Mayor 2012: Four days to ballots
Kari Chisholm
Here's a roundup of the latest in the Portland Mayor's race.
Police & Fire Unions Endorse Smith
The big story in the mayor's race on Monday was the endorsement of Jefferson Smith by the Portland Police Association and the Portland Fire Fighters Association. They join AFSCME - who also represents city employees - in endorsing Smith. Several months ago, the two unions had announced that they would not be endorsing a candidate for mayor.
There's more from the Mercury and the Oregonian.
Televised Debate
On Sunday night, the three main candidate faced off in their first broadcast debate. It was held at David Douglas High School, co-sponsored by WW, and broadcast by KATU. KATU's Steve Dunn did a good job keeping things moving along - dedicating the maximum amount of time to hard questions and candidate answers (rather than silly banter and side comments, like we so often get from that other newschannel in town.)
If you didn't watch it live, KATU has the full video at the bottom of this page. It's worth watching. I'd have to say that the single best "oh snap!" moment almost exactly halfway - when Jefferson Smith took Charlie Hales to task for pushing infill housing on the Eastside without putting in the basic services of parks, sidewalks, transit, etc.
Meanwhile...
The current actual mayor, Sam Adams, released his first agency budget to begin addressing the $17 million in cuts required to balance the city budget by mid-June. As these budgets roll out, we'll see how they influence the campaigns of those who seek to succeed him.
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2:30 a.m.
Apr 24, '12
Full disclosure: My firm built Eileen Brady's campaign website. I speak only for myself.
8:17 a.m.
Apr 24, '12
Just to put a little more context into the endorsements of Jefferson - the Firefighters are saying it's in part about tax breaks that other candidates are promising:
Jim Forquer, president of Portland Firefighters Association, “We trust Jefferson to manage the city. He is the candidate showing the discipline to protect the general fund who hasn’t promised tax breaks or big projects our city budget can’t afford.”