Looks like no "clean money" this year
It doesn't appear that any of the motley crew that's running against Dan "Legend" Saltzman are going to raise enough signatures to get "clean money" -- taxpayer financing -- for their Portland City Council campaigns. Which is fine by us, because you can't beat an incumbent in this town, no matter how much your money smells like roses. Saltzman's "dirty money" is going to win in a runaway.
Now the city can save that dough for paying Steve Janik his $400K on the Paulson stadium deal, and who knows how much to the Chasse family when they finally get their day in court against Officer Thumper. Hey, maybe they should change the venue of the Chasse trial to Glendive, Montana, and Emilie Boyles can beam back reports to Portland! Just an idea.
UPDATE, 1/30, 1:15 a.m.: How wrong we were! At least one candidate appears to have qualified for "clean money" -- $145,000, to be exact. And there may well be two.
| Posted at 9:04 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (11)
Have you ever been to Glendive?
Posted by Rcb | January 28, 2010 9:45 PM
No, but I have hung out in Wolf Point and Poplar.
Posted by Jack Bog | January 28, 2010 10:14 PM
LOL!
I am a long term lurker, a refugee from PDX. I am impressed that you have been to either of the above but both! You are quite the world traveler.
Posted by Rcb | January 29, 2010 4:29 AM
According to The Mercury:
"I have 1016 in my hand, and at least another hundred floating, still, so yes, I expect to turn in no less than 1150 signatures tomorrow," says Cornett—who is running against City Commissioner Dan Saltzman.
Posted by Sherwood | January 29, 2010 7:46 AM
Yeah...unless there's a big problem with his sheets, I'm pretty sure Jesse will make it.
Posted by Carla Axtman | January 29, 2010 8:09 AM
Cornett can't beat Saltzman in an even money race, which was the beauty (in his mind) of this financing scheme that Sten cooked up. He probably couldn't beat him if he had twice as much money. He can, however, build up some name recognition in this primary cycle and then maybe run for an open seat, if and when one comes up.
Speaking of Sten. Isn't it interesting that he resigned from the council just before the legislature's new financial disclosure rules kicked in?
Posted by Robert Collins | January 29, 2010 9:37 AM
He can, however, build up some name recognition in this primary cycle and then maybe run for an open seat, if and when one comes up.
That's worth spending public money on, isn't it?
When do we get to vote on this? I thought there was going to be a vote in 2010. Or was it 3010?
Posted by Jack Bog | January 29, 2010 1:07 PM
Volm was the only one this year with an immediate shot of being heard by and resonating with the 95% of PDX voters who, unlike the readers on this site, have no idea what is going on or real interest in city governance. According to the dead fish wrapper this morning, Volm bailed out, too few $ 5.00 checks and signed forms.
Cornett may well be doing a Fritz, getting the name out and around in this first race and hoping for an open / vacant seat two or four years down the road.
Kind of expensive for the general fund.
Posted by Nonny Mouse | January 29, 2010 1:34 PM
No, Jack, I think it is a horrible waste of money and have thought so since its inception.
Also, the promised vote in 2010 was bogus from the get-go. The sitting council at that time had no ability to bind a future council to bring it to a vote, and they knew it. We may never get to vote on it, unless we run a successful petition drive to put it on the ballot. The PBA tried to do that in '06, but Sten and but bus kids outsmarted them by signing scads of duplicates on the petition sheets to make sure they were disqualified.
The only one who voted against creating the program was Randy Leonard. He had just been challenged by the "gang of five" and didn't like the idea of another "gang of five" armed with 150K each.
Posted by Robert Collins | January 29, 2010 2:06 PM
Jesse came up with 1,250 at last count and definitely is in. I know he's an former Blue Oregon guy, but he's likely to be an ally of Fritz on issues like the stupid soccer deal. If not, I want my five bucks back.
Posted by Gil Johnson | January 29, 2010 10:02 PM
Possible Renaud is in, too.
Posted by dyspeptic | January 29, 2010 11:25 PM