into a Council seat.
(Photo © J. Maus)
You can add Jim Middaugh’s name to the list of City Council candidates who are now officially certified to receive public financing.
Middaugh — who I profiled back in January — is running for Council Seat #2 (currently occupied by Erik Sten) and this morning, City Auditor Gary Blackmer gave the official word that Middaugh will receive just over $140,000 in public funding to run his campaign.
Middaugh’s certification comes as no surprise; he and his supporters were able to raise an impressive amount of individual, $5 contributions at a record clip. And now, they’re wasting no time in asking the bike community to help him go from candidate to Commissioner.
Last night, Middaugh sent an email to the Shift email list with an intro of, “I’m Jim Middaugh, the cyclist who is running for Portland City Council.” He then invited everyone on the list (644 subscribers at last count) to join him for a “campaign celebration and kick-off” event for this Sunday, March 2nd at the Green Dragon Pub (928 SE 9th Street).
Middaugh has also accepted my invitation to join BikePortland.org readers at our next Social Hour event. Stay tuned for details on that event (and yes, I’ll be inviting other candidates as well).
More on Middaugh at JimForPortland.com.
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What time will the event be? And will it be in teh meeting room or out in the great hall?
the Kick-off event at the Green Dragon will be 5-7 pm on March 2. If you want to help get Jim elected, I hope you\’ll consider getting involved – canvasing, talking with voters, or just stating your support with a lawn sign. Of course making sure you\’re registered to vote and turning in your ballot will be important too. In this race, your vote REALLY does matter!
I\’d like to make clear that although a cyclist, concerned about transportation, Jim is has a much broader vision for a better Portland. He\’s also concerned with other livability issues ranging from affordable housing, schools, to the environment.
Well, at least he have finally revealed via his website the he\’s a city hall \”insider\” being the chief-of-staff for Sten.
I\’d like to read more about tangible policies and priorities he has.
I met Jim tonight at the Green Dragon event. I had a chance to ask him some questions about both bike and non bike related stuff. I was very impressed with his responses. I think he is a dedicated bike commuter who will listen to cyclists in portland and work for improved conditions. He is not however in any way a one issue candidate. I was impressed with the depth of knowledge he had around all the questions I asked, especially around the current brew ha ha around the police review board. He puts an emphasis on building consensus and after listening to him I think that in a councilor role he might be able to salvage the work that has been done on improving the review process. In my opinion he is someone who understands how policy is shaped and will be able to get things accomplished for the bike community as well as portland in general.
Bjorn
I also met Jim at the Green Dragon event and I also had the same impression: Very knowledgable and clearly someone who cares about doing good work for the people of Portland.