Politics In Small Bites.

[March 19th, 2008]

Trail Mix

»The Democratic primary to replace state Sen. Avel Gordly (I-Portland) in District 23 features a rare snippet of public squabbling between two Dem legislators. Longtime Gordly staffer Sean Cruz is running against Rep. Jackie Dingfelder (D-NE Portland). But state Rep. Mike Schauffler (D-Happy Valley) is backing Cruz, whose Web page (seancruz.com) discloses “paid for by Mike Schauffler for State Representative.” “Mike and I get along fine,” says Dingfelder, who chairs the House Environment Committee. “But he has not been too keen on some of the environmental legislation I’ve championed.” “It’s not personal,” says Schauffler. “I just support Sean.”

»Former Portland Mercury editor Phil Busse will make $25,000 for three months’ work managing John Branam’s publicly financed City Council campaign. “Holy crap ,” says Jeff Bissonnette, another publicly financed candidate. He is paying his campaign manager roughly one-eighth as much as Branam is. Says Busse, who hasn’t managed a campaign besides his own mayoral run in 2004: “My salary reflects a bundle of responsibilities and professional background—as an attorney, as a writer and, yes, as a manager.” Busse collected $16,000 of his $25,000 within two weeks of Branam getting $135,000 from the city. “It’s not entirely unprecedented that when you’re working with consultants you make up to a 50 percent down payment,” says Branam. “It’s certainly not something I’ll do on Council.” (For more, go to wweek.com/wwire/?p=11085.)

When Candidates Blog

Steve Novick, running in Oregon’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, recently endorsed Barack Obama for president. Forget for a moment how inconsequential such an endorsement is from somebody who isn’t a super-delegate: Let’s instead review this Novick post from the political blog BlueOregon back on Dec. 6, 2006:

So, Novick was against Obama before he was for him? Fair enough.

Calendar

Thursday, March 20
Portland mayoral front-runners Sam Adams and Sho Dozono are set to face off at this one-on-one event, which sponsors are billing as the “first” mayoral debate of the season (apparently last week’s event at Portland Community College didn’t count because it was billed as a “forum”). One twist: In a race focused on transportation issues, attendees are being urged to take public transportation. Portland State University’s Smith Ballroom, 1825 SW Broadway. 11 am. Free.