Double Espresso, Hold the "W"

[January 7th, 2004] Ray Horn has had his problems with the Bush family before. As one of three owners of the Clackamas County News during the first Bush presidency, Horn used the senior Bush's likeness in an ad for his paper.

He quickly received a letter from White House lawyers to cease and desist. "I don't know how they got wind of it," Horn says.

Now the proprietor of Mojo's Coffee Den, an eclectic coffee shop at 2853 SE Stark St., Horn is striking back at the Texas family with Anybody But Bush Sundays. Since October, Mojo's has pledged 10 percent of its Sunday sales to the eventual Democratic nominee. The weekly event has quickly become a success with the shop's steady twentysomething clientele. One ABBS earned the shop its all-time sales high last month, at about $450. Horn expects to have set aside $2,000 by the time the Democrats choose their nominee to run against George W.

"People really get into it," says barista Miranda Dabel. "We have people who come in on Saturdays and want their purchase to go towards Bush Sundays."

The 60-year-old Horn, a registered Democrat, has always believed in direct action. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the mid-'60s, he was arrested in Liberia after printing an objectionable statement in a student newsletter he started. (The sedition charge was eventually dropped.)

The idea of Bush Sundays came to Horn six months ago. "Ninety-six percent of people don't contribute to political campaigns," says Horn, whose coffee shop's walls sport political posters and art. "Some would say politics and business don't mix, but it's good to remember that in a democracy we all need to do more than vote."