Dozono to Limit Contributions

After deciding to stay in the race despite losing public financing for his campaign, Portland Mayor candidate Sho Dozono has pledged to limit his fundraising like fellow candidate Sam Adams.

From the Willamette Week:

Like fellow mayoral candidate Sam Adams, Sho Dozono is promising to limit his campaign fund-raising in the mayor's race to $500 per individual and $200,000 in the primary.

Dozono suggested he might do as much yesterday when he announced that he'd be staying in the race with private financing.

His campaign issued a press release today:

"I believe a grass-roots effort will win the day in this election.. To stay true to our community and to the spirit of Voter-Owned Elections, I will accept no contributions over $500 to my campaign, and will pledge, like my opponent, to cap fundraising at $200,000. It will take every penny and every volunteer to make our grass-roots effort successful in the limited number of days left before the ballots go in the mail, but as and the owner of a once-struggling business, I know how to spend wisely. And I will bring those same core values to City Hall," Dozono said.

Dozono's campaign also stated that it would not appeal the ruling that stripped his public financing:

After yesterday's announcement, Dozono supporters handed out a six-page appeal to the stripping of Dozono's public financing, prepared by the campaign's "volunteer attorneys."

"The appeal papers are ready to file," Dozono said yesterday, without saying whether or not they actually would be. To clarify, the appeal has not been filed with Multnomah County Circuit Court, "nor will it be", says campaign manager Amie Abbott. The hypothetical appeal reiterates the argument that Dozono was not a candidate under city code at the time he accepted a $27,000 in-kind contribution last year, and concludes that Administrative Law Judge David Gerstenfeld "should have deferred to the interpretation of the City Auditor, who has a critical role in drafting and interpreting the City Code provisions on publicly-financed campaigns."

Read the rest. Discuss.

  • Steve (unverified)
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    Wow, trying to out-Adams Mr Adams.

    He should be throwing a free wine/music thing like Middaugh with his VoE funds. I could really endorse VoE that way.

  • Miles (unverified)
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    Wow, the fake appeal is a really nice touch (sarcasm). Not only does Dozono blame Sam Adams for his own foolish decision to get in bed with a lobbyist, now he's blaming the ALJ as well. Guess he's not running on a platform of accountability.

    By limiting his expenditures to $200,000, Dozono has pretty much insured that he won't win. His only hope is to keep Adams below 50%, and I doubt he'll even be able to do that. Given the local media's dislike of Adams, Dozono could have had a free pass if he had just done a little due diligence on his campaign. Instead, he's had almost a month of self-generated bad press. I think that says something about his potential ability to run the city.

    [Note to Dozono: Time to fire Amie. Her personal vendetta against Adams is clouding her ability to manage your campaign.]

  • David M. (unverified)
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    I don't want "Tax 'em Sam" Adams for mayor - he'll clobber Portlanders with user fees, utility fees, street fees, ad infinitum.

  • ws (unverified)
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    Enough with the dopey, insulting nicknames. It can easily go both ways and it really makes everyone that uses them sound stupid.

  • DV (unverified)
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    It seems like there should have been better things for his campaign staff and volunteers to do than spend time drafting and distributing copies of an appeal that they didn't intend to file. Or is this the same kind of "intention" he had when he stated that he wouldn't continue to run if he didn't get public funding?

    I think it's just as well that he stayed in the race but these statements about what he intends to do are worrisome. I was a lot more impressed with Dozono before he (a) tried to pretend that the poll wasn't really a part of his campaign and then (b) whined in public and let his staff whine about how somebody else caused them to lose the money....

  • ws (unverified)
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    Dozono supposedly has such a great level of support; from somewhere, he easily got triple the $5 contributions required to qualify for the VOE money. If this really confirms that such a great demand for his service as mayor of Portland exists, the limitation of his campaign expenditures to $200,000 shouldn't at all affect his chances of becoming mayor.

    If he were to become mayor, I wonder how effective he would be at actually getting anything done, having to deal with the other city council members and all.

  • collin (unverified)
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    <h2>'tax 'em sam' has body language and facial features of a cunning, always-plotting politician; i don't trust him at all.</h2>
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