It takes a village
Willy Week this week sets out what it calls the six groups that you need to win a mayoral election in Portland: the unions, the Chamber of Commerce, the inner east side, the "greens" and rail Mafia, old people and Republicans, and young people.
As that adds up to about 85% of the population, it's hard to disagree.
| Posted at 9:16 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
I'm pretty certain any Democrat can win any race in Portland or Multnomah County without getting a single Republican vote.
To wit: Judy Shipwreck, the Mean Girls, Scam Adams, or Congressman Bowtie.
You could even make the same statement for Gov. Retread, though it would be more difficult to prove with poll results.
Posted by Mister Tee | November 23, 2011 9:46 AM
The lumping of the elderly in with Republicans was odd. It says something about the WW mindset.
I think the Portland Business Alliance is expendable. Look at what happened to Francesconi.
One group that wasn't mentioned were gay rights advocates. You won't have a chance if they actively oppose you.
Posted by Jack Bog | November 23, 2011 9:53 AM
The fact that someone as defective as Sam Adams could become mayor of a major city says a lot about what kind of city Portland is and how eroded and dysfunctional the voter-government relationship has become.
"Winning these groups" involves absolutely no authentic measurement or judgement of the candidate's genuine qualities by voters.
All things in Portland are made with the lowest form of purposeful political pandering with conniving conjob campaigns.
Posted by Ben | November 23, 2011 10:40 AM
I wonder if somebody could mobilize Outer East Portland (ie, east of 82nd)and make a strong showing. Don't we have a large percentage of the city's population out here now?
And I'm curious to know, of those 6 groups listed, how many overlap? For instance, I would imagine that the Inner East side is home to lots of young people who are also in the green/rail category. If they don't take the overlap into consideration, it could skew their projections.
Posted by Michelle | November 23, 2011 11:02 AM
Michelle,
The east county vote was something we tried to inspire when I ran in '06. Turnout there was, and continues to be, very low. I did get the Republicans though. All 15% of them.
Posted by Dave Lister | November 23, 2011 11:10 AM
"I wonder if somebody could mobilize Outer East Portland (ie, east of 82nd)and make a strong showing. Don't we have a large percentage of the city's population out here now?"
It would help a lot there if you spoke Spanish and Russian...
Posted by Random | November 23, 2011 11:37 AM
Reaching out to Republicans? Yeah, that sounds like a good use of a Portland politico's time. Why not look for a three-legged dog while you're at it?
Posted by Mike (the other one) | November 23, 2011 6:43 PM
East Portland could make a killing, but they are so disenfranchised after having promise after promise broken by City Hall...
The best thing East Portland (east of I-205) could do is get enough support and break away from Portland to form their own city. Then take outer SW and North Portland/St. Johns, and all of a sudden downtown Portland would lose a lot of clout.
Posted by Erik H. | November 23, 2011 8:28 PM