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You won't hear either Ted Wheeler or Jules Bailey crowing about their latest union endorsement.
That's because the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 189—a powerful union whose nod candidates covet—has offered a dual endorsement to Wheeler, the state treasurer, and Bailey, a Multnomah County commissioner, in their bid for Portland mayor.
"There were a lot of people who felt good about both," says Rob Martineau, executive vice president of the union, which represents about 1,000 city employees, including non-sworn members of the Portland Police Bureau.
A dual endorsement is good news and bad news for both candidates.
They don't have to fear the union's significant get-out-the-vote operation will be used against them. But they also don't get to use the union's money and power against their opponent.
Bailey has limited campaign contributions in his race to $250 per individual and has pledged to stick to that rule even when it comes to organizations. When Mayor Charlie Hales imposed a cap on his donations in 2012, he then broke his own rules, allowing unions to donate to his campaign according to how many individuals they represented.
Bailey has said he wouldn't do that.
Wheeler, for his part, has tried to foreclose another option available to Bailey—allowing third-party groups to make independent expenditures on his behalf. Wheeler on Jan. 21 pledged he wouldn't allow such spending and asked his opponents to join him in that pledge.
So far, no one has.
AFSCME's joint endorsement, however, makes it highly unlikely the union will expend the kind of phone-banking or independent expenditures Bailey could use to equalize Wheeler's large fundraising advantage.
Willamette Week