December 21, 2003
Posey Wins Mock Election, Busse Talks Bud's Ball, And Other Campaign Items
Friday morning, this first item led off the "City Matters" column in The Oregonian, hours before the press release arrived from the James Posey campaign. Stern's column first:
Madison High School teacher Matt Sten (Yes, he's related to Commissioner Erik Sten. They're brothers) had mayoral candidates James Posey, Tom Potter and Jim Francesconi speak recently to two of his classes. The students in the natural resources and public policy classes sniffed out each contender's pitch, then voted on who should be mayor. And the winner is . . . Posey, by a landslide.
According to Stern, the breakdown was 30 votes for Posey, 20 for Tom Potter, and 12 for Jim Francesconi, while Posey's press release simply says the candidate received "almost 50% of the vote," leaving out the actual number of votes.
Stern quotes Posey as saying, "Kids have a very distinctive ability to cut through it all and really find out if you're real." In his press release, Posey says, "The most important endorsements are the ones I receive from these future leaders."
Switching candidates, over on Phil Busse's website the campaign says that Busse is one-upping the support of both Potter and Francesconi for resurrecting the dormant-since-Katz annual Bud's Ball:
... "Why should Portland settle for a rehashing of Bud's Balls and other political reruns? I've got bigger and better ideas for Portland." As part of his platform to create jobs and re-ignite the economy through the "creative class," Busse believes that city hall should not just sponsor parties like Bud's Balls, but also create and improve programs that support the arts year round.
So not only has Francesconi seemingly tried to undercut Potter's desire to see the return of Bud's Ball, but now Busse has jumped into this matter, which has gotte a weird amount of play.
Meanwhile, back in "City Matters," it's pointed out that Potter's recent Rotary speech "was billed as a detailed six-step plan to bring Portland government closer to the people." Indeed, the press release for the remarks said as much (and as I previously mentioned, the speech was also to have included some sort of proposal regarding the City's neighborhood associations). According to Stern, "Potter said six was what had been discussed in a draft." No word yet just what sort of neighborhood proposal is being mulled.