December 22, 2003
Phil Busse To Open Mayoral Campaign Platform To Community Review
Saying that the spirit of his campaign is "pulling in resources and smarts from around the City," Mayoral candidate Phil Busse soon will provide his draft campaign platform to interested community members for input and review. This process will expand upon the approach of his community-penned "Big Book of Complaints" which Busse totes from campaign event to campaign event.
Busse mentioned the plan at yesterday's first anniversary PORTLAND COMMUNIQUE meet-and-greet, saying it had been honed two weekends ago during a campaign retreat. He expanded upon the idea via email Monday, saying among other things that all along he had wanted community and expert review of his platform.
"We spent a weekend huddled there," Busse said, "working out a good structure for the platform, identifying issues and then beefing up the platform with suggested solutions and programs." The platform, he said, will be comprised of a series of issue statements, along with suggested programs and approaches to those issues.
A more or less targeted selection of about fifty people will be asked to review elements of the platform, based upon their respective areas of interest or expertise.
"I would like Dave Mazza to provide input on my section on police and crime," said Busse, "and I would like some of my friends who own businesses to provide feedback on the small-business section."
A more general review by the public also will be made possible, with the draft platform intended for release via Busse's website, and available at campaign events.
Busse sees several benefits in this approach to constructing the platform for his campaign:
One, I will receive more input and broaden my own platform. Two, as part of that process, the platform becomes not just mine, but [that of] everyone who provides input. And, three, I believe that it provides a certain amount of transparency to our campaign, which I believe is important. Again, my primary goal with my campaign is to put forward ideas for improving the City.
Busse underscored that he doesn't want his Mayoral campaign to be viewed as some sort of stunt. "I really would like some positive projects and ideas to be generated by the campaign," he said.
To this end, Busse intends for the platform generated by his campaign's public involvement process to be useful regardless of the outcome of next year's Mayoral election. "If I win, it will become our blueprint," he said. "If I lose, it will be presented to City Council."