November 26, 2004

Rhetorical Battle Lines Being Drawn Over Campaign Reform

Sneak Peak At Next Year's Political Agenda

In the aftermath of a November 12 City Club forum on campaign finance reform (mp3, 56MB), it seems that people are beginning to claim their respective positions on the clean money proposal put forth by City Auditor Gary Blackmer and Commissioner Erik Sten.

A week and a half after that forum (which we managed to miss but as of this writing are in the process of downloading), two Portland Tribune columnists slammed the Blackmer/Sten proposal rather resoundingly.

First, there was Phil Stanford calling it unnecessary and too costly (he offered a brief follow-up just today), and saying it protects incumbents.

Then, there was Promise King deeming it "less sensible" then it seems, and saying that special interests ("such as unions") would be the real winners.

Over at the newly-launched Metroblogging Portland site, Josh Berezin expresses some surprise at the latest criticisms of the proposal, while in the comments to his item he adds a pointer to some background information on what the proposal would mean.

It will take us a bit to get back up to speed on what we know about the proposal, but most of the issues Stanford and King say they have with it don't actually bear up under any real examination of what's been pitched, or of how such systems have worked in other jurisdictions. For the moment, we'll leave it to others to follow the links to the proposal and the background information and come to their own opinions.

One final related note. In last Friday's edition, the Tribune reported on Sam Adams' campaign proposal to register lobbyists -- something that both the State of Oregon and Metro do (as does Seattle), but not the City of Portland.

In a doubly-odd twist, the article quotes one Len Bergstein as offering an additional/parallel proposal: Requiring officials and staff at City Hall to register when they ask lobbyists or their clients for favors.

Oddity number one is that we find ourselves basically agreeing with Bergstein's addition to the proposal. Oddity number two is that Bergstein himself is a widely-connected lobbyist (and political analyst for KGW) who was involved in the Mayoral campaign of Jim Francesconi for a still-undetermined amount of time, possibly including a period during which the relationship was undisclosed.

Posted at 07:40 PM | PermalinkComments (1) | TrackBacks (3)
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Comments (1)

  1. Chris Smith on 26 Nov 2004

    I think that Phil and Promise miss the point. An incumbent will readily have the ability to raise more than the amounts that 'clean money' candidates receive under the proposed system. True, they may want to skip the effort - great, we'd rather have them spend the time talking to voters. If incumbents do opt into the system, then they're on a level financial playing ground with clean money challengers, while still enjoying greater name recognition and existing networks of supporters. So this may not eliminate the power of incumbency, but it certainly does not strengthen it!

    And while unions may be able to greatly assist in getting the 1000 or 1500 qualifying contributions - that's then the end of their role. I suspect that they would much rather have the influence they wield today through direct financial contributions.

    Full disclosure - I chair the City Club's advocacy effort in favor of this proposal, and have previously written in support of it.

    Chris Smith

Trackbacks (3)

  1. Phil-anthropy on 01 Dec 2004

    One of the topics that got lost in the Thanksgiving blur was a Willamette Week cover story profiling Portland Tribune columnist Phil Stanford. In particular, the article detailed Stanford's relentless crusade, begun when he was at The Oregonian years a...

  2. Phil-anthropy on 01 Dec 2004

    One of the topics that got lost in the Thanksgiving blur was a Willamette Week cover story profiling Portland Tribune columnist Phil Stanford. In particular, the article detailed Stanford's relentless crusade, begun when he was at The Oregonian years a...

  3. How to finance City Council campaigns on 01 Dec 2004

    I have followed with great interest the discussion about the proposal to provide public money from the City's fisc to finance campaigns for the Portland City Council.