Vote In Oregon from Our Oregon on Vimeo.
I know you’ve heard it from every other corner of your various socio-internetworks, but it can’t be said enough. Vote.
There’s a lot riding on this one folks. Some big offices locally, regionally, and nationally are up for grabs and we need as many people as possible to get out and make an informed decision about who should fill them.
Ballots are due by 8:00pm on Tuesday, November 2nd.
If you plan to vote this weekend, check out Our Oregon’s Voter Information Project for a complete list of newspaper and organizational endorsements as well as links to televised debate highlights and other resources. For a bike/transportation angle on the candidates, check out the BTA’s candidate questionnaire (PDF here, BikePortland story and reader comments here).
And of course, if you have a vibe or feelings to share on specific candidates or issues, feel free to share them in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
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“ride through ballot drops”?
I’m most anxious about the race for Governor. I think Kitzhaber is the lesser of two evils (he seemed to throw in the towel during his last term), but both candidates are a bit scary. Happy Halloween!
that’s pretty much the state of politics in America anymore…the “lesser of two evils”. ALL these politicians are stooges catering one special interest or another.
“ride through ballot drops”? – A-Boy Hardware at Barbur and Terwilliger.
“lesser of two evils”?
It is not a contest if you care about cycling.
Conservative Republicans hate cyclists.
Ever listen to Lars Larson and his nutjob audience?
To all the “cool”, I don’t care and they are “all the same”, Compare Ray LaHood to whatever teabagger McCain/Palin would have picked.
Compare Earl Blumenauer to any Republican he faces.
Is this even a choice.
I don’t how one can be a cyclist and ever even consider the voting for Republicans.
Especially now that the extremists and the anti-bike crowd has taken over the party.
I think hate is a strong word. Beneath contempt, perhaps.
old&slow #5,
I agree with you to an extent and easily side with the Democrats’ philosophies vs those of the Republicans. However I can list at least a handful of Democrats who shouldn’t be trusted as well.
As slim a chance as it has, I still think a third party would do wonders to erase the stupid games in Congress.
I don’t think Repubs are anti-biking. They are more anti-anything that can be construed as environmentalism.
I was called a ‘hippie’ a while back downtown by some tea-party ‘folks.’ I guess anyone on a bike falls into the ‘hippie’ category in their eyes.
VOTE! It DOES matter.
“Cynicism is often seen as a rebellious attitude in western popular culture, but in reality, our cynicism advances the desires of the powerful: cynicism is obedience.” –Alex Steffen
Peter DeFazio, bike mechanic, congressman, very good at working for bike friendly laws, is in a race against a total nut job conservative. If you are in his district please vote and get you friends and neighbors to vote.
I’ll vote for anyone who’s not named Kitzhaber. Been there done that.
Bob Stacey for Metro President!
bobstacey.com
Any governor of Oregon is going to have a tough job with this next legislative session coming up, what with the 2 billion dollar budget deficit that has to be balanced. Anyone voting for Dudley better start praying for some heavy duty trickle down action.
I’m voting Bob Stacy for Metro President. He’s committed to protecting the urban growth boundary, has the right idea on the Columbia River Crossing, and a positive attitude toward bike infrastructure.
That last point is clear to me from Bob’s answers in the BTA questionnaire, and also from something he said at a campaign event. Or rather, after: I came out of a kickoff event at the Stacey HQ to find I had flat on my bike. By the time I got it fixed, the event was over. Bob’s volunteer coordinator Anna was nice enough to let me in to wash my hands, and she mentioned my bike flat to Bob. To which he replied fairly off-handedly something along the lines of: The problem is glass in the bike lanes, and the solution is grade-separated cycletracks, like they have in Europe. That to him it was such a such a self-apparent solution seems like a really good sign.
(It’s worth noting that Bob’s opponent Tom Hughes didn’t respond to the BTA questionnaire.)
I also like that Bob Stacey is offering a clear, rational critique of the CRC. (What’s the CRC, you ask? Perhaps this informative video can help: http://vimeo.com/16020066)
For instance, Bob says the CRC, “is absolutely unaffordable: neither congressional nor state legislators have indicated willingness to appropriate the $3.6 billion to $4.2 billion sought for it, and borrowing such huge sums would impair the region’s ability to make other needed transportation improvements for years to come.”
Any local leader failing to at least acknowledge such salient points just isn’t paying attention, and when it comes to leaders, I prefer the attention-paying kind.
As for Governor, I was already planning on voting for Kitzhaber, but this post by Mike O’Leary on the AROW mailing list just sealed the deal:
“This guy is an ER doc who reformed Oregon’s indigent health care system almost 20 years ago and did it far better than anyone has since anywhere in america, and his partner Cylvia Hayes is a notable alternative energy expert. He has the smarts and the fire in his belly to reform government to be concerned about public health, public spending and getting to the prevention side of the transportation problems we face.
“When I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago to bring up the issue generally of promoting active transportation, I assumed I’d be speaking something of a foreign language, but I swear he totally took the words right out of my mouth. He impressed me. He’s got my vote.”
Mine too.
voted progressive/pgp. for governor i voted none of the above.
“He has the smarts and the fire in his belly to reform government to be concerned about public health, public spending and getting to the prevention side of the transportation problems we face.”
This is the kind of hopeful @#$$% that so many of us believed about obama. never again!
“… (It’s worth noting that Bob’s opponent Tom Hughes didn’t respond to the BTA questionnaire.) …” Spencer Boomhower #14
That he didn’t fill out the BTA questionnaire probably isn’t a reliable indication that he hasn’t got ideas and answers. Quite a number of the candidates, both minor and major, didn’t fill it out.
Check out the bikeportland article about that questionnaire…think it was Evan Mandel that explained in his comment that candidates often have to pick and choose amongst the wide amount of endorsement material that comes their way.
Anyway, I’m voting for Stacey.
Yes, we can vote them all out.
#15 spare_wheel:
When I go to the eye doctor, there’s this process wherein the doc switches lenses back and forth in front of my eyes while I look at the chart. As he does this, he asks: “better or worse?” Through a succession of better-or-worse choices we eventually arrive at the right prescription.
I apply this kind of choice-making to other situations, including politics.
Obama vs McCain – better or worse? I still say Obama was the better choice; no regrets there.
Kitzhaber vs Dudley? I say Kitzhaber is the better choice, by far.
Of course it’s always possible he might have some ideas, but he hasn’t provided any evidence of their existence, at least not in the form of answers to that questionnaire.
And the fact that Hughes didn’t respond to the questionnaire is evidence that he doesn’t value this constituency, at least not enough to bother answering a few questions.
Whereas Stacey has provided ample evidence that he DOES value this constituency, this loose conglomeration of bike-riding people. Many of whom, not coincidentally, also care about public health, the environment, land use, and livable communities (of which bikes are an indicator species).
Awesome. 🙂
Whoops, I neglected to indicate that the second quote was from #16 wsbob.
Kitzhaber has my vote: he has the experience, background in health care issues, and intelligence to govern this state. Stacey, regardless of whether he would be able to influence the CRC issue, clearly is on the side of intelligent planning and alternative transportation and gets my nod.
spencer, sorry but the democrats have looted trillions for the ultra rich and bond holders. (heck we just learned of another 300 billion to note and bond holders courtesy of fre and fnm) i am not at all convinced that (on a national scale_ the democratic party is a better choice than the republican party. how about, equally bad?
and as for kitzhaber, i listened very carefully to what he said and did not like the starve the peasants rhetoric. imo, we need austerity for the rich, not the poor.
Third party candidates have a clear track record, at least: they got us eight years of Bush. A vote for a liberal third party is a vote for Dudley. So don’t come crying when Oregon’s forced into 25 week school years, they rip up the Springwater trail to save money on maintenance, and new private-for-profit prisons start popping up to take in all of the youth without a future.
While you can’t presume that each candidate wrote each line in answer to each questionnaire, campaigns are signaling who they take seriously by which questionnaires they work to fill out (through volunteers, staff, and candidate time).
That Hughes failed to fill out the BTA questionnaire is a sign of (a) his campaign doesn’t prioritize this constituency, and (b) the active transportation advocates need to expand their political power.
Sadly, neither I nor my fellow Bike Walk Vote partners had the time or energy to make (b) happen this cycle directly (though many of us are working to elect Bob Stacey and others).
If others are interested in expanding the political power of the active transportation community, and want to expand Bike Walk Vote PAC, please email me at evanmanvel -at- gmail. Thanks!
“Oregon’s forced into 25 week school years, they rip up the Springwater trail to save money on maintenance”
pure fud.
i remember when the democratic party actually cared about social justice of instead lining the pockets of real estate developers, banksters, tax scofflaw corporations, and the ultra rich.
I’m voting for Bob Stacey for Metro President. Aside from having endorsements I respect (Oregon League of Conservation Voters, The Sierra Club of Oregon,
Portland Association of Teachers, SEIU 49, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, etc.) I’ve met the man more than once and he’s always impressed me. He’s smart and he’s bike-friendly.
I’m supporting Kitzhaber for Governor. His positions on protecting Oregon’s minimum wage, schools, health care, and public safety sound more like the Oregon I want to continue to live in.
I will try again nicely to respond to spare wheel.
If you think democrats are too “corrupted” and you want to stand up to the “man”, then vote for people who will never be elected.
They will do no good for the cycling community or anybody else, but you can feel superior about your “vote” or actually lack of one that matters.
You can whine and moan all day about Obama and the democrats, but they are your only real hope for anything meaningful that will get done.
Obama and Lahood and Blumenouer do more for cycling and transportation advocates than the unelectable candidates you support ever will.
Hopefully you will reconsider your position, tomorrow the Republicans will probably take back the congress, they will make my life (and probably yours) more miserable.
But you will feel better because you didn’t “sell-out”.
Metro President candidate Tom Hughes on bikes:
That’s from minute 9:10 of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5UB0JDxNCQ
This was Hughes’ response to a question about tolling the CRC. A question that, it’s worth noting, didn’t even mention bikes. But Hughes took it as an opportunity to perpetuate the myth that people who ride bikes don’t pay their share.
A myth that, incidentally, has been debunked:
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-27-why-an-additional-road-tax-for-bicyclists-would-be-unfair/
But which continues to be used to scapegoat an easy target: Us. Readers of this site, people who get around by bike, often in an attempt to free ourselves from total dependence on cars.
Now personally, I look at this chart from the video I did on the CRC:
http://www.boomhower.com/crc_piechart_0120.png
…and I realize a good chunk of my income is going to get poured into the CRC (should it ever get built). That’s because fully half of the CRC’s proposed funding will come from money pools that I – as a homeowner and owner of an LLC – pay into in painfully large, quarterly chunks: Oregon state taxes, and Federal taxes. (Anyone who rents from a property owner, or pays income taxes will pay into these pools too.) And it’s likely that a good share of the fees and gas taxes I pay from owning both a car and a motorcycle will also get heaped onto the mountain of money that’ll be shoveled into the CRC’s maw. Finally, should I ever happen to drive or take light rail across the CRC, I’ll pay those respective tolls and fares as well.
Yet despite all these ways I’ll have to pay into the CRC, Tom Hughes apparently considers me a freeloader. Because I mainly get around by bicycle, and on foot.
Maybe this is why Hughes didn’t bother to answer the BTA questionnaire.
So yeah, his presentation didn’t sway me; I’m still voting for Bob Stacey.
BTW, I found that video here at Portland Transport:
http://portlandtransport.com/archives/2010/10/metro_president_5.html
And here’s Bob Stacey’s response, from the same event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su6Bd5KFDuQ
Oh, and I highly recommend checking out the Bob Stacey response link I posted at the bottom of the above comment. Bob gives an excellent five-minute “intro to Metro,” and is his usual smart, eloquent, and class-act self.
Vote, and vote for the most electable among the least evil.
I’m glad the election is over. maybe I will stop being censured