Slice through the candidate crowd with small donor data

Labor Day marks the start of the last leg of the race to November’s election, and the candidates at the Clackamas Fairground were working hard. The Northwest Oregon Labor Council’s fairground picnic was the occasion for this AFL-CIO group to introduce its endorsed slate of twelve candidates running for Portland City Council positions.

Endorsements are important in any election, but this election is the first time Portlanders will be voting to fill a reorganized government structure — while using an unfamiliar ranked-choice voting method. Candidates are competing for three positions in each of four newly-formed geographic city council districts, for a total 12-person city council. The previous council structure was four council members and a mayor elected by city voters at-large.

The increased size of the council, together with the reduced geographic area in which candidates have to campaign, has lowered the barrier to entry for council races. As a result, the number of people running for office has swelled. Last week was the deadline for declaring candidacy, and although the numbers are not yet official, it looks like District 1 has 15 candidates; District 2 has 20; District 3 weighs in at 25; and District four has ballooned to 27 candidates running. (The City Registrar doesn’t finalize the numbers until Thursday.)

Voters will be looking for all the help they can get to make sense of this crowded field, and that’s why campaign staples such as endorsements and yard signs will be so critical this year. As I wandered the fairgrounds, I tried to learn what strategies attendees were using to come to grips with the abundance of candidates. I was hoping that I would hear something I could recommend to others.

How folks are selecting candidates to rank

The first man I talked with quickly disabused me of the notion that people who attend AFL-CIO events on Labor Day are your typical voters. It turns out that Bing Wong was a past officer of the Multnomah County Democratic Party. His preferred method of eliminating candidates is to go straight to the ORESTAR database (Oregon Election Systems for Tracking and Reporting) and eliminate those candidates who haven’t yet formed a candidacy committee. I don’t think most people know what any of that means, and ORESTAR isn’t real easy to use. But I enjoyed talking with Bing. (And what a t-shirt!)

Next I spoke with Rory Read, a member of Local 483, which is the Laborer’s Local representing city employees. Rory is a bike commuter who reads BikePortland, and he and I had a fascinating conversation about what ails Portland city government, as seen by someone on the inside, in a non-management position. And his recommendation for vetting candidates? Rory goes to “meet and greets” in his neighborhood and thinks it is important to see the candidates in person. I agree.

Finally, I spoke with a young woman working the Measure 117 table (statewide ranked choice vote). She was new to Oregon and planned to rely on endorsements from civic groups and unions.

Nobody I spoke with mentioned one of my preferred methods of winnowing the candidate lists. I use the Portland Small Donor Elections website to give me quick handle on where candidates stand, so I thought I would share that approach with you.

Winnowing with Small Donor Elections data

Portland has a Small Donor Elections program which offers $9.00 of matching funds for every $1.00 donated to a city council candidate by a Portland resident, up to a $20 maximum donation. So if I donate $20 to a candidate, the city will kick in $180, for a combined total of $200 to the candidate. If I donate $100, the city will match $20 of my donation with $180, for a combined donation of $280.

The catch is, the city doesn’t release those funds until a city council candidate qualifies for them by reaching a threshold of 250 donations. In other words, a candidate needs to have hustled enough, be organized enough, and have enough community support to have convinced 250 people to donate at least $5.00 to their campaign. (The next two donation thresholds are 750 and 1,250, and the city caps the matches at $40K + $40K + $40K, or $120,000.)

It’s a good program and it goes a long way toward dampening the influence of money in politics. But it’s the program’s portal which has got me hooked, and which might be useful if the number of candidates is overwhelming you. The portal shows all participating candidates, how much they’ve raised, how much of that money could qualify for a match, and it also groups the donations into tranches, by amount.

This might seem brutal, but I’m not considering any candidate who has not yet qualified for the city’s first round of matching funds. In other words, a candidate won’t make my list until they’ve gotten 250 people to give them at least $5.00. Every district has many qualified candidates who have been working their rear-ends off for months, and who have received that first round of city support.

Here’s how the top District 4 candidates are doing:

The cold, hard truth is that ballots are being mailed in six weeks. Candidates are accelerating into the final stretch. Yard signs are going up. A mailer or two are being prepared. And that all takes money. So if you are a voter who doesn’t know where to begin, is short on time, and just wants to cut to the chase, I suggest starting by looking at the fundraising. Pick your threshold, maybe it’s 250 donations, and focus your attention on the candidates above that.

But hey, if you’ve got a twinkle in your eye for someone who is behind with the funds, more power to you and I’m cheering you on. Go for it! That’s the whole point of ranked choice voting, you get to vote your conscience and still have some votes left over to play with.