The sickle gets hammered
I had to chuckle when I read this one: Mitch Green, one of the socialistas in the Portand City Council Book Club, has lost two union endorsements in his re-election bid becase he opposes spending city money to renovate the Moda Center arena at the behest of the billionaire owner of the Trail Blazers. He also had the nerve to point out that the Bull Run water filtration project will double everyone's already outrageous water bills when cheaper alternatives were available. That is blasphemy to the construction boys, too.
Mitch, welcome to Portland politics, where the unholy alliance of the construction companies, unions, and real estate developers have pretty much run things for 50 years. (Over the last 25, the nonprofits have joined them in the star chamber.) Tax revenues belong to them first and foremost, and don't you forget it. You do things their way, or you go find yourself a real job outside of politics. They have the heads of many of your predecessors stuffed and mounted on the walls of their trophy room in Dunthorpe.
So you just make a speech, display a pained facial expression if you must, but be sure to vote to give those nine figures to those billionaires, and let some of it trickle down to the union overlords for distribution among the laborers. Laborers, Mitch! Power to the people, remember?
I happen to agree with Green on both these issues, although on the whole, we'd be a lot better off without him on the council. He and the other five spoiled brats on the left wing are a painful blister on the heel of progress.
But here's an interesting question: Under Portland's dopey version of "rank choice" voting, how are the unions going to make Green pay for his offenses? If the re-election campaigns are like the inaugural go-'round two years ago, none of the candidates are going to criticize any of the others directly, because by doing so they might risk losing second-, third-, fourth-, or fifth-place votes of the fans of the candidate they're criticizing. And with three seats up for grabs at the same time, to get rid of an incumbent you'd probably have to back two or more of his opponents and hope your targeted incumbent finishes fourth.
Anyway, I hope the unions apply the same screws to two of the birds running for re-election in District 3, Morillo and Lane. They're as bad as Green, or worse. And they, too, owe it all to The People. United. As in unions.
He only lost the endorsement of the leadership, not the workers.
ReplyDeleteSomething I've heard more than once, when doing organizing around Portland, particularly with the construction trades - union leadership does not always represent the views of the membership, in these situations. Members are aware that the projects they're working on could price them & their families out of the city, over the long-term, but say their leadership is not sharing their concerns & are focused only on jobs for-now (and their relationship with politicians, of course).
So membership may have ideas of their own, when they're alone with their ballots next Fall.
Decades ago, union leadership was in lock step with its members. Of course, those were the days when their primary function to over see the things that benefited its members.
ReplyDeleteHe's not the worst. Avalos and Zimmerman are tied - I don't care if Zimmerman avoided the the DSA endorsement, he's got no idea what's going on and plays like he's some operational guru. Avalos can cut and paste AI talking points all day, but is equally clueless.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing about Portland's ranked choice voting is that the ease of entry to office likely means that you would be extremely vulnerable to a recall campaign.
ReplyDeleteIf you were only elected with 35% voter support in your multi-member district, how are you going to fair in a recall that presents a binary up or down question to that same district?
These guys are all incredibly vulnerable. If one of them falls in a recall, everything will change.
Does the charter allow for recalls?
DeleteOregon Constitution guarantees the right to recall any elected public officer at every level of government.
DeleteOregon Constitution, Article II, Section 18. Recall; meaning of words "the legislative assembly shall provide." (1) Every public officer in Oregon is subject, as herein provided, to recall by the electors of the state or of the electoral district from which the public officer is elected.,
If we could ever get healthcare not being dependent on being provided by unions and/or companies they would not have nearly the power to influence who to vote for. That dependence has largely caused so much disruption in our economy it is hard to measure. Government healthcare of course has its own big issues because of the massive corruption, but at least we'd have a framework to try to improve upon.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple of people around town and on Substack who actually read what the charter commission was putting out in theirZOOM meetings and fancy "Progress Reports,' but no one else, especially in the legacy press, paid any attention. It was all there in black 'n' white:
ReplyDelete"Historically, candidates of choice for Black, Indigenous, communities of color, and political minority groups, have lacked access, power, and representation in Portland city hall. Increasing opportunities for communities of color to elect their candidates of choice has also been a driving goal for the Commission. Portland does not have a geographic distribution of BIPOC residents that could allow for a drawing of a majority BIPOC district, nor does it have the level of income or age segregation and stratification that characterizes other large cities."
So, instead of a racial gerrymander, we got the three-member districts . Unfortunately, that meant the likelihood of ties--but they allowed the mayor to break them. A test that Mayor Nebbish failed at the council's first meeting...but that's another story.
All these losers will be reelected. When they only need 25% +1, and they just let 44% off the hook for the arts tax, the math is pretty easy.
ReplyDeleteOregon's billionaires are Phil Knight, Travis Boersma and Tim Boyle. None are involved in construction or real estate development. The Schnitzer family are not billionaires.
ReplyDeleteAnd none are in Portland.
DeleteYou have made this inane point. Again. Now please spread this wonderful knowledge elsewhere.
DeleteThe fact is that Tom Dundon is a billionaire who wants our money. It’s not about where he lives,
Jordan is a billionaire. He he six houses in Portland city limits and more in the area.
Delete