May 30, 2003
(Updated) Details of Upstart Mayoral Recall Campaign
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Coming, as it does, from the left-hand side of the political spectrum, it should come as no surprise that several items related to the Recall Vera Katz Committee have already appeared on Portland Independent Media Center. Here's a quick tour.
Wednesday featured the press release announcing the recall effort. It's very long, and you should read it for yourself. Here, however, is the "statement of reasons for demanding the recall, not to exceed 200 words" the committee wrote as part of its filing:
Recall Mayor Vera Katz for the malfeasance of wasting tax dollars due to lawsuits against the city resulting from her refusal to control the police department; the malfeasance of victimizing citizens by encouraging a climate of police violence, including the police execution of Kendra James; the malfeasance of refusing to fire Chief Kroeker after not just one killing but subsequent ones; the malfeasance of endangering citizens by diverting police resources from legitimate law-enforcement to harassment when crime in neighborhoods is increasing; the malfeasance of increasing disrespect for the police by defending their violent attacks on peaceful activists and their daily harassment of African-Americans in North and Northeast Portland; the malfeasance of wasting tax dollars on violent police overkill to bash peaceful marchers at May Day 2000, awarding medals to the cops who killed Byron Hammick and Jose Mejia, pepper-spraying babies at the 2002 Bush protest, harassing and pepper-spraying bystanders and reporters plus church people and peace activists whose only ethical First Amendment choice was to oppose Bush's immoral and illegal attack on Iraq; and the malfeasance of refusing to listen to citizens and to replace corrupt police leadership with professional community policing on a civilian model.
In this release, petitioner Marvin Moore also characterizes the Better Portland Alliance as "a bunch of simplistic, malcontented, complaining right-wingers who think that the mayor is an anti-business leftist and that everything wrong with the city is the fault of skateboarders, bicyclists, mass transit, and citizens who believe that George Bush and the Portland police should obey the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill.'"
You can see how difficult it's going to be for these two competing efforts to play nice together. In a later item posted yesterday, the Committee addressed the BPA's sudden offer of support more directly:
Moore said that he is open to dialogue with the BPA, but he is unwilling to compromise his group's position against police violence, Katz's codependent defense of it, and the need for structural change. But if the BPA wants to circulate his group's petitions, "a signature is a signature," he said.
In one respect, all parties need to decide what is more important to them: Recalling the mayor, or having a platform for every single one of their own political positions. Certainly, the RVKC has better focus, sticking to the issues of police misconduct -- the very issues which make them essentially incompatible with the BPA.
To some extent, however, that focus isn't the issue. Rather, the fact that the RVKC beat the BPA to the punch, is the issue. Unless the BPA wants to pony up the cost of a second recall election, they're either going to have to play the RVKC's game or not play at all.
The choice is the BPA's. If they help promote the RVKC effort, they are supporting a platform for a position on the Portland Police Bureau which they themselves do not believe to be the accurate one. Whether or not they can agree to this in the name of their larger goal of removing the mayor remains to be seen.
And so it continues. Moore also says that the Committee's website should be up shortly. Note that it's a .org as opposed to the .com of the same domain which is used by the BPA, just in case you thought there wasn't already enough confusion in this matter.
Update
The website of the City Auditor's Office has published a page for the prospective petition for recall, which includes a schedule of how this all plays out.