Pity Dog Catcher isn't an elected position as I would enjoy watching Smitty working with some angry Pitt Bulls.

Sounds like the Sam Syndrome. Deja vu. Maybe he thinks it will make him a shoe-in.

Eileen Brady. That's exactly what I was thinking, Jack. I even tried to write Charlie Burr about it but his Blue Oregon contact email, kicked it back to me. (These haven't been the smoothest days over there.)

Here's what it would look like. Jefferson Smith steps to the microphone (again):

"Before I start I want to assure everyone that this is not my idea. I had no part in thinking this up, so you can relax.
Look, my campaign just broke the freefall record of that guy who parachuted from the edge of space. I understand that. It is time for me to get out but I want to do something right before I go. Let's bring Eileen Brady back into this race.

Otherwise, with all due respect to the other write-in candidates - both real or just hoped for - we would be left with a Soviet style, one candidate race. Need I remind you that I ran unopposed for the legislature? Having only one candidate is how we got into this mess.

I want to stress that this is not some gimmick so my followers can sneak me in when Charlie loses votes to Eileen. If elected by some accident, I will not serve. I have put this in writing and I'm turning it over to the city in advance so that there can be no shenanigans about this at all.

Look, I am painfully aware that my downfall has been primarily as a result of an incident where I punched a woman. There, I finally said it. I also made some gigantic mistakes going to her house in early October. I don't want to be known or remembered this way. I want to be known as a man who tried to make amends for his behavior, by helping support a woman. A woman candidate who was dragged through the mud, partially for not being a standard career politician.

Frankly, I also thought the way Eileen Brady was treated was sexist. I really did. She was ridiculed and belittled for some inconsistencies about founding New Seasons that all stemmed from the role of wife and husband. It was embarrassing.
If she had been a founder of New Seasons, she'd be worth millions today. Oh wait, she is. Case closed.

Let's go forward with 2 candidates: Charlie Hales and Eileen Brady. If we had known then what we know now about me, that is how it would have been anyways. It's fair. It's right, and it sends a powerful message from Portland to the world, that we take equality for women seriously here, and not just as a slogan to be ignored when your favorite candidate mistreats them.

With that I withdraw from this election, and urge all Portlanders to choose between Charlie Hales and Eileen Brady.
Thank you."

It's a good idea but only if Jefferson Smith really does drop out. Charlie Burr, you're a big-time political advisor and PR guy. You can sell this, not because you're good at selling things, but because it's the right thing to do. After supporting Jefferson Smith, wouldn't it be nice to feel good about your work again?

I like Abe's suggestion!

Jeffy needs to give it up, and quick. I bet Scam Adams is kicking himself hard for not running again. Wonder if Jeffy and Scam can start up their own business or something...maybe selling frame damaged used cars or something?

I don't know about you, but I have been having a great time watching Privileged Jeffy try to spin... only to spiral into deeper problems. And... he has problems. You get problems by taking five figure amounts of money from folks who carry guns (PPA) and axes (PFFA) as the tools of their trade. And, didn't he learn you get into very very serious problems when you p*ss off mothers (Mother PAC)? I did ... and I'm not "brilliant." There are now at least three exec boards who will have to explain to their members why they spent their money and bought the bus without vetting the driver. This is very embarrassing to these folks - some of them may lose their exec board slots over this. If this was Jersey, Jeffy could be "going for a drive" by now.

Portland is weird. But, while its brand of weirdness may be able to stoically accept a narcissistic, self-outed liar for four years (without an extension), its just not going to cozy up to an obfuscating woman-beater who got caught before the election (given its history with Neil "Thank Goodness for Little Girls" Goldschmidt and Sam "I lied" Adams, the before thing is very important in Portland politics). Plus, without the PPA, PFFA and the moms out there, Jeffy has no boots on the ground in the final weeks to do the door to door thing to the masses. Yes, yes, yes - I think Jeffy still has the PAT. But, teachers will only do volunteer work during their prep days or when they're on strike "... for the kids." So - Jeffy is without an army to stand on the corners and wave signs. Bottom-line ~ I think Portland gets the tax-cheat.

Pete, sorry you missed the point in that Smith behaves like a Pitt Bull with using violence when it fits his need, therefore it only fitting he meet his match.

Picture the end of Thelma & Louise.

Ego.

"Otherwise, with all due respect to the other write-in candidates - both real or just hoped for - we would be left with a Soviet style, one candidate race. Need I remind you that I ran unopposed for the legislature? Having only one candidate is how we got into this mess."
-=-=-

Hahaha! What a bunch of truth!

A Soviet style one horse race, in the One Party town of Communist Portlandia.

Bad enough that there is only "liberal and liberal" in Portlandia, but if you take away one of the liberals, you are really left with no choice at all. So much for Pro Choice Portland!

As for the rest of Bill's comment, that is what is needed in Portland. New ideas, out of the box thinking, and some real non-political-opportunisticalism. (WTF?)

My only problem is that doing that would gain Jeffy some real respect and some modicum of credibility. Is that really what Portland needs when Jeffy is on his Political Death Bed? I say not so much.

I don't know...he looked really sincere in the tv ad I saw during the news a couple of days ago....

"Who would hire him?" Of course PSU.

Every tripped up, lying, cheating, obfuscating, kicked-out politician ends up there. They then get paid telling their side of the story:Liberty, Kulo, Katz, Mean Girls...., then they get additional PERS.

This mayoral election makes me sick. No alternative to sleazeball Hales, and where was the vetting process during the primary to weed out Nutzy? No opposition research from opposing candidates or local media could put a light on this before we were locked in?

The Choice is Clear.
http://scottfernandezformayor.com/

Do we want a serious write-in, who would be
A People's Mayor for the Public Interest

OR
still wanting to support the political system and one of the trio
that the insiders selected for us?

None of the Above is an option I advocated to the Charter Review Commission as part of overhaul of the election method.

If there ever were a great time for it as an option it would be now.

I have written "ten fundamental rules" on Public Policy. Here is the First Rule:

In a semi-democratic representative society where information is ubiquitous, the People, in the aggregate, get exactly what they deserve.

Works, doesn't it.

Abe, it's easy to say "eye for an eye" when you're not publishing any personally identifying info. Easy, but in my opinion, highly irresponsible.

No guts, no glory. Caving in to the politics of power, Brady is hastily hoisted as THE choice for write-in. Inside candidates 1,2,3, always the insider when it comes to the reckoning. A serious write-in shows, declared and serious...uh, oh! Better go for #3. He might win, then what?

It's so transparent.

Proposed Charter amendment for the city of Portland.
"No person may run for a city office for ten years if rejected by voters in a general election."

For a good laugh, check out the Jefferson Smith koolaid drinkers at Blue Oregon.

I agree, it's time for a write-in campaign. The perfect candidate is one we all know well. Eileen Brady is the only one of the top three candidates for mayor who ever had the ethics and good judgement to run this city. The only thing not going for her is she finished barely behind the other two in the primary (thanks largely to Charlie's ridiculous yet strategic accusation that she wasn't really a partner in New Seasons). At this point, I bet most people would be relieved and excited to have Eileen as an option. And I believe Eileen would step up to the job with passion and humility--perhaps even more so due to what she's been through in the past five months.

At this point, the best that can be achieved is a focused campaign supporting one write-in candidate. Eileen has both the power to be a serious contender and the availability to do the job. If she wins, we all get a second chance to get this horrible chapter in Portland politics behind us. If she doesn't win, we will have sent a resounding message to our new mayor, putting him on warning that he has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of Portland's citizens. Either way, it's better than just handing him the election.

And there is already momentum building in the "Write In Eileen" campaign. There is a Facebook page by that name that popped up yesterday and increasing Twitter traffic using the hashtag #WriteInEileen. This is a rare opportunity to change the future but the window of possible action is small. I for one will be working this week to make sure Portlanders have a real choice when they fill out their ballots. Write in Eileen Brady for mayor!

"... the People, in the aggregate, get exactly what they deserve."

Don't you mean...

"... the People's Republic of Portland, in the aggregate, get exactly what they deserve and want."

Outside of Multno and to the rest of Oregon, not so much "exactly what they deserve" but rather "exactly what they did not want and do not deserve".

I still love our democracy... beats the real Communist counties by a country mile.

Why write-in Eileen Brady, she would be more of the corporate same old. We need a clean money candidate. I, for one, as well as a great many other Portland voters are writing in SCOTT FERNANDEZ. He will not sell out our city to developers. Scott Fernandez is the clear choice for a serious write-in!

I'd only go for this if Jefferson Smith walks away first. I'm not interested in screwing around with long-shot candidates if one of the outcomes is that Jefferson Smith gets elected.

That would be too sickening to contemplate.

The ballots will be mailed out on Friday. No write-in candidate stands a ghost of a chance at this late date. But neither does Jeffy.

Jefferson is in the process of handing Hales a fake mandate with an unearned electoral majority. Hales couldn't have designed it any better.

Hales now has to hope Bus Boy will stay in the race and try to thwart any write-ins. So far the most viable would be Eileen. Fernandez is also viable, but Eileen is probably the most likely to succeed, at least partially. Perhaps the key is to support any and all write-ins at least passively in some cases, actively in others of your own choosing. Do we need to "rally" around just one explicitly?

If Hales can't pull a majority against a field of write-ins, it may allow the courts and elections officials enough sentiment from the public to actually throw him out of an office he's not supposed to be able to run for.

Then we'd be thrown into a succession process to handle vacancy as explained in the code and charter here:

http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?a=403294&c=28238 (charter, mostly relevant)

http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?a=13358&c=28163 (not really relevant anymore)

What follows are a few ideas based on the above processes:

Jefferson and Hales should both declare an intent to resign (2-206(e)) or immediate resignation so we can have a special election as soon as possible to replace them per 2-206(b).

One alternative is to pick a real person as a write-in who pledges to resign immediately to open up nominations again within 90 days. Their name acts as a "none of the above" vote. In fact, it seems they can write a letter before they are elected to city council to make the pledge provably effective. Can they revoke such a letter? Doesn't seem so according to the process.

Another alternative is that only Jefferson resigns now. He hands Hales a majority, but he gets thrown out by the courts or the city auditor due to his felonies. Then we get a special election.

So is it worth it to pursue a Brady write-in to motivate the election officials to kick Hales out so we can get a re-do? Brady wouldn't even have to win to have an effective write-in campaign. It would seem to work best if Jefferson helps split Hales' votes and prevents him from getting an outright majority. It seems the last thing we want is Hales to end up with a majority in a sham election.

I'm still mulling this stuff over...

It seems the last thing we want is Hales to end up with a majority in a sham election.

You maybe. The last thing I want is for Jefferson Smith to win.

I'm still mulling this stuff over...

Try it without the bong.

That's funny!

I never inhaled!

No but seriously though... Green Party and all that... I don't even use caffeine. Not since I was 12. I have a reality fetish and avoid mind altering chemicals as a personal choice. I am for legalization though. It is a personal choice after all.

My daydreams are pure unaltered and natural speculation. ;)

Between Smith and Hales, to me it is a tough call who is worse. Is it worth even having strong convictions on that? Somebody is getting my write in vote this election. Who, I am not sure yet.

One alternative is to pick a real person as a write-in who pledges to resign immediately to open up nominations again within 90 days.

And then Seth woke up and realized he was still on planet earth.

If "None of the Above" were a choice, it would win in a landslide.

How about if everybody writes in themselves? Then we'll have every voter in the city in a tie to be the next mayor and they'll have to do it again.

Sattie Clark,
You Brady folks have had months since Jack announced to do a write-in for Lavonne. Where have you been? Seems like Scott Fernandez doing a serious write-in campaign has got you wanting to jump on the bandwagon now, or is it because of the latest news about Jefferson? Fernandez had announced long before then and sent his press releases out before that “Eugene college incident” came out. His ads have appeared in several October papers, a new website, etc. and this didn’t happen overnight.
He measured the support for a write-in, and could no longer sit by as people were asking for someone else to run. People were disgusted that only the “trio” were considered viable by our political machinery and when they say they want someone else, that is what they mean. Eileen was part of that “trio” insider support and the people know that.

I ask you to look at his website. You may find that you would like Fernandez as Mayor. Yours is a last minute attempt to step in, why not give the people a chance to write-in for a People's Mayor, Scott Fernandez.
Where is Eileen, is she still traveling and more importantly is she willing to run against Hales and his political machinery again? What says she about this? For all we know you could be from the Hales camp.

Anyone know if the teachers' union still backing him?

A write-in campaign for anyone has exactly a zero chance of succeeding at anything except under some scenarios, electing Jefferson Smith. Highly unlikely, but why waste time, money and effort on it at this point? If the goal is to ensure that Jefferson Smith is not Portland's next mayor, a goal with which I strongly agree, then sadly the best path to that outcome is to vote for Charlie Hales. I know, it's a tough pill to swallow, but by all means, swallow it.

Some will never swallow a tough pill for Charlie.
What are you worried about Elizabeth?
Many people don't consider spending their time, money or effort for democracy and a write-in as a waste. People are well aware of the choke-hold we have had in our city.
People have had enough, the time is ripe for a write-in.
In fact, it is happening throughout our country. When elected officials and those running are not for the public interest, we should according to you then, just swallow it? No thank you. People have more respect for themselves than that.
Just because you declare a zero chance, how would you know,
have you spoken to people other than those in your circle?

Elizabeth, your logic is both inane and insane! Vote a bitter pill? No! I will not vote for what I do not believe.

This advice reminds me of a comment a person made when a friend lamented the loss of an election. The feedback was: You should vote for a winner then you won't feel bad! Hell, I don't feel bad because someone lost but rather that who actually won!

Hey! Hitler was a winner! Mussolini was a winner!

I vote my conscience, not my pride. And with the bitter pill contingent, it's pride bordering on hubris!

Wake up! You get one vote. Make it for what you really want and to hell with the naysayers!

Good question. I'm afraid of whack-jobs like you two and like Jefferson Smith.

"What's taking Smith so long to withdraw?"

That's what she said.

Nice to know Elizabeth that those of us who want democracy and are willing to work for it are called whack jobs by you.
I didn't call you names Elizabeth, I asked what you were worried about.
I would excuse you if you are new to Portland, some of us that have been around will not forget what Hales did when he was Planning and Parks Commissioner.
I can assure you many of us are not for Jefferson Smith either. If you saw my earlier post, having a "trio" selected for our community by insiders didn't sit well and isn't very democratic. What would you say if Charlie had been excluded from participating in important debates?
Try to understand, there are other people in this city who would like a choice.

1. I rest my case.
2. You certainly do have a choice. I only suggest that you exercise it in a way that does not ruin it for everyone else. Are you one of those people who thought it was cool to vote for Ralph Nader because you believed in him, though his chances of winning were also zero, and in the process gave us George Bush?

It's not about Hales winning, It's about a mandate in his win, and I am not about to participate in that outcome.

That's one of the important concepts when weighing in on voting decisions. 40,000+ petition signers of the No Fluoridate measure, if all do a write-in, might not alter the outcome as to who serves as next mayor, but it will decidedly alter the political landscape that effectively could tie the hands that would manipulate factors in the next four years and beyond.

That's what this is all about. Movement. Political Movement.

"What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.”
“Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinsky.

He made a difference in Chicago. Why? Because when he showed up at city hall they knew he spoke for hundreds of thousands.

Finally:
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..."
-Thomas Paine