Yes, it's nice to see an actual challenger for Nurse. There are a number of things I dislike about Nolan, but I don't think she could possibly be worse than Nurse.

My concern's a bit different: the Randy/Novick tag-team. Something about that reeks.

And I think I just read that Ms. New Seasons has hired Merkley's campaign manager, so this has the potential to be the most interesting CoPo election cycle in years. I'm investing in Orville Reddenbacher.

Good news. What's really being challenged by this kind of candidate is the Adams status quo. If Novick and Nolan gain City Council seats, Adams will be left scrambling for support, which will likely be Fish. Saltzman? He'll just smile, and tell Adams to talk to the hand. I'm not sure how Adams could be even less effective, but with this cast his petulance wouldn't be tolerated.

Adams will be gone. It will be Saltzman, Fish, two new people, and either Fritz or Nolan. The big winners are clearly going to be the Saltzman tycoons.

Given Fritz's hardcore support of Adams, I'd say Nolan will beat her. But that depends a lot on whatever skeletons may be in Nolan's closet. It's only Day 1.

Nolan was one of the cheerleaders for measures 66/67. That should endear her to the voters of Portland.

Amanda's not just any old nurse, she's a psychiatric nurse. Which, hey, I thought was going to be a good thing.

A whole lot of hubbub to end up with five people who still think and vote the same on every issue.

I can't wait to hear their radical proposals. Let me guess: they like bikes and trains, lack much business experience, and think that issuing bonds is like "free money."

Portland's political spectrum is two millimeters wide.

It's amazing that Novick and Nolan are not immediately recognized as the clones they are.

You've got to be kidding.

Are Portlands not yet sick of this.

Nolan is even worse than Fritz or most on the council now.

I have to agree with Snards. It makes good theater, but the results won't be any different for the city.

Portland is the perfect controlled experiment in political science: what happens if a city is run, without opposition, by "progressives". There's some good (lots of festivals, food carts and bike paths) and some less-than-good (limited manufacturing, snarled but expensive transportation, increasing gang violence, high taxes and fees, what appears to be a high level of homelessness, and government-funded projects that seem to go on as far as they eye can see for the politically-well-connected).

There are some other examples of "progressive" governments without opposition (Chicago, San Francisco and North Korea come to mind). I guess the only examples of "conservative" one-party jurisdictions might be Wyoming, Utah and possibly Singapore.

Regardless, I think it is nice to have a real-world view of what the "progressive" ideology ultimately produces if it is allowed to flourish without constraint. It's just a bit tough to actually live here while the experiment continues.

Nolan is the same democrat who did absolutely nothing about unemployment and getting the private sector back to work during the recent legislature. Sesssion.we don't need any more blue Oregon backed biased progressives in office because they are all the same as we have now.

I'll be the first to predict Fritz drops out.

I'd agree that Fritz has accomplished absolutely nothing in 3 years, and has proven highly ineffective at working within the commission governance system. On the other hand, a background in the Orygun state legislature is about as big a black mark as one can have in one's cv.
This is one race that could use a little freshening. Novick intrigues me, and will almost certainly merit a little examination from me, despite his [Mark] Weinering-up at such an early stage.

And of course, anyone but Sam "Mayor Creepy" Adams. I might even vote for Goldschmidt over our present, increasingly fluffy mayor.

Portland is doomed. It works only for the wealthy, the hippy, and the underclass: middle income families are voting with their feet.

Even Commissioner Bogdanski would find it hard to change the course of the SS Portland Bankruptcy.

Nolan is my current state rep. In the years that I've lived around this part of the city, she's the only one I've never met. The rest usually show up at my door on some weekend day or another during campaign season.

Nolan is married to Mark Gardiner, the guy who fleeced his former employer, the City of Portland, with the PGE deal gone bankrupt. That would be you, taxpayers!
Not to mention her totally partisan and nasty turn in the Legislature.

Progressivism had its origins in the early 20th century. Central was the awareness of and fight against the rise of corporate power. What we have now are two corporate parties and no progressive party. And the “progressives” in city government that some of the folks on this thread are railing about are not really progressives but corrupt liberals, akin to those corrupt conservatives who thump the bible, and then hump anything or anybody who will throw dollars their way.

What is called “far left” today would have been considered moderate Republican in Nixon’s day.

I liked that Amanda Fritz made a run for it without corporate money. But I don't live in the city and haven't followed her closely enough to judge her record. Can somebody please tell me what she has done or not done that has been so awful? Ineffectiveness could simply be the result of being inexperienced, outnumbered and outgunned.

Time could alter the former, and a few more candidates elected from outside the pockets of big money could have altered the latter. But we’re not going to get a chance to try that particular experiment.

Nolan is being too cute by half.

Can she run for both the rep seat and the Council seat in the May 2012 primary?

If Nolan has to drop the rep seat, watch a very ambitious local Den precinct committee guy who lives in the Multnomah Neighborhood, Moses Ross, jump in for the rep seat.