The killing time
The reporters at Willamette Weed are predictable. They like to assassinate the careers of the local politicians, and they pick their timing with great care to inflict maximum damage. Usually it's a politician they don't like.
This time around, the scribes have undertaken to disparage Rene Gonzalez and Keith Wilson in the Portland mayor's race, while not turning over a spade of dirt on Carmen Rubio. With the ballots in the voters' hands, Sophie Peel is crucifying Wilson for allegedly gaming the city's misguided public campaign finance system. Now is also when Nigel Jaquiss would have gone after Gonzalez's driving record from years ago, but for the fact that even worse tales about Rubio surfaced seven weeks ago, forcing old Nigel's hand to detonate the Gonzalez grenade prematurely.
The Weed's official endorsement is Wilson for mayor, and practically speaking, it's too late now to change that. But Rubio is their second choice, and one can't help believing that's who Peel favors.
Too many candidates have played games with the silly Portland campaign finance setup, once known as "clean money." That program was misguided from the start and needs to be abandoned. Wilson's playing coy, more so than many of the other bobblehead candidates, but he must have known that he was jerking the taxpayers around. Shame on him and on the many, many other politicians who have worked the same charade.
Could you imagine Rubio as mayor?! It would be like JVP 2.0: City Edition. She would make Dud Wheeler look amazing.
ReplyDeleteI don’t see any positive features in Rubio’s “credentials”. Yet, she gathers support from many local political “wise guys”. What am I missing?
ReplyDeleteThat she can be manipulated by the monied powers that manipulate all of these bobbleheads to get what they want.
DeleteShe's part of the machine, and they need that machine to keep running, as part of it's core function is to pump money from public funds to private holdings.
And that also pumps money from public funds to well connected nongovernmental organizations and non-profits.
DeleteWhy all the excitement over the mayoral race? Spend $-zillions to be elected to a non-job, engineered by some of the people now running for....city council. Candace et. al. know something that no one else seems to know--except for Liv Osthus, who correctly called it "mostly ceremonia.l" That Bottomly and Zusman are focused on the mayoral race--they can't afford to cover the council races--is evidence of a kind of tuching senility among our dinosaur media chieftains.
ReplyDeleteAll power to the 25-percenters! And how soon will we call the eventual robo-election victor in the mayoral "the second best."
You're right that the Mayor of Portland will become a largely ceremonial position on Jan 1, 2025 thanks to charter "reform". However, also under charter "reform," the mayor hires/manages/fires the new City Manager. Also, the mayor retains his office as the Police Commissioner.
DeleteThe mayor is also the tie-breaking vote on the City Council. In a Council made up of losers (in any place other than Bizarro World Portland a 25%-er would be a loser), that's going to happen more than you may think.
DeleteSomeone suggested that although the mayor hires the manager, the mayor can't fire the manager. I don't know if that's true.
DeleteAlso, as my blog post has illustrated, a winner in the City Council races doesn't have to have even 25% of the total votes cast. In my example, one candidate won with 23.9 percent: https://www.bojack2.com/2024/10/its-rank-all-right-part-6-of-6-i-promise.html
It does not appear that the mayor can unilaterally fire the city manager. However, one thing the mayor can do is fail/refuse to hire a city manager in the first place. In that instance, the mayor acts as the city manager until one is hired. With some of the candidates, I could see them using that strategy for a while.
DeleteWell from the crowd that is so detached from reality that they refer to mothers as birthing persons and chest feeders, anything reminding them they have gone cray cray is too disturbing for them. So of course they have to endorse fellow whackos and try to smear the adults in the room.
ReplyDeleteThe term "birthing person" was never intended to replace "mother." Birthing person is used in healthcare settings or when discussing reproductive rights to include trans men and nonbinary people who can, and do, give birth. Why do you have a problem with that? Because you don't respect the rights of trans and nonbinary people to exist? You want them to erase an entire group of people because you think they're cray cray? It's not a good look.
DeleteErase them for sure. "Who can and do give birth" ????? You're outta your fucking mind!
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