Portland District 4: A first cut
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| (L to R) Callahan, Thompson, Arnold. |
I've looked over the field for the last three of the 12 Portland City Council seats up for grabs, in District 4. This district encompasses the whole west side of the city, plus some relatively toney districts in southeast that had to be roped in because the ludicrous charter commission did such a poor job of setting the number of districts. The three council members from District 4 will serve two-year terms; the 2026 race will be for a full four-year gig.
I must say, this strikes me as the weakest field of the four districts. A few of the candidates are not serious, and several others are simply nuts. But I think I have identified three adults worth voting for: police officer Eli Arnold, attorney Bob Callahan, and hotel manager Ciatta Thompson.
Beyond those three, I have two alternates, but I have some concerns about both of them. They are former drug addiction worker Tony Morse, and property manager John Toran. If voters have a problem with any of my top three, they'd be the next two. But I'd proceed with caution on either of them.
The rest are hard no's. And some of them, of all the 117 bobbleheads running for city office, are the very worst. Please don't do it.
With that, my first cut at the four City Council districts is complete. My take on District 1 is here; on District 2, here (amended here); and on District 3, here. I'll get a post up on the mayor's race soon, but spoiler alert: It's Keith Wilson followed by Rene Gonzalez.
I still have not written about the extreme and outrageous methodology by which the votes will be counted and the winners thereby chosen. I'm not sure I'll ever fully understand that ridiculous process, but I'll try. Not that anyone should have to. The Portland version of "rank choice" voting should never have been adopted, and will eventually, like so many far-out ballot measures around here, be regretted.
Anyway, as with all of the districts, I'm open to discussion about the candidates. Readers, help us out.
UPDATE, Oct. 8: I've changed to Gonzalez first, Wilson second for mayor. I'm not being strategic; I've just decided that Gonzo is a more proven commodity.
I want to like Callahan, but his Voters' Pamphlet statement is just a string of banalities with little clues to his policy priorities.
ReplyDeleteThompson is great until you get toward the end of her Voters' Pamphlet statement: "Push for the establishment of a Public Utility District to manage Portland’s energy costs." If anyone's seen their water/sewer bill, you'll see that a loser of an idea. As someone once said, "If you put the government in charge of the Sahara, in a few years there'll be a shortage of sand."
Jack is right ... District 4 has the worst candidates of all. Only two of them are close to acceptable: Eli Arnold and Kevin Goldsmith.
Callahan is a smart, level-headed guy who's had a successful career practicing law. He's also a lifelong Portlander who's seen what's gone wrong.
DeleteI love that Thompson wants to go after the water bureau. They're the biggest money-wasters this town has ever seen.
Goldsmith doesn't seem to be running a serious campaign. No website, blew off the Oregonian questionnaire, and the answers he gave to the kids at the Merc are vague in the extreme.
What’s the DQ on Zimmerman? Those are actual answers in his interviews and he’s a yes on many things people would like changed or enforced?
ReplyDeleteImplicated in the donation-swapping scandal. And he doesn't need the money. That rings my gong.
DeleteZimmerman is pretty good on the policy stuff, but ... he works for MultCo and once served on the Portland mayor's staff. That's why Zimmerman - more than anyone else - should know that engaging in the donation-swapping scheme was a big "NO NO" politically, ethically, and legally. If that's how cavalier he is with "small donations," then I have little faith in him getting the big stuff right.
ReplyDeleteWhat's your problem with Olivia Clark? The endorsement from Kitzhaber?
ReplyDeleteKitzhaber, Tri-Met, Ginny Burdick, Carmen Rubio, Dan Saltzman, tired tired tired. Plus, the Street Trust! She's just more of the same.
DeleteI live in this district, and I agree with you on the sorry caliber of the candidates. So far I have found one -- Eli Arnold -- who is worth ranking. Moses Ross is one of the worst. Portlanders need more empathy? No, we need more intelligence.
ReplyDeleteThis might help you understand Ranked Choice Voting. It’s the best explanation I’ve seen:
https://portlanddissent.substack.com/p/tim-scott-splains-it-all
An additional detail: If Ballot Measure 117 passes on the November ballot, all federal and statewide offices in Oregon will revert to Ranked Choice Voting. In which case, it could all come back to bite Tina Kotek in the rear-end when she runs for re-election. Particularly if Nicholas Kristof decides to try again.
What are your concerns about the two alternates?
ReplyDeleteTom potter *tried* to push for PUD power in ‘03 in an off-year election.
ReplyDeleteColumbia River PUD was formed in 1999 when we still had some energy intensive heavy industry out that way that could organize for it & + it probably wasn’t *that* important/that many people at the time for PGE to really fight it + public distrust of Enron/private utilities out that way and the recent closure of Trojan in 1993 w/little transmission loss with the lines from it backstopping hydropower thru Columbia county.
Anyway, PUDs get priority to buy power from BPA in ways private scam utilities like PgE and their corporate board + that gets paid first/ is always Leaching off is and vulnerable to outside capital acquisition do not.
Plus, the extra layer of Energy trust ‘regulatory’ layer of bureaucracy bobblehead/do-gooders & highly paid admin bloat…great!
I will say, private utilities charging for time of use power and higher rates to incentivize more energy efficient homes and local solar installs isn’t a bad thing, and nuclear power, which we could use a good bit more of if the alternative is fossil fuel, but almost all civilian nuclear power is private/not standardized in construction in the USA unlike France or Sweden or Finland , sadly, but I don’t think there’s any particularly good case for private electric utilities in the usa?
Even Seattle light and Eugene’s coop, which don’t have rates a *ton* cheaper than PGE are waaay better and out-compete us.
Of course, crypto and big-tech have parasitically attached their power hungry servers to the cheapest-rate PUD in OR; the dalles instead of actual useful industry that makes shit like the goldendale Aluminum smelter.
Better hydropower than burning coal so they can scrape your data and spy on you & sell your job to someone behind a desk in Mumbai, Indonesia etc they pay $1/hr/day, but Cheap rate PUD hydropower augmented by even really safe nuclear w/legal fuel reprocessing and repository Finland style shouldn’t be a societal crutch to keep our bad land use, housing and other practices imo?
It’s a total scandal/scam that we’re getting as fucked/scammed/mismanaged as we are when our water is federally protected surface source & bonneville dam is in multnomah, co. Amazing!
And longshoremen in an inland sheltered port with lots of flatland around unload to rail or barge all the way to Lewiston, ID in a time of rising sea levels that would somehow drive business outta the city,,:
Only we could achieve this / fail so spectacularly!
Idk, public or private I have NO confidence we’re gonna hurry up & grow up, attract some competence, worth-ethic and imagination/talent to this corrupt incompetent lazy laughing stock clown show disgrace of a city…
Kelly Doyle threw his hat in the ring lazily and sloppily at the last minute?
ReplyDeleteSo many candidates in this rank (rank is right/I can smell it in the uniform roster county from here!) -choice clown show!
I had a chance recently to chat with Eli Arnold. I came away really impressed with his knowledge and solutions for some of the cities biggest issues. He’s seen the problems Portland faces first hand. He is a really sharp guy, and seems very smart.
ReplyDelete