Jack,
This could be my only chance to one up you ever, so please don’t be offended if I take it. Your predictions have shown amazing accuracy but here’s our leads from January 18th.
Yours:
"Clean money" goes on the ballot
Despite the best efforts of the Portland City Council, the city's voters are going to have their say on whether their tax dollars should go to pay for local politicians' political campaigns. The local business interests who are opposed to the city's new public campaign finance system have turned in way more than enough signatures to put it on the May ballot.

The Portland Freelancer:
ENOUGH SIGNATURES FOR CLEAN MONEY? MAYBE
It's been a while since the Ralph Nader signature-verifying process, but the stench continues. I'll believe Clean Money makes the ballot after the signatures are "checked." Sometimes in this state, the citizens don't follow the rules just right. You know, a page number here, the wrong paper clip there, and, darn it, there aren't enough signatures after all.

Chalk one up for the new guy.

"Way more" than necessary wasn't enough, apparently.

Of all the signatures that ever got checked by an elections official, you can bet these will be checked, rechecked, and triple-checked.

Oh well. At least Tom Imeson's wife got enough for a new Lexus out of the deal. It's the little things, people.

So, let me get this straight. The crowd of long-time power brokers who feared what public financing might bring, and who routinely, through outlets such as the Portland Business Alliance, claim they know best how to run things, failed to even run a proper signature-gathering campaign?

I think I will drink to that.

Drink to Ted Blazsak and his bawdy crew of Blazsers over at Democracy Resources.

Dudes took $200,000 of rich people money, and delivered a truckload of something worth less than manure.

http://www.democracyresources.com/success.html

Who's going to pay the $175,000 in debt for the signature gathering campaign?

What does the LLC in Laura Imeson LLC stand for?

Jack, I'm pleased to see that you were leaning toward voting for Voter Owned Elections, but you still will get a chance to have a say on this after a few cycles.

As your post on the First Things First contributors suggests, electoral politics in Portland may have a few problems but PGE, Qwest and downtown developers having too little political power just isn't one of them.

"but you still will get a chance to have a say on this after a few cycles."

Thank you, commisar - Perhaps by then I will be smart enough to be allowed to vote.

you still will get a chance to have a say on this after a few cycles.

Actually, I think we'll get a say on it this year. Which is why we'll have one, and maybe two, new faces on the City Council come Jan. 1.

There is quite a buzz going on in town that the failure of clean money to make the ballot was not caused by incompetence. The cause, so goes the buzz, was a concerted effort by those who support clean money to intentionally sign more than once on petitions and to use other tactics that would cause the petition to fail.

For the record, that effort, if confirmed, is a felony.

This may be the first some of you have heard of this. It will not be the last.

**** and his henchmen have used these tactics in the past and have gotten away with it. They have woefully underestimated the resolve of the group they fxxked with this time.

In addition to being very pissed off these guys are filthy rich.

This may well be the undoing of Mr. Sten

In addition to being very pissed off these guys are filthy rich.

This may well be the undoing of Mr. Sten

I think you may be overdramatizing the latest news. The downtown boys were throwing heavy weight to get rid of Mr. Big Ideas even before their clean money signature fiasco. At the moment, I'm sure he's laughing loud and hearty.

As for your accusations, they're pretty irresponsible without any hard evidence to back them up. Sure, it's possible, but lots of things are possible.

Jack, you wrote an earlier post on the repeal's narrow financial backers: My word, it's every motley member of the West Hills Network, out from under every rock. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Read the list here. I'll go down the roster villain by villain some other time when I have the energy. But for now, I'll just note that everything that's wrong with Portland is well represented. My word, it's every motley member of the West Hills Network, out from under every rock.

I don't make predictions about these local races, but if you're thinking of casting a vote for Ginny Burdick as a vessel for reform, you might want to take a look at her C&Es when they come out as well. I guarantee you're going to see a strikingly similar cast of characters.

Ginny's website reads "I am going to raise money the old fashion way." That's one promise she's likely to keep.

Speaking of Burdick. I notice that her campaign manager is none other than Ed Grosswiler (Portland Communique search results link), the same man who guided Jim Francesconi's mayoral primary campaign through the skeezy muck that it was.