November 20, 2003
(Updated) Jason Newell Officially Announces Candidacy For City Council
Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.
Just after noon today, outside City Hall, Jason Newell announced his candidacy for City Council to a group of about a dozen supporters.
Running what he says more or less is a grassroots campaign, Newell said his opponents will be spending a lot more money. "I'll be spending a lot more time, and a lot more energy listening to people."
Arguing that elections should be about how many votes one receives, and not the amount of money one raises, Newell said, "I hope they raise $10 million each. I hope they spend it all and put it back into the economy."
Pitching his campaign around the themes of creating jobs, fiscal responsibility, and safe, strong, clean neighborhoods, Newell said he would accomplish these goals in part through tax and regulatory reform, making it cheaper and easier to do business in Portland, "talking to the people" to find out their priorities, and by making the City a "toolbox each of the neighborhoods can pull from" rather than creating blanket citywide policies.
Echoing (although somewhat incompletely) the Small Business Prosperity Strategy released by the Portland Business Alliance and the Portland Development Commission in September, Newell said that if every small business in Portland hired just one more worker, we'd solve the unemployment problem.
Newell also revealed support for electing members of the City Council by district, rather than the at-large elections used today.
"We can win this election," Newell said. "It's not a 'can', it's a 'will', and the reason it's a 'will' is that I want to give the City back to the people."
Asked about the proposal by his opponent Sam Adams (note: website not active yet) to add five citizen members to the City Budget Committee, Newell called such a move the equivalent of creating "another layer of government" and dismissed it as nothing more than a citizens advisory committee. Instead, Newell said, "Politicians should be doing what they were elected to do."
"I admire [Adams'] sentiment," Newell added. "But it's misplaced."
Looking at who in the current field of mayoral candidates he might be able to work with to further his goals if elected to City Council, Newell said he supports that Tom Potter wants to give the government back to the people, but is "concerned about some of his agenda."
(This is where you'll notice that I'm still learning how to do some of this, since I neglected, in my flurry of trying to take decent notes of the conversation, to ask what parts of Potter's agenda concerned him.)
Newell also named Jim Francesconi, although it's difficult to see how his opinion means he sees the current Commissioner as someone he could work with on his agenda. "I know he cares a lot about the people," Newell said. But, arguing that what's needed is action, Newell added that Francesconi has spent "a little too much time calling meetings."
"He's had a lot of years to make an impact," Newell said, "and he hasn't done it."
Update
Forgot the usual summation. In addition to Sam Adams, Newell's opponents for the Commissioner No. 1 position being vacated by Francesconi include: Woody Broadnax, Nick Fish, Brian H. Smith, and Jerry Watson.
Comments (1)
Dave Lister on 21 Nov 2003
I disagree with Mr. Newell's statement concerning Sam Adams suggestion of adding five citizens to the budget committee when he said it is:
'creating "another layer of government" and dismissed it as nothing more than a citizens advisory committee. Instead, Newell said, "Politicians should be doing what they were elected to do."'
Mr. Newell is missing the point. With our commission style of city government many of the best and brightest in town choose not to run for office. They cannot commit to a full time situation for four years and in many cases they cannot afford the pay cut. This board would allow city government to tap into their considerable experience and expertise. Also, with regard to the "politicians doing what they were elected to do"... the sad fact of the matter is that they can't. In most cases they do not have the background or experience to run water utilities, police departments or fire departments. What they know how to do is raise money and win elections. Until such time as our form of city government is modernized to include a city manager with the council acting as an advisory board to set policy, additional citizen input is exactly what we need.