I feel so honored. I got the exact same mailing! Um...you didn't frame yours, did ya?

I think $1.6 million wasted on the PGE takeover by Sten is conservative. Sten wined-and-dined a lot more out-of-state consultants than that in his futile bid to make PGE as efficient as the Water Bureau.

The truth is that Sten has no business sense whatsoever and Portland has paid a very large tuition in educating him. I think we might have just sent him to Harvard Business School, all expenses paid, and have been much better off.

Dave Lister offered his services free of charge at the time of the water billing fiasco. Dave did that because he wanted to help and he had the expertise in computers. Is there anything about Burdick's record to suggest she would have done anything different than Sten, or the rest of the council for that matter? Instead the city went back to the same bureaucratic play book and we still don't have the water billing system up and running years after the story broke. Burdick can bring up Sten's failure, fine, but she can't make the case how she would have done anything different. Burdick is cut from the same mold. Lister can, because he actually stepped in, had a solution (which would have saved a bunch of money),but the people who "knew better" declined his common sense, low cost approach.
Dave Lister is running because we can't afford the the same old, same old approach at city hall anymore.

In the case of Sten versus Burdick it's a case of Dumber (Sten) and Dumb (Burdick). While she is indeed a better choice than Sten, it's not a HUGE difference (witness her persistant anti-gun bias), if she's voted in it will simply be a different way of wasting the money. Lister would truly be a breath of fresh air, no wonder he doesn't have much of a choice.

I meant chance, not choice.

Has anyone heard a full detailed position that Ginny has on the tram issue? And to follow up, is she aware of the financial shortfalls in the North Macadam Urban Renewal Area, and her positions on this issue?

Y'know... Those claims by Burdick look a lot like those "Shake Up City Hall" claims made during the Sam the Tram *rimshot* run for the Council.

Um... Why should I think that a Goldschmuck trainee would have done any better than Opie?

Sorry Dave Lister, I'd like to read/hear your comments on the above questions that I posed. You are viable.

Actually, Dave does have a good chance if he can get his message out. This is a four person race. The dynamics are strikingly different from a head to head match up. Historically, fiscally responsible candidates have gotten around 30% to 36% in Portland (mostly state and national candidates, admittedly, but in 2000 Charlie Hales fiscally conservative opponent drew 36%). Portland politics have been affected by events on the ground (the tram, tax abatements, a general perception money is not being spent wisely) to the extent that polls show voters don't want more taxes. If Lister draws 36% and the three center/left candidates split the rest equally then Lister makes it to the Fall and anything can happen. Lister could also draw traditional "liberal" voters who simply want to see their tax dollars spent wisely and feel his voice is needed at city hall, this last affect could drive Lister as high as 40% insurring Dave makes it to the fall, no matter how the others split their votes.

I hope at tomorrows City Club Debate that the issue of Urban Renewal in general becomes a topic. NM and the Tram just highlights the UR issue. UR has so many consequences to school funding, jails, "third world streets", social services,fire/police, etc. I think Lister can make the connections, can the other contenders?

After attending the first candidate forum to invite ALL of the candidates and taking pages of notes on each one I have come to the conclusion that when it comes to both of the city commissioner seats we have a lot of the same and only a couple of stand outs. This rang particularly true when it came to things that actually make the world go round. We need to attract more business so there can be more jobs so the plain old blue collar people like me can make it in this city. The parks and planning message espoused by more than one of the candidates is getting old. Only one spoke on the need for improvements to our infrastructure, working on our economy, and supporting our workforce so Portland can return to the vibrant time of Stumptown instead of being held hostage to the antiseptic time of elitism development like the SoWhat and Pearl have turned us into. That was Sharon Nasset. When she gets her message out more clearly, there may be a change in river city.........

We need a complete overhaul in the way the city does business. No more career politicians and government employees without real life experience running the city services, please! (No offense to those out there who work for them.) We need people with "real life" business experience, with MBA's or business degrees, with experience running business entities that have to watch the bottom line who know that if they don't work efficiently there is no money tree (more taxes) out there to bail you out. We need a business mindset leading the charge to get Portland back on track.