politics. The latter organization endorsed Rubio for mayor, apparently sometime over the summer. And when the story broke in the O two weeks ago about Rubio's 150 parking and traffic violations and six driver’s license suspensions, they shrugged her issues off and doubled down on their endorsement, saying:

This behavior falls short of the safety, transparency, and accountability we expect from leaders we endorse. However, after careful consideration, we believe that no other candidate in the race is as poised as Rubio to advance the The Street Trust Action Fund’s mission or the urgent transportation safety reforms Portland needs.

While we do not in any way excuse Rubio’s behavior and we unequivocally condemn her repeated infractions, we believe that her life experiences can teach her directly (albeit the hard way) the urgent need for reform and significant investment to ensure safe, equitable, mobility for our most vulnerable system users, and how we can adopt a more equitable approach to transportation justice....

While this incident is disappointing, we believe that Carmen Rubio remains the best candidate to deliver on the transportation safety issues that matter most to our community. We continue to support her candidacy because we know that her leadership will make Portland’s streets safer for everyone.

Iannarone's group took a bunch of flak for hanging in there with Rubio. A lot of the commentary on the internet was critical of the organization for not backing away from her in light of her lawless ways.

Then came the second story, this past Wednesday, about Rubio's parking lot accident, which happened on Friday the 13th. She scraped a Tesla while steering into her parking space, and walked away without leaving a note. It was captured on video. 

That was all the excuse that the bike children at the Street Trust needed to pull the plug. On Thursday, the tone was quite different from what it had been just a couple of days before:

As Oregon’s only complete streets and transportation safety Action Fund, we cannot say that we will endorse candidates to hold them accountable and then not do so; for this reason, in light of allegations that last week Rubio damaged a parked car and walked away, we are withholding further support of her campaign until we see real change. We still believe her positions are the best in the race, but her driving has become a distraction – one which flies in the face of our values.

Somebody with money probably called. (Interestingly, the head of the "action fund" is listed with the state as being a person named Drusilla Van Hengel. Maybe she got the call.)

Rubio's also lost the endorsement of one of her union allies, and she reportedly told the victim of her parking lot episode that she was thinking of dropping out of the mayor's race. I doubt she was sincere about that, but one can hope.

Meanwhile, you can almost hear the voice of Fred Armisen saying, "We're Oregon’s only complete streets and transportation safety Action Fund," can't you? They file a postcard report with the IRS every year, which means they receive less than $50,000 a year. Ron Wyden's money people raise that much before breakfast.