January 27, 2004
More On Francesconi Filing, And Opponent Reaction
Before moving on to other topics, let's get in the coverage from today's newspapers. In the Portland Tribune, there's a basic report, which also points out that Francesconi's platform takes a "swipe" at some Katz initiatives:
Francesconi said he would not spend money on "nonpriority capital projects, such as proposals to move or cap freeways or build a publicly financed stadium for major league baseball."
Meanwhile, over in The Oregonian, we see some of the other Mayoral candidates taking some potshots:
On Monday, candidates Tom Potter and James Posey scorned Francesconi's plan. Potter, a former Portland police chief, questioned why it took so long for Francesconi to make his official announcement, calling it the "worst-kept secret at City Hall."
As for Francesconi's plan, Potter said: "I can tell you it won't take me eight years and two terms to develop a shared vision with our community and make it happen."
Posey, a community activist and Portland businessman, said he hadn't read Francesconi's proposals. When told some of the top points, Posey chuckled.
"The thing I'm going to ask if I'm a voter is, 'Why, if he's been in office all these years, hasn't he done any of these things yet?' " Posey said. "It's as if he's running a political game on people. I think Portlanders are smart enough to see through that."
(Francesconi, for his part, says he hasn't been waiting, and will continue not to wait, to push his priorities.)
And indeed yesterday afternoon, the Potter camp sent out an email which included the following:
You'll be seeing this on the news tonight -- the worst-kept secret in Portland is now out. And so the real race has started, at last.
Tom has told the media that he welcomes the Commissioner. Now he can join in the community debate which our campaign has already been engaged in for months.
After 8 years and two terms in office, the Commissioner says it's time for new leadership in the city -- and we couldn't agree more!
And, of course, readers here might recall that Mayoral candidate Robert Hinds took a similar "where's Jim?" shot when Hinds took his turn at officially filing, which you can see in the comments to the post on his filing.
Cheap shots, more or less, although I never did get the Francesconi campaign's response to my inquiry into why they were waiting until now to file.
Meanwhile, for those of you who get this stuff from the television news broadcasts: Yes, that was me lurking in the background on KOIN as they filmed Francesconi filing in the Auditor's Office.