Thanks to everyone sharing thoughts both on here and our Facebook page on these open threads. It’s been heartening to see such a robust and respectful debate on the Mapps vs. Eudaly and Nolan vs. Smith races.
For the final post in this series, let’s focus on the mayoral race. A new poll shows almost a dead heat and almost 28% of voters still undecided.
Who do you plan to vote for (or have already voted for!) in the race for Portland City Council Position 4? Ted Wheeler (TedWheeler.com) or Sarah Iannarone (Sarah2020.com)? And why?
Please share your decision in the comments. Keep in mind I will moderate this thread even more closely than usual and will only tolerate productive and respectful comments.
Thank you for helping us create a more informed community.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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To start, I am not a Portland resident. As such, I have not been following the local election there very closely.
While I thus do not have any opinion of the challenger in this race, I honestly cannot see how, after Wheeler’s performance the past months, anyone could see their way clear to vote for him in good conscience. His repeated refusals to condemn federal actions, or make even the slightest attempt to reign in PPB alone, should frankly disqualify him from reelection in the mind of any sane voter.
The option is someone with no experience running anything (and not even being able to pay her own personal taxes for four years running), let alone a city with a budget of $5.6 billion and 6,000 employees that is going to be dealing with the economic fallout of this year for a long time. I’m not a fan of Ted Wheeler, but there is no viable option here.
How much has that experience of Wheeler’s been worth? Looks like experience doesn’t amount to much in the grand scheme, time for someone new.
In so far as balancing the city’s budget and day-to-day operations, quite a bit. The fact that they weathered the initial budget cuts well back in early summer was a very good example of qualified leadership. I’m not here to argue he doesn’t have failings, but the city government is functional under his leadership. Iannarone’s plans remind me of the underwear stealing gnomes from South Park – a good initial idea without any substance as to how to accomplish the goal. Her answers all come back to hiring others to figure out the ‘how’.
It’s the mayors job to lead. Ted is a failure. Let new leadership in now. Sarah is an educated City Planner. And I’ve known her for years. She’d be a fantastic mayor. GO SARAH!
Spot on. I find it comical that the same people advocating for dishonest and incompetent Iannarone while criticising dishonest, adverserial and incompetent Trump. They are both interested in hurting the other side. In the end, it doesn’t benefit the city/country.
Wheeler sucks but Iannarone is a disaster, doesn’t have the temperament and competency to run anything let alone a big city.
No, what’s comical is calling anyone you don’t like “Trump” as if that’s a synonym for “bad person” and none of the details matter.
Iannarone is anti-fascist, urbanist, pro-bicycle, and determined to try to make the city better for regular people. Like her or not, those are not Trumplike qualities.
Wheeler is a ruling-class ex-Republican who thought it would be fun to run a quirky city and hand it over more thoroughly to his business cronies. When the citizens rebelled he unleashed horrible violence daily on them.
Make your choice but don’t be absurd.
Referring to your preferred consituency as “regular people” and casting implied shade at the rest is a pretty Trumpy quality, actually. I love Sarah’s pro-urban policies, I really do, but I do not she think she’s the right person to enact them. She is not qualified to run a city, and doesn’t understand tradeoffs or compromise.
Regular means not rich developers, get it? What did you call people before Trump was invented?
Goddam Normal People (from Repoman).
Wholesome-Americans.
Find one in every car, you’ll see.
This is something I don’t understand, when people say they “love Sarah’s policies” but are still going to vote for Wheeler, who has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to enact any policies anywhere remotely close to anything that Sarah calls for. If you’re into her policies, I don’t understand how you think voting for Wheeler will lead to them being enacted.
Agreed, what are we supposed to prioritize if not policy?
I voted for the person who at least espouses opinions and intentions I agree with. Who knows – maybe she won’t be able to get it all done, but at least she wants to try. More Wheeler just sounds more of the same watered down BS we’re living right now.
Because Iannarone is so much worse. Most Portland people care more about day to day things than the radical protesters which have undermined BLM movement the last month by damaging museums, small businesses etc. Most of us care a lot more about the crime/health issues surrounding homeless people, horrible traffic, lack of options for public transportation and increased traffic deaths.
All of which will be far worse under Iannarone. She is also incredibly unqualified, lied repeatedly, blocks everyone who is not kissing her ass and is an incredibly unworkarble person when it comes to building bridges.
To many of us, it is far more important that we tackle homelessness and traffic and crime. Iannarone will be much worse in every one of them, as hard as that is to believe. it’s like choosing between Trump (Iannarone) and Romney (Wheeler). Both suck, but at least one can be reasoned with,
I was voting him out 18 months ago because of his utter failure to solve the houselessness. Which was a platform of his. By the time the protests rolled around, would have had to solve that immediately to make a dent in his poor reputation.
As non-car bound travelers, we are confronted with the houselessness problem. Both pedestrian and cyclist alike. I’m not saying we should box them up and ship them to Siberia. I think a real solution is needed, but Ted failed this city.
I don’t blame him for not solving houselessness any more than for not solving global warming. The entire $5 billion budget wouldn’t solve it (but if Portland spent that there might be an impact on other West Coast cities).
Crime, visible homelessness, horrible traffic… those things have GOTTEN MUCH WORSE under Wheeler. Look around. Go downtown. That dystopian hellscape is somehow Sarah’s fault? You do realize that this is the same argument that Trump is making about Biden, right? Thanks for being the arbiter on what most people in Portland care about, but I think that you’re way off base. It’s possible to care about the day to day, and the moment of uprising that we are in. “Radical protestors” are Moms and Dads and voting citizens, you may be shocked to learn. Most of whom have nothing to do with property damage-(which Sarah has condemned repeatedly BTW). Thanks for speaking for the “many of us”… but you don’t speak for me. Iannarone has a better platform, builds bridges much more effectively, is incredibly qualified for the position and represents the people- with a grassroots campaign of small, independent donors.
I want to thank everyone for the replies, and that they were civil in tone. You all got me thinking about this election that, again, does not directly affect me where I live in Newport.
I do have to say that, after taking some time to read up on Sarah Iannarone, on her website, in interviews, and seeing closely which media outlets and personalities are opposed to her, I’m leaning even more heavily into my belief that you’d have to be nuts to want another Wheeler term when you have a strong candidate standing in opposition. I wish I had a choice like that for Newport mayor.
Or the write-in candidate, Teresa Raiford. https://writeinteressaraiford.com/
Why Raiford over Iannorone?
If you’re asking me I don’t have an answer to that yet. I am undecided at this point.
Because Raiford doesn’t lie about her education, plays nice with others, is competent and doesn’t look at everything as zero sum game. We know what happened under Trump – divisiveness, incompetency and spiteful legislations. Same goes with Iannorone. Just because she claims to be progressive doesn’t mean she is fit for office. Raiford is at least a competent, decent person.
I’m beginning to think you might be a paid staffer for the Wheeler campaign… or maybe just his biggest fan? Either way, people should know that Sarah did not lie about her education, ABD is a legitimate title (just google it!). That bit of smear has already been discredited numerous times. A vote for Raiford is a protest vote, and protest votes always help the incumbent.
ABD is not a title. It is not a professional credential. It is not an academic credential. It is merely an informal way that PhD students refer to themselves after finshing coursework and quals. Lots of people drop out of PhD programs when they’re ABD, and they do NOT put it on their resumes, because it would be a) illegitamate and b) embarassing. She also used to use some kind of ridiculous thing like PhDc for a while, that she totally made up, and only changed to (ABD) after she was called out on that.
On the other hand, one doesn’t need a degree in anything to be elected to any office in this country. As an old professor of mine would often cynically say, the first degree is BS, the second is More S**t, and the 3rd degree is Piled higher and Deeper. But I do agree with you, lying publicly about one’s education is bad form.
Ding ding ding!
Pretty sure this person is getting paid. No one in the world is this passionate about Tevis Wheeler.
It’s basically a vote of no confidence in either candidate.
Ah yes, Raiford, the candidate who isn’t a candidate but is sometimes a candidate but is totally not running but wouldn’t say no if elected.
What a leader
On paper, Raiford might be preferable to either of the two candidates actually on the ballot, but she’s not campaigning. I hate to say this, but writing in Raiford is throwing away your vote.
I’m with you, but can’t help but feel that a vote for either of the others is also throwing away my vote.
This terrible choice of candidates is completely killing my buzz of voting against this one other terrible candidate.
I won’t say what race because it’s off topic, but they’re two handsy old white guys that nobody really likes.
Perhaps the reason you hate to say it is that at some level you realize it makes no sense. Unless the candidate you choose wins by exactly one vote, your vote is always “wasted.” So please vote for whomever you want, and encourage others to do so too. That’s what voting is all about.
But it is. It’s political science 101. Until we implement ranked choice voting in PDX, a protest vote is a vote for the incumbent.
Let’s start with Math 101. If your choice does not win by one vote, how does your vote count, no matter whom you vote for?
Well then why vote? I have come to the conclusion that in a large population, democracy is dependent on a large portion of the population buying into the illustion that their vote counts and behaving as if it does. Even though in most cases no one’s individual vote matters at all, having an election that accurately reflects the will of the people requires this. And in that very sense ones vote DOES count, because buying into the illusion is doing your part to create the reality.
This is a weird argument that I don’t think reflects the “game” of voting. You don’t know ahead of time who is going to win. So you cast a vote for the person you want to win, choosing from the set of people who have a chance of winning.
If you vote for someone who ultimately loses, sure, in a strict sense your vote was “wasted”. Same if you vote for someone who wins by two votes. But the important distinction is that you don’t know that when you cast your vote.
Voting for a write-in candidate who you know ahead of time has virtually no chance of winning guarantees that your vote will be “wasted”. Outcome-wise, it’s equivalent to not voting, except that you register your support of Raiford. And if that’s what you want to do, that’s fine! If you sincerely believe Wheeler and Iannarone would be equally bad, then that works.
Also if you think that Raiford has a serious chance of winning, then I think that makes sense. But my own judgement is that she does not.
I know that First Past The Post elections are bad, and exacerbate infighting among the progressive movement. Is there any effort to get a ballot measure for ranked choice or score voting or something like that?
Or one better, STAR voting. It may not be all that far off: https://www.starvoting.us/
We have to look at the *cumulative* effect of each individual vote. The only mathematical approach is looking at *percentages* of the total number of votes cast. This year, roughly 200,000 mayoral votes in Portland will be correctly filled out and counted. Ted and Sarah are in an extremely close race; the winner will likely win by fewer than 5,000 votes, which is 2.5% of the votes cast. And it’s looking like Teressa Raiford will get at least 5% of the votes. And it’s very clear that at least 90% of her votes would have gone to any candidate NOT named Ted Wheeler. So, I’m *extremely* worried that the Raiford write-in campaign will put Ted Wheeler right back into office! So, while every *individual* vote almost never decides the election, the winner is determined by tallying ALL the votes. And it currently looks like the Raiford write-ins will give Ted a second term.
So, what I want to do is to try to severely limit the *percentage* of votes going to Teressa Raiford. If she were Mayor Wheeler’s only opponent in the election who appeared on the ballot, I would *definitely* vote for Ms. Raiford and strongly encourage people NOT to vote for someeone who’s not on the ballot. *Collectively*, these individual votes for a write-in candidate ADD UP 90% in Wheeler’s favor.
any vote other than one of the printed names is a vote for the incumbent. This is why we have trump. as long as you okay with wheeler, then go for it.
Huh? Trump was not the incumbent when he was elected.
(ABD) = All But [PhD] Dissertation. All your classes are completed but you still have to write your dissertation (thesis) and get it approved and signed-off by your 5+ readers. As my late dad said, the most bitter person in the world is an ABD – he was ABD for 7 years, but he did finish it in the end.
That’s like saying “attended XYZ University”…still didn’t finish.
Not yet anyway. There’s always a time limit on a PhD, usually 5-8 years. I’m surprised she didn’t list her undergrad degree or a Masters like the others did.
It would be useful to know the years of attendance at PSU. TO know when that timer started. Clearly she feels like there’s not a lot of meat to her profile.
It’s the equivalent of “finished some grad school”
It’s not something you tout as a finished degree.
Holy shit, why are people so hung up on this? It feels a little like folks who already dislike Iannarone are using it as a bludgeon at this point. But they’re apparently unconcerned by Wheeler repeatedly violating our city’s campaign finance rules.
If I were her, and I’d spent years studying a topic that was relevant to the issues at hand, I’d be inclined to find a way to convey that.
Going with Sarah. Ted hasn’t made a dent on the homelessness front and completely bungled everything with protests.
Did you look at Sarah’s proposals? They are far worse than Ted’s. Instead of solutions, she will just allow homeless camps anywhere, car camping everywhere and no cleanups. They will absolutely not make a dent in homelessness while creating even more health and safety issues for both homeless and home-ful people. Her policy is to make it other’s issue – which will undoubtedly create a huge backlash and friction between residents and homeless camps, and also more crime.
Ted had his chance. I don’t think another term will magically fix his failure.
Actually not true. Advocating for proven solutions like Right To Dream and Dignity Village is NOT the same as “allowing homeless camps everywhere”, and as for Wheeler he should be showing us how effective his proposals have been- not simply offering more proposals. He has had four years, and nothing to show for it. Why on earth should we give him four more?
The one and only thing I’ve seen Wheeler do with any dedication is continue strip mining the Real Estate scene in PDX. It’s an unholy triumvirate of the Mayor’s office, The Oregonian & other minor media (ffs, it’s been little more than a Home Sales flyer the last decade), and a cabal of Property development czars greasing palms to get slick deals, grooming the golden goose even after it’s already been slaughtered.
And that, right there, is where the homeless tragedy in Portland begins in the first place. Passing the Residential Infill Project and 2018 bond wasn’t done as some benign act, it was meant to squeeze more cash out of less timber and keep the gravy train chugging.
This town is run by Real Estate vultures. Not indigenous Portlanders.
Boy howdy do I wish that we had a third option; a bud Clark tape figure perhaps. Someone with a vision of the city as laid back, openminded, safe fun and quirky. Alas; we have only Ted and Sarah. Ted the feckless “moderate”, Forever trapped by his constituencies far left flank, or Sarah “I am antifa” Iannarone. Come on Portland you can do better than that.
No one recalls how Bud Clark ended his term. The last 2 years he just gave up and council ran the city. Sarah is another Bud Clark. Don’t risk another rookie. At least Bud wasn’t an ideologue to boot.
Iannarone claims to be antifa. Being anti-fascist is a righteous position and is one I believe resonates with the majority of Portlanders .That being said, I don’t think that identifying oneself as antifa is a winning recipe for aspiring to be Portland’s mayor. Has Iannarone studied antifa? Historian Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: the Anti-Fascist’s Handbook”, acknowledges that the antifa movement proactively utilizes violence and property destruction as a means of combating fascism. I will not vote for anyone who adheres to an ideology “might makes right”.
Sarah. Because she makes “unproven” look like an asset compared with Wheeler’s complete lack of leadership on anything. Protests, police reform, housing, homelessness. Wheeler should have just picked a lane and stuck with it. Instead we got half-measures and virtue signaling.
Exact same logic that got trump elected. Voting for “unproven” without looking at the “accomplishments” and temperament and character of someone is no better than trump voters. She has tons of red flags. Why do you think otherwise she is not leading by a huge margins? Because many realize that she is a disaster – incompetent, not a team player in any way, and spiteful.
She is not leading by huge margins because of baseless attacks on her character, attempts to smear her educational background, the same Trumpian attempts to align her with antifa (like that’s a bad thing)- and mostly because she is the publicly funded, anti-establishment upstart who is a threat to the status quo. Dark money PAC’s work wonders- just look at the one that Ted’s got working for him.
You sure it was “logic” that got Trump elected? I thought it was a perfect shitstorm of crazed xenophobia combined with a shameful display of single issue voting.
This was an especially difficult choice for a variety of reasons. I can’t honestly recommend one over the other. I would suggest you identify the issue or issues you care most about and pick the one who seems most promising for it. For me it was police reform. I just hope whoever wins sticks to changing the format of council and city government to be more reflective of and responsive to the community in the upcoming city charter review.
I think this is a very sane way to look at this choice. I generally have little faith that Sarah will be an effective mayor. On the other hand police reform and viable solutions to resolving our homeless crisis are my top issues and I find it hard to imagine someone doing worse on these issues than Ted.
Do you honestly think that somebody who hates police, lies about her qualifications, fights with everyone will be effective in creating police reform? All she will do will be a us vs them mentality that will actually make things FAR worse. It’s like saying Trump is law and order president. Both trump and Iannorone are so extreme and divisive that their idea of “reform” is to screw the other side.
That is no way to make a workable plan. Like it or not, we have police and ratcheting up an already divisive environment more is not going to solve anything.
As far as I am concerned, Iannorone will make things substantially worse, and will not help any reform, since she is not a sincere and open minded negotiator.
It’s possible to dislike a candidate and not resort to outright lies to try and discredit them. You have no factual basis to support the hyperbolic claims that you continue to make. Wheeler lost his chance- I would vote for an overripe tomato before I would vote for him again.
Anyone notice that the “two” posters with the loudest anti-Sarah opinions here are Jamie Myers and Jeremy Myers?
Lmao Ted illegally loaned his campaign 150k and couldn’t even come up with staffers competent enough to come up with original names for their sock puppet accounts.
Yes I noticed. Could be brothers in same house with same IP address. Or could be autofill error.
Iannarone said she’d immediately put Hardesty in charge of the police – like Ted should’ve done months ago. That alone seems like about a good enough reason to elect her.
ABD? She’s still using that?
Can you believe that? She even defends it.
How long has she been ABD?
She earned her BS degree in 2005. According to WWeek, she started the PhD program in 2006. So she’s been plugging away at that PhD for 14 years 🙂
Which makes it even more disgusting that she is misrepresenting her qualifications. If you can’t get in 14 years, you should not even claim it.
I’m guessing her statute of limitations from her university college are long expired – she hasn’t graduated and never will be allowed to from that program – she’s taken too long. She’s effectively a PhD dropout.
I really don’t see why people harp on this. She DID, in fact, complete the PhD except for the dissertation, which is exactly what she claimed. Why is it that people are so hung up on this, and what do you have to gain by tearing someone down because they (truthfully) claimed they did exactly what they did? I’m not trying to be snarky here; I legit don’t understand why people get so worked up about this.
I am undecided and haven’t decided how much this issue weighs in my decision. However, the last 3 paragraphs of this article may help explain why people express concern over the misuse of PhD ABD which does not indicate completion of a degree. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/09/misuse-phd#:~:text=Rather%20than%20using%20PhD(c,are%20still%20writing%20their%20dissertations.
Stasi, the meat of a PhD IS the dissertation, it’s not some extra little thing tacked on at the end. Quite the contrary, better to think of the couple years course work as something tacked on at the beginning. Then you do years of original research on which your dissertation is based.
Different fields have varied standards/cultures, but two years course work and 3-5 years research is typical.
The reason is this: when she is asked for her educational credentials, she says PhD(ABD). But that is not a credential. This is the equivalent of someone who dropped out of college after their freshman year claiming the credential BA(1yr). It’s not a credential.
And it really is equivalent to the “1 year” example. The entire point of the PhD is the dissertation and defense of it–the dissertation isn’t just, like, the frosting, it’s the cake. It is typical for PhD students to finish their coursework and become ABD in two years or less. It is typical to then take another 3 to 6 years to do the research and write the dissertation.
Wheeler. Even though in my opinion he sucks, at least he is able to work with others, has done good with Covid. Iannarone on the other hand is incrediblky radical, believes in zero sum ideas, she has serious anger management issues, and has no experience.
One cannot condemn Trump for idelogically driven zero sum policies and then go for Iannarone. She is no different. Sure, she sounds like a bike advocate, but just like Eudaly, her plans will hurt bicyclists, will cause more traffic, deaths and anti-bike sentiment.
She is NOT fit to be a Mayor.
Ted’s “ability to work well with others” would make him a good fit for a cashier at Fred Meyer.
Only one of the candidates actively collaborated with Trump’s goon squads and it ain’t Sarah.
She’s obviously different from Trump. Yes, the lack of experience is problematic; but how can you say she’s no different from Trump?
If you care about it being safer to get around Portland without a car, Sarah is the better candidate by *miles*. You really couldn’t ask for someone better, other than maybe Janette Sadik-Khan herself 🙂
She’s personally car-free (might be the only American mayor who doesn’t drive a car!) and rides her e-bike and takes transit everywhere, so she understands this stuff on a personal level: https://pamplinmedia.com/scc/103-news/484310-390412-sarah-iannarone-tells-sw-portlanders-why-she-should-be-mayor
She’s a HUGE advocate for protected bike lanes and reclaiming space from cars: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1177807522742206464
…in fact, she’s been tweeting about protected bike lanes for YEARS: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Asarahforpdx%20%22protected%20bike%20lanes%22&src=typed_query
She’s even wonky enough to champion protected intersections: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1137759467276083200
She wants cycle superhighways and fareless transit: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1193272474286215169
She understands the deep need for car-free zones in downtown Portland and beyond: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/913776438465011712
Just look at what Anne Hidalgo has managed to accomplish in the last few months in Paris—and imagine how much progress we could make with someone *visionary* in charge of PBOT: https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1306369401361293312
100% in agreement! I’m honestly surprised that more folks on here aren’t focusing on the clear differences in transportation policy and knowledge.
Who would do a better job implementing the Metro transportation bond measure? Ted or Sarah? Not even close!
I am so excited to vote for Sarah!
“clear differences in transportation policy and knowledge.” For real?
First of all, she doesn’t have knowledge. Second, I think many realize that screwing 80% of people who has to travel by car to work is not really a policy, but just spitefulness and is unproductive.
She has no plans other than more and more bicycle lanes and screw drivers. Sure, we want to reduce dependence on cars, but if all you are doing is making drivers miserable, that is not a solution. In fact, idling cars, cars cutting through residential areas etc are going to cause more deaths, more air polution. Just look at Eudaly’s record.
Vast majority of Portland people cannot travel by bicycle to work. Not addressing that is NOT a transportation policy but rather trump like “Screw them” mentality.
Con_tot and Zach, your reason for voting for her is no different than trump voters voting for him since he makes the liberals cry. You dislike cars obviously, so you do not care if drivers suffer as long as you get what you want.
We need people who actually have a policy, can work with others and not just work on screwing people YOU do not like. We all live here and screwing people who use a car to go to work who have no other choice is not a policy at all, it is just spitefulness. Also it hurts poor people and people with disabilities a lot more.
I guess if it works for you able-body bicycle at any weather with short commute people, you do not care that it screws up everyone else?
The ends of the political spectrum is a horseshoe – both left wing and right wing just want to screw others who have no choice sometimes.
If your only goal is to screw motorists, cater to a small group of people who are able to travel by bike at any weather to short distance work, she is the perfect spiteful zero sum candidate. But if you actually really want solutions that benefit Portland that include a mix of public transportation, motorized vehicles and bicycles, and public backing for transportation change and political will, she is absolutely the opposite of good policy. Your short term win will end up being a very bad thing for Portland and bicyclists.
NONE of her solutions are inclusive. They are all exclusive, benefiting one group. Eudaly did the same – the end result is % decrease in bicycle ridership and more deaths and miles of traffic congestion that increased emissions.
This bicyclists vs cars fight is hurting both sides, other than divisive politicians like Eudaly and iannarone.
Also voting for someone for a narrow gain for yourself while looking the other way for her incompetency, terrible character, lies and other negatives is really no different than trump people.
LoL both sides and also “trump people”. Just invent all of the divisiveness, and from behind a windshield. Argue for car supremacy and at the same time blame Eudaly for the harm it causes, as an argument in the mayor’s race, where the incumbent has stood in the way of bikeway projects.
Dang, does Ted’s campaign pay you by the word?
She’s running for MAYOR though, not Chief Transport Officer. I don’t believe she has the skillset to run a city.
Although to be clear, as with any other elected office, being qualified beyond age, residency, and sometimes citizenship isn’t required either. Other than maybe the late Nick Fish, I don’t recall anyone actually being qualified for any of the city council positions over the last 20 years – they’ve all been amateurs, some more so than others.
And how has that worked out? This city wastes more money than anywhere I’ve ever lived and it’s pretty universally agreed that livability for the most part has decreased significantly. Maybe it’s time we reform how our govt works and elect people with actual credentials rather than vote for another insanely idealistic amateur.
Agree with you 100%!
Portland has a City Commissioner form of government, where the “Mayor” is just the “first among equals”. One of their main powers is getting to assign different city bureaus and departments to the other commissioners and to themselves. So she can choose to be the PBOT Commissioner, and yes, then she would be directly in charge of the transportation bureau.
I totally agree. What a great breakdown too.
Based on those qualifications she should apply for a job at PBOT or Lime scooter, not mayor for Bob’s sake.
What’s that saying? “Out of the frying pan into the fire!” That’s what I think a vote for Sarah Iannarone would be.
Where does she plan on getting all of the money to pay for everything? The city is already four wheeled transport-unfriendly, and businesses are sick of downtown violence and how unattractive our city has become. Once you wipe out the vehicles being allowed, more businesses will simply leave (no – not everyone runs on 2 wheels and a communist manifesto). Without real business downtown, you’ll have vacant high-rises, a reduction of tourists as they DO actually prefer safety and open restaurants, and a shortfall of TAX REVENUE. Then you can look to Detroit, MI to see how well that worked out… STOP THE NONSENSE! Sarah couldn’t even keep her coffee shop open 1 month into COVID – she has ZERO experience successfully running ANYTHING and she would be in charge of a $5B budget?!? What is wrong with this picture?!
*****5 stars for the best comment ever – very well thought out – and good points!
Maybe instead of an election this time we can just draft an unwilling but farsighted and competent municipal manager from somewhere in the state. Can anyone think of someone who has risen to the occasion and done especially well in the adverse circumstances of the last few months we can recruit to be mayor? I am working on it but coming up short so far.
My vote is for Sarah.
I first met Sarah when she would come down to the bike valet with her First Stop tours. She was excited about the possibilities of Portland and honest about our shortcomings. She had a good grasp on what other cities were doing and how Portland was failing to live up to it’s progressive reputation.
My next interaction was when her and I worked together to close off part of Montgomery street by PSU to cars for the afternoon. I remember how undeterred she was about whether the campus police would try to stop us (the street closure was right in front of their office). At the event a soon to be elected JoAnn Hardesty spoke and we all sat on picnic blankets.
I think Portland needs an activist mayor because we need things to change and activists are willing to make those changes. She has a large coalition behind her and that is where the real power in Portland is. If elected I hope she makes a rule for herself only to say positive things on social media.
My only interactions with Mayor Wheeler are when in his first year he invited a bunch of transportation activists to city hall to listen to us. Halfway through he left to go somewhere else and never invited us back again. Also at the ground breaking for an affordable housing place in the lloyd. Someone started yelling at him from the crowd and he turned to me and said, “looks like my fan club is here.”
I hope the city adopts a citywide manager position and he would seem like a strong candidate for that. He just does not want to be a leader and isn’t interested in changing Portland. Even if he wins he won’t have any political coalition or power behind him, just a $150,000 personal loan to his campaign.
Sarah is a modern day Jane Jacobs! Her platforms are well thought out and articulate. She is equipped to lead and set the vision. 178,000 votes needed to win. Every vote matters!
Plus, Ted Wheeler has failed to give Hardesty the p ill ice bureau. Never again will I be tear gassed by my tax dollars in my driveway with my two kids in the house.
I am a lifelong Oregonian and have lived in Portland since 1998. The numbers of homeless people, the disparity between low-income and high-income earners, and the cost of homes has increased at an unrelenting speed. Over the past few decades, none of our city leaders seem capable of managing the challenges that we face. Add to that hard truth the destruction wrought by the pandemic, civil unrest in response to George Floyd’s murder, and the fires that came within miles of the Portland area last month, and the lack of effective leadership is deeply concerning. What we need right now is a bold, innovative mayor, and neither Wheeler nor Iannarone bring the necessary dynamic thinking to the table.
That being said, after watching the mayoral debate between Wheeler and Iannarone,I was struck by the fact that Iannarone didn’t seem at all to be a champion of the middle class. She never mentioned the importance of preserving and expanding the middle class and fighting to ensure that low-income people have access to it. The message I took from Iannarone during the debate is that she is an advocate for underserved groups, and while I appreciate and respect that, Iannarone represents what I call “the pitchfork mentality”: She seems fully prepared to throw the “baby out with the bathwater”. Instead of trying to appeal to Portland’s middle class residents and making the case to that constituency – which is shrinking and endangered – how she will strengthen our economy, support local businesses, build relationships across all socioeconomic groups and strengthen our ties as one another as residents who love Portland and want to make it as healthy and vibrant as possible, she lobbed insults and accusations and gave no indication that she is interested in bringing all parties – including the middle class – to the table.
Wheeler’s performance at the debate was “business as usual”. I am beyond disappointed that he doesn’t have a clear plan for ending the protests and restoring peace and prosperity to the commercial heart of our city. I also think that if Biden wins the presidential election, there will be federal leadership that comes out strongly against white supremacy, is actively anti-racist, and mobilizes the country around social justice and the importance of recognizing that Black Lives Matter and instituting initiatives to bring justice to BIPOC. That will help quell the unrest we are seeing on our city streets. Wheeler is a uniter. He also seems to recognize that he must build bridges with a variety of local interests, from BLM organizers to the police to business owners, in order to effectively achieve his objectives. I am hopeful that, if re-elected, we will see progress made on his agenda, particularly with regard to restoring the economy.
My vote is for Wheeler. I believe he alone has the best interest of all Portlanders – including those of us fighting for the middle class – at heart.
This whole championing of the middle class bit, wow. Ted is a Reagan republican with dozens of millions of dollars inherited from the family timber fortune who lives on an island and people think he’s folksy because he wears a vest sometimes. Sarah actually ran a small business in Portland and has had to connect with thousands of people to run a publicly financed campaign against Ted’s corporate backers and flaunting of campaign finance laws.
That doesn’t negate the importance of fighting for the middle class and expanding access to it: Iannarone gave no indication that she cares about that demographic and that issue is important to me.
She has a whole list of policy on her website including municipal bank and many other points which would be win-win for solving the city’s problems and supporting middle class homeowners and businesses quite well, but Ted has a track record of doing pretty much nothing except get in the way for four years. Even if Sarah didn’t say the thing you want to hear, I don’t see what Ted has done to convince anyone that he can deliver.
Come on. A municipal bank? Talk about a pie in the sky notion.
So because Ted has backing from business (which is not surprising considering Sarah just wants to hurt business and homeowners), you are ok to look the other way with someone who has no accomplishments, lies, and is incompetent.
Go vote for trump while at it.
I don’t think you know what a Reagan Republican is if you think Wheeler is one. The progressive echo chamber in the city has really distorted the mindset of folks to believe Wheeler and Reagan are similar…
Her policies will directly hurt poor people who have to travel long distances to work. They will also hurt homeless population because she has no solution other than making it other’s problem.
because of the chance of both Iannarone and Eudaly possibly winning, I am absolutely not voting for the new transportation bill. I know many others who will not as well. This is a direct result of “screw the other side” mentality of Eudaly and the like.
Also bicycling is great. It is NOT a solution at all to traffic but a small portion. If it was as solution, bicycle riding percentage would not decrease despite people getting stuck more and more in traffic.
I’m to the left of both candidates but it comes down to qualifications and integrity to me.
One has experience and education. Worked his way through govt positions with actual budget responsibilities and has a world class set of credentials.
The other is a liar who has fabricated every aspect of her resume.
She didn’t own a coffee shop for 12 years as she claims. Her husband of three years did but her name isn’t on any of the associated paperwork.
Her job at PSU was as a tour guide. Total budget of $200k, $50k of which was her salary.
Her last paying job was as faculty at a “college” who’s only degree offering is an Associates of Self, whatever that is.
She lists a PhD on her resume. She doesn’t have a PhD and she is nowhere near completing it.
Sarah doesn’t pay her taxes. 2011, 12, 13 and 14 all years in which she didn’t contribute to a single public program in Portland. She didn’t pay income tax for those years, didn’t own a house so she didn’t pay property taxes and there is no Oregon sales tax.
Wheeler’s first successful run for office was for Multnomah County Chair. He didn’t have any more experience in elected office when he won that race than Iannarone does today. It seems like somewhat of a double standard to criticize her for a lack of experience but crediting him for experience that he gained by doing the exact same thing.
The original reporting on Iannarone’s taxes never stated that she didn’t pay any income tax; it stated that she “didn’t fully pay personal income taxes” at the time. Based on the amounts shown in the lien document linked in the Oregonian story it seems pretty likely that she did in fact pay taxes.
And for someone who claims to be of the left, the idea that renters don’t pay property taxes is quite a take.
Multnomah County Chair is not Mayor. And he had a Masters in Public Policy, an MBA, managerial experience, and an Ivy League education in politics and economics before he was CC. She has none of those for a much higher level position.
Given her income level at the time, it is highly likely that it was all of the taxes she owed that she didn’t pay.
Sure renters indirectly pay property tax but so do I when I eat out and the restaurant owns the building. Doesn’t change my statement or my point.
Multnomah County has a larger budget than the City of Portland does and the Chair has more powers in their role than the Mayor of Portland does in theirs.
And yeah, before being elected for the first time Wheeler had a very expensive education from elite institutions and experience working in financial services. That’s a resume that’s a lot easier to build up if you come from a rich family, and again I find it weird for someone who claims to be of the left giving a lot of deference to that.
Well that’s not true at all. The County’s budget is less than 1/3 the size of the City of Portland’s. And the number of reports who answer directly or indirectly to each position is nowhere near equitable. CC is not the Mayor.
Left doesn’t mean unqualified. She is unqualified and her resume is a pack of documented lies. Not sure why anyone would defend that.
Sure, he had a leg up financially. But he also has significantly better qualifications and experience. Do you forgo a professional dentist in order to get a root canal by whomever you meet at a plaid pantry? No, because education and experience matters.
Numbers with citations please.
Total
Adopted City Budget
FY 2018-19
$5,146,321,580
source: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/cbo/article/734903
Total All Funds (FY2019 County)
$2,066,957,924
source: https://multco.us/file/74178/download
County Budget / City Budget X 100 = 40%
My mistake. I could have sworn the County’s budget was larger than the City’s….
It’s lose and lose. This city is so broken it goes way beyond mayor anyway.
Counterpoint: A mayor who actually cares about their city (unlike Ted, who sees the job as “Chief Bureaucrat”) can work magic.
How do you see the job as mayor, if not as being chief bureaucrat?
I see it as more like being the director of a movie, or the producer of an album, or perhaps even like being the mother or father of a family. More of an artistic endeavor than just being some dumb suit “in charge.”
I think that’s how Trump sees it too. You have to understand the bureacracy to move the bureacracy.
Portland doesn’t have a city manager, so the mayor is effectively an elected city manager, and each of the other 4 city councilors or city commissioners are elected assistant city managers.
I do think that the level of frustration and disapointment we are all feeling in the city right now is, in fact, leading to magical thinking. We want Sarah to be the progressive and capable champion that we all crave. But she’s not. She’s talks a good game, she has a great vision, but she isn’t capable, and has the potential to cause a lot of damage.
I will be voting for Sarah because I believe in visionary leadership. Building people-centered infrastructure is not merely about getting people on bikes; it creates a more equitable and peaceful environment. It’s probably no coincidence that the happiest and most egalitarian places in the world (Denmark, Holland, Norway) are also places where folks cycle, walk and take transit as their main forms of transportation. These are place where the streets are generally calm and quiet. It takes a holistic approach to achieve this, and I believe Sarah has the vision and will to carry this out for Portland.
I live just outside Portland. Recent events have caused me to reflect on the wisdom of telling the broker “no city of Portland addresses”. I don’t wish the city ill but I will give gratitude for my foresight if the fake PhD is elected. I’m sure she will keep the news lively.
Sarah will be a fantastic Mayor. Ted has so much government experience but has accomplished very little during his first term. In my opinion he treats his job as a consolation prize, he really wants to be Governor and I think much of the animosity between him and Kate Brown stems from his resentment that she “stepped in front of him” by becoming Governor after Kitz resigned. I know he can be a leader, he lead the county as Chair quite well, in fact. His heart just isn’t in it and it shows. I’ll never forget the hot mic moment a couple of years ago where he said “I can’t wait for the next 24 months to be up.”
Sarah may lack experience but at least she wants to be Mayor. In any case, I think her lack of experience is overblown. It takes leadership skills to organize a community, it takes leadership to start a small business. She’s been a huge advocate for the biking community, I’m surprised more people aren’t supporting her.
Do you think it’s possible that the experiences of the last six months might have woken Ted up and made him take his responsibility more seriously? Genuinely asking. That’s my big hope.
Sorry – I might have missed something but when you discuss “leadership” – how is Sarah an organizer for a community? She’s outspoken and stikes a chord which is great, but an organizer?? And as for starting a small business – that doesn’t take an ounce of leadership, it just takes some (one else’s) money in her case. Open to hearing about it but that’s not leadership to me.
Ted is a classic bureaucrat, great with numbers, and all for the mediocrity of the status quo. I voted for Iannarone, but I am well aware of why others are reluctant to do so. Every Portland Mayor has been a disappointment since we moved here 18 years ago. It is hard to believe that our commissioner/mayor system is not the common denominator that has determined our poor leadership, no matter who is elected. It is past time for that to end.
What about Vera Katz?
I think he meant after Vera, who left office in early 2000s. I liked Sam Adams as Mayor the issues nonwithstanding of course. I voted for him in the primary. Would have loved to see him back on the Council.
It seems that our progressive leaders everywhere, from Bernie Saunders on down to Jo Ann Hardesty, have been negligent in condemning protester violence while only focusing on the police and right wing violence. All violence needs to be condemned and sadly our progressive leaders have let us down. I feel that had there been a coordinated effort by our nation’s progressive leaders to condemn all the protest related violence then BLM message would have not been hijacked by violent protesters to the extent it has and BLM would still have the amount of sympathy of the nation it initially had.
I seem to recall this summer Ted Wheeler attempted to get local leaders to sign on to a proclamation to condemn all violence. I think Hardesty and Eudaly didn’t sign. I wrote to each concerning this and heard only from Hardesty’s office. A staff person there wrote, “When we focus on what the protesters are doing instead of focus on accountability and change within the systems they’re protesting in the first place, we are helping Trump with his narrative.” I think the opposite is true – if we condemn the violence on all sides then we don’t look like hypocrites when we say we want peace and justice and that we are indeed anti-war. Imagine if we had pushed to stop the protester violence, then Trump and his followers might not have had those nightly violent Portland news videos to use for his re-election campaign and right wing groups/militias probably would have had less to enlist new recruits with.
So here is what this all leads to: I see a lack of wisdom with Iannarone’s candidacy in that she has stated she wants Hardesty to be in charge of the police. Note Hardesty has claimed there has only been one riot so far this year here in Portland. She also made remarks concerning the police as being the arsonists behind protest fires – only to backtrack those statements the following day. How wise could Iannarone possibly be to put Hardesty in charge of the police? Other than Iannarone stating she wanted to defund the police by $50 million, I agree with her progressive ideas and side with her ambition to combat climate change and find the best ways to help the homeless, but am I the only progressive who can’t get past her support for Hardesty to be in charge of the police? Is there not some grave lack of wisdom in this? I’m feeling it would be a mistake for Iannarone be our next mayor of Portland.
Well said… And, you’re not alone.
I am new to Portland and mostly unfamiliar with the candidates running and the details of policy differences. This comment really resonated with me. Especially this part:
“I seem to recall this summer Ted Wheeler attempted to get local leaders to sign on to a proclamation to condemn all violence. I think Hardesty and Eudaly didn’t sign. I wrote to each concerning this and heard only from Hardesty’s office. A staff person there wrote, “When we focus on what the protesters are doing instead of focus on accountability and change within the systems they’re protesting in the first place, we are helping Trump with his narrative.” I think the opposite is true – if we condemn the violence on all sides then we don’t look like hypocrites when we say we want peace and justice and that we are indeed anti-war. Imagine if we had pushed to stop the protester violence, then Trump and his followers might not have had those nightly violent Portland news videos to use for his re-election campaign and right wing groups/militias probably would have had less to enlist new recruits with.”
I am also now going to vote for Mingus Mapps because of this comment. I believe it’s important for all violence to be condemned. For there to be law and order, with out living in a police state. A Progressive vision is important as is activism, but so is building coalitions, compromise, and honesty. I considered myself a hard progressive in 2016, campaigned for Marianne Williamson when she ran for Congress in CA and then for Bernie Sanders. Helped pass Prop 59 in CA to overturn Citizens United. That said, I have been extremely disappointed in how the “Left” has decided to overlook the obvious coordination of the more radical people and elements on on the left and placing all blame on “Trumpism,” police violence, white supremacy, etc. I am no longer comfortable with the ppl who can not call a spade a spade, and that means taking responsibility for mistakes made. Wheeler will definitely be on notice with me though.
Do you really not see a difference between property damage and extreme violence against people?
Why does the Left think property damage is synonymous with protest?
I can’t speak for “the Left” but here it is: Property damage is NOT synonymous with protest. Sometimes protest is walking in the street. Sometimes protest is singing a forbidden song. Sometimes protest is not paying your taxes. Sometimes protest is letting yourself be beaten around the head and shoulders. Sometimes…
Having been a victim of property damage in the past few weeks (car break-in) and items stolen, then learning we had a number of break-ins over night, doorbell camera footage, etc. and asking police to come take a report, that was the eye-opener. After fighting to just get an officer on the phone (I was supposed to fill out a form on-line since no firearms or prescription drugs were stolen) the officer told me they would love to come take an in person report, dust for prints, etc., but they were preoccupied for the past few months filling in for all of the officers taking early retirement since they were in a lose-lose in our city, and were spending all of their time breaking up turf wars over dome tents Downtown. If that’s equity to some – it’s not to me.
Folks, It’s hard to swallow the prospect of another Ted Wheeler term, given his equivocation, weak leadership, and poor handling of the downtown situation, BUT…The complexity of the city budget and administrative bureaucracy is significant. Say what you will about Wheeler, but Iannarone is quite simply over her head here. Also, Iannaronne’s ‘Rainbow and Unicorn’ pie in the sky attitude of, “We’ll just figure it out”, is so far from any reasonable proposal to address some of the biggest hurdles and issues for this city as there are serious issues facing Portland for the next several years. Further, at the end of the day, the divisive politics of race and gender that she seems so consumed with are just not a substitute for fiscal and procedural competent management of such a complex system. Here’s hoping that Wheeler shows a capacity to learn from lessons, and grow into a leader. I hold my nose and vote for Wheeler.
No way.
The best mayors are creative, strong, visionary people. You don’t need to be good with numbers or be bureaucratic to be a good mayor—you have people who can do that for you.
To be a good mayor, you need to love your city and have big ideas to improve it.
Sarah is that person. Ted is not.
Sarah certainly is creative: making up educational qualifications she does not have. Even in the wimpy PhD programs ABD is reserved for people who passed their qualifying exams (humanities… the sciences and engineering don’t have such a concept.. you either earned a PhD or you did not). She’s a crook. Wheeler is no good, but Sarah is bad.
Yes, the best mayors are creative, strong, and visionary. No one, but no one, is claiming that Wheeler will be the best of mayors. But nor will he be the worst of mayors. One good way to get the worst? Someone who is “creative and visionary” with no respect for reality, and that is Sarah.
I think you are confusing a strong mayor (NYC, Chicago etc) and Weak Mayor which is what the title is here in Portland’s form of city government. A weak mayor is just another member of the commission with a little more power. A strong mayor is truly a spiritual leader or director creative booster of a city and may have veto power on the city council. This is part of the problem with our form of government and why it needs reform.
There’s no City Manager in Portland, unlike most other major US cities. Under weak mayors, each bureau or office effectively runs itself, often in conflict with other bureaus and city policies. Under a stronger mayor such as Katz or Adams, the city is barely cohesive. It may simply be that Portland voters prefer a weak and divided city government, much like Americans do for their Federal government.
Columbus Ohio is a city a bit bigger than Portland that also has a commissioner form of government, as do numerous smaller cities, Fargo ND for example, and many US counties.
I worked on a ‘community’ project with her for 2 yrs, and she poorly managed it. Heavy on theory and ideas, light on follow-through and leadership experience. Not a Ted fan, but she’d be a disaster as mayor. If you’re prepared to write her in, be sure to spell her name correctly: Teressa Raiford.
Iannarone: She has good policy proposals and the guts to drive a better police contract when it comes up next year. Wheeler seems to have a good heart, but hasn’t been willing enough to drive controversial changes. Raiford only seems to care about fixing the police, which is needed but not enough of a platform to be mayor.
Sarah failed, pre-covid, to run a bakery cafe across the street from a popular rec center. What do rec swimmers do after their workouts…coffee and pastry. And she thinks she can be CEO of the 25th largest US city. Nope, nope, and nope.
The City of Portland (using Multnomah County as a proxy) has one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 rates of the 30 largest cities in the United States.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/10/06/portland-has-the-nations-second-lowest-rate-of-covid-19-infection-study-says/
While there are lots of people and organizations responsible for this result, I think Ted Wheeler is an important part of that success. Despite other failures, that is enough to merit a second term.
The issue is not how bad a job Wheeler has done or even if he failed. Instead it is whether Iannarone is likely to be better or worse. In my opinion, the clear answer is that she would be worse, perhaps much worse. We are in the midst of multiple crises. Even if her plans were fleshed out and solid, which they are not, and even if she had experience managing an extremely large and complex organization, which she doesn’t, and even if she had a clear grasp on the limits and opportunities of mayoral power in Portland, which she doesn’t, the time it would take for her to learn how to implement her ideas would be disastrous on many fronts.
Imagine the hit to Portland’s already tarnished reputation if we elected “Antifa mayor”, which you know would be the meme.
I’m voting for Sarah Iannarone and here’s why.
A Portland mayor should be willing to use their voice to build coalitions and champion actions and Portland values that may be out of step with main stream US cities. Ted Wheeler has consistently remained silent or argued for the status quo when the city is faced with difficult issues. He condescended to opposition to the I-5 rose quarter project and showed that he misunderstood some of the key details of the project. But when the tide turned, and his personal risk was minimized, he joined others on city council in opposing it. He has remained silent on traffic deaths in Portland and initially sided with the PBA against permanent better Naito. Now that activists have put in a tremendous amount of work and the stars are aligned on city council, he pretends he was for it all along. He has sided with the PBA and allowed the downtown CCIM project to be gutted. And, now when he has no organized grass roots support he is essentially turning to the PBA and affiliates to save him.
He was complacent when white supremacist groups came to Portland to hold rallies and actually made it easier for these groups with police escorts and welcoming private communications with Portland police. These rallies attracted and inspired Jeremy Christiansen before he murdered people on the MAX, making the danger of such events obvious. This has evolved to armed caravans of hate groups routinely coming to Portland and threatening and assaulting people without consequence. Of course this is not all his fault, but it shows the failure of his silent hands off approach where he avoids political risk.
His approach to BLM protests has also been the approach of simply hoping that protests will die out or go away while he remains silent. He simultaneously takes credit nationally on TV for Portland standing up to Trump, but then comes back to Portland and pursues a media campaign to shame BLM protesters and turn people against them, hoping that public pressure will finally stop the protests. He has remained silent on police brutality and has missed the opportunity to take the position of BLM seriously, draw from the coalition of community support and finally reign in the racism and militarization of the Portland police.
He has ignored campaign finance regulations in opposition to Portlanders desires to remove the huge influence of a minority of stakeholders.
As a supposed Timbers fan, he was silent while the Timbers Army fought the MLS to be able to stand up against fascism at matches. When the Timbers Army and other supporter groups across the US won their struggle, along with players also taking professional risks, Ted nodded as if he had been in support the entire time. But now, he has weaponized Sarah’s use of “everyday antifascism” against her, using the language and willful ignorance of Trump and Fox news to characterize her and every one else in Portland who outwardly stands against fascism as a violent extremists.
He takes credit for Portland’s “green” and progressive reputation, but the risk and the weight of the initiatives that substantially advance these positions have fallen to others while he does very little. In the end he might sign off and take credit.
His approach to homelessness has been the same; passive bureaucracy that has not mobilized the resources necessary for the task.
I wish Ted was better. One cannot help but look at him and think that he has potential and everything he needs to do better. But, there comes a point where you have to stop hoping that someone with potential will actually stand up and do the right thing. Like Charlie Hales, Ted has consistently taken the approach of telling activists that they are “too loud” or not “loud enough” while taking credit for their work and standing on the backs of people who have put in the work before him. He has taken everything that Portland has to give but contributed very little.
Sarah has shown up. She has been showing up for years and she takes a proactive stance on issues that are key to moving Portland forward. She is willing to take personal risk to make important changes. She has laid out policy objectives that are bold and will face opposition, but they move the conversation to a place that reflects core Portland values. I understand that her campaign may be off-putting to older voters, but challenging a monied corporate-backed incumbent with a publicly financed small donor campaign takes energy, and she has pulled off an impressive campaign. Portland needs a strong vocal mayor to say the loud parts out loud and build coalitions, and Sarah has shown that she understands this and can pull it off.
Okay let’s assume that your criticism of Ted is fair. It’s understandable to be upset in the way you see it. The alternative argument is that he responded to the will of the people when it wasn’t in line with his preconceived notions. Even if you don’t see it that way, what I can’t understand is this take you present about Sarah.
“Sarah has shown up” —-shown up where? Yelling in the streets? Cause she didn’t show up anywhere I’ve seen, not the classroom and not running/leading anything at all. Not one business, not one real class as an educator and apparently not for her dissertation defense.
“Sarah is willing to take a personal risk”—— what has she risked? Did she risk her non existent career? Or her non existent reputation?
“Build coalitions, and Sarah has shown that she understands this and can pull it off”———name one thing she’s ever pulled off by building a coalition aside from one failed mayoral run and one that’s yet to be determined. There is absolutely nothing else she’s ever built. Not one thing.
Building a coalition means bringing people together that don’t normally work together and that may have antagonisms, over their shared interests. That seems to be the opposite of what Sarah does to me.
The level of people’s self-preservation when talking about candidates is palpable. The people with power fighting to stay in power, while the people who are sick of the way things are, keep telling you that change is slow and that you have to play by the rules as they lose time and time again. It’s times like this I wish the whole thing burnt down. Fuck the lies, fuck the complacency, fuck voting in a classist system, and fuck all the naive people who think it has ever helped. At the end of the day it’s about resources and who gets to consume said resources and who gets left out. Fuck the whole system.
If I was voting it would be for Sarah, only because when I decided I needed to stand at the location of fallen smarts murder, I needed to be there for that child for and her family. I needed to be there to calm my enraged consciousness. I needed to be there to scream enough! So I went down to Hawthorn. When I got there it was Sarah who came to that location with that same pit in her stomach and that same anger in her eyes.
Don’t vote for Sarah because you think she will get the things done, because frankly, the system is too broken for change, it was not built for change. At least if you vote at all, vote for someone who hates the system’s complacency as much as you. After that, go launder all the hope you have been bottled up for 2021 because the shit show is just starting.
Some people are incrementalists and some are completists. It’s kind of insulting that you boil it down to wanting to preserve power and status. We may have different ideas about how we get to the same place. Tear it down and start again or try to improve what we have.
Iannarone all the way for me. Wheeler seem more concerned with broken windows downtown and criminalizing houselessness than our out-of-control racist police force.
There can be no “weird” or “livable” Portland if the PPD has free reign to terrorize and attack people asking for accountability.
Wheeler himself doesn’t seem to respect the judgement of the over 80% of the PDX electorate who voted to cap campaign contributions.
Iannarone may be “unproven” but I believe that she, at a minimum, has the right priorities. Wheeler’s vision for our city is about a placid population and a good brand. When it comes to actual policy, Wheeler seems to sincerely and demonstrably believe that what we need is: policing Black residents, conducting cruel sweeps of houseless Portlanders, and razing small businesses to make way for luxury hotels. These actions make sense for Portland only if you have an exclusive and basically racist concept of “livability”. At best, it might be what Portland needs to get back on Condé Nast Traveller magazine’s “best cities” list. I kind of think that’s what Ted wants more than anything.
I respect Raiford, and I agree with her decision to not run a write-in campaign for mayor. She is choosing to prioritize her work with Don’t Shoot PDX, and I think currently the best way to support her is to support that organization.
I don’t know how to edit this, but re-reading this I should say “over 80% of Portland voters”, not “Portland electorate”.
I’m skeptical of anyone that puts “mom” as the number one item on their resume. It shows they are compensating for a lack of relevant experience.
I would really like to have Sarah on the Council, especially an expanded 9-member council with a city manager form of government rather than the existing commission form of government. I think she has lots of good ideas that would be really good for policy discussions.
I don’t think she has the administrative experience to be mayor. It’s a really hard job and Wheeler’s performance has been a real disappointment, but I think that’s a demonstration of how hard it is to govern this city. I’m voting for Wheeler for mayor.
This, exactly this. I would 100% vote for Sarah on council. Her voice and influence would be great to have. She has no business at the helm with her current experience though.
Sarah has my strong support for Mayor. She is clearly the more bicycle friendly candidate and if you take the time to listen to her speak you will find what she says makes sense for Portland, especially at this time.
It’s clear that Sarah lacks experience, even though Ted is not my top choice:/
Just a reminder that you can write in Teressa Raiford if you don’t want either one.
or you can write in Richard Pryor
Just read this…
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/09/16/portland-voters-are-fed-up-with-ted-wheeler-but-are-they-ready-for-sarah-iannarone/
Given the absolutely deplorable choices for Portland mayor, perhaps the best option would be to vote for whichever person looks like they may not be able to finish their term in office – thus at least giving a third choice at some future time! And that option would probably be our present disaster – Mayor Wheeler.
Update: I voted for Sarah.
At one time, I also was enamored by progressive sounding, middle-management mayors; people who could be a steady hand and guide Portland in the right direction fueled by a deep bench of Portland’s progressive community leaders and activists. I imagined a city where an engaged community pushes the envelope to elevate Portland above the morass of most US cities while a mild-mannered wonk makes it work out on paper. But, I didn’t account for the political self-interest of those mayors and their lack of a moral compass.
Ted Wheeler is being lauded for his budgeting skills, but at a moment when he has an enormous amount of political capital to reform the city’s largest expense, the Portland police, he has embraced the Portland police union talking points and has given up on making substantial changes. Besides the expense of unnecessary police militarization, a poorly managed response to BLM protests, using jails to control homelessness and multiple law suits for police misconduct, the Portland police union has strong-armed the city into paying police overtime to do things that could be done at much lower cost and more effectively by people who aren’t police. This is very similar to when Ted was echoing ODOT talking points on a wasteful 700 million dollar freeway-widening in the heart of the city that could be dealt with by much less expensive and more effective congestion pricing.
Ted supposedly is a whiz with budgets, but he is whizzing with the wrong budget; a budget that is deeply flawed in ways that he refuses to address, because it may hurt his corporate-backed political ambitions.
A vote for Ted is a vote for an eventual back-stab when a common sense progressive policy faces up against status quo monied interests.
I voted for Sarah because I know she will try and I know where she stands. I have witnessed her engaging crucial elements of the community that have been overlooked and her endorsement by groups that need to be at the table to move Portland in the right direction.
If anyone is still undecided, I would encourage them to reach out to Sarah’s undecided voter hotline. Regardless of who people vote for, directly connecting with a campaign to discuss issues is a great opportunity for civic engagement.
https://sarah2020.com/en/hotline/
I voted for Wheeler. Like most people, I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the options, but as the options at this point are truly down to Wheeler or Iannarone, as I am too pragmatic for write ins, I went with what I believe to be the lesser of two evils. I was really turned off by Iannarone talking like a leftist version of Trump in her Tweets (another weird parallel…) and her bio sounds too much like him too – inexperienced but seeking the highest (local) office, extremist, divisive. After reading through her proposals I felt even more turned off. I consider myself left leaning but Trump has made me realize I like my politicians more moderate, I guess – activists can be extreme but governing officials should try to govern EVERYONE, not just their base. And like many Portlanders, I support BLM but not a lot of these protests, and I support getting homeless people help but recognize it is a BEAR of a problem that would already be solved if it was that easy. She advocates decriminalizing poverty by decriminalizing “victimless” crimes but does not define what these crimes are – is keying someone’s car victimless? Petty theft? If so I don’t agree. Maybe Wheeler hasn’t accomplished much but I feel like what she would try to accomplish would be actually harmful?
Also, kinda petty, but she cited getting the 72nd and Woodstock triangle built as proof that she can negotiate to complete projects…I’ve seen that cute little triangle. It is a nice neighborhood project. It is not evidence someone can run a city.