Campaign Notebook

[February 13th, 2008]

Election season shoves Portland Auditor Gary Blackmer from obscurity into the unforgiving glare of public scrutiny. Blackmer is taking some heat following his preliminary finding that a poll conducted last year to test the waters for mayoral candidate Sho Dozono didn’t break city rules, although Dozono didn’t report the survey as an in-kind contribution. Blackmer says he’s proceeding “methodically.” And a ruling could take months if the secretary of state pursues a complaint filed by perennial candidate Bruce Broussard over the poll. Blackmer says Dozono hadn’t filed for public financing when the “exploratory” poll was conducted last December. Not everyone is convinced. “I sum up my concerns with Gary’s determination with three words,” writes Commissioner Randy Leonard, a backer of Sam Adams ’ mayoral campaign and a critic of public campaign financing. “Loophole. Drive. Truck.” And Len Norwitz, a member of the voluntary board that oversees the city’s public campaign financing, says Dozono should disclose who paid for the poll and the results. “This thing stinks,” Norwitz says.

In the race to replace retiring Commissioner Erik Sten , three candidates seeking to qualify for public financing failed (a fourth seeking public money, Sten chief of staff Jim Middaugh , did qualify for $145,000): Fred Stewart, Ed Garren and Tamara DeRidder . All three say they’re staying in. “The next time I run, we’ll get 1,000 signatures in a day ,” says Stewart, taking his eyes off the 2008 ball.

Celebrities are a sure way to get free media time (see Obama-Oprah, Huck-Chuck and “Lifestyles of the Rich and Fame-ish,” WW , Jan. 30, 2008). Charles Lewis , who hopes to replace Commissioner Adams on City Council, set a high bar last year by baiting his way onto Comedy Central with a video of a bear eating a copy of Stephen Colbert ’s I Am America (And So Can You!) .

Another would-be Adams replacement, John Branam , got former Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen to DJ at a Feb. 19 campaign event at Holocene. Adams has the crucial endorsement of film director Gus Van Sant for Adams’ mayoral run. Adams isn’t making a big to-do about it, despite the much-awaited Feb. 18 Portland debut of Van Sant’s Paranoid Park . Others take the high road, like Middaugh , who has “no current plan for celebrities, yet.” But he does have a fallback: “I can juggle fire,” says Middaugh, who went to college in Eugene (natch).

Mayoral candidate Slav Davidzon demonstrates that some of the most eye-catching ideas are coming from less well-known candidates like him. He wants the city to buy solar panels for lease to homeowners and to sponsor a healthcare cooperative along the lines of the Ithaca Health Alliance, which runs a free clinic for upstate New Yorkers.Psychiatrist Ed Garren , who’s running for Sten’s seat, wants to institute rent controls like those in West Hollywood, Calif., where he ran for council in 2005 before moving to Portland.

Now all they need is a celebrity spokesperson.

The list of endorsements on Branam’s campaign website includes Francisco Holdman , a petitioner for hire who was investigated in 2002 by the Oregon Department of Justice. The investigation followed allegations that Holdman forged signatures and gave away T-shirts as an inducement to sign petitions for multiple clients, including Bill Sizemore. The DOJ dropped the investigation in April 2006 after finding “indications of irregularities” in petitions certified by Holdman but failing to produce “sufficient evidence of criminal conduct” to warrant prosecution.

Branam says Holdman is “not at all” involved in his council campaign and didn’t gather any signatures. Holdman, who started gathering signatures for a living in 1994 after serving an 18-month prison sentence for assault, couldn’t be reached for comment. Holdman ran for Sten’s seat in 2006, picking up 852 votes.

No potted plants here. The Dozono campaign wants to bury a conspiracy theory. Last week, WW called lobbyist Danelle Romain one of the campaign’s “brain trustees” (see “Get Thee Behind Me,” WW , Feb. 6, 2008). But Romain insists the extent of her involvement has been a $5 contribution and sending out a draft Dozono email last year—before the Azumano Travel exec was even a “potential candidate.”

And, for the record, Paul Romain , (Danelle’s dad), who has led the effort against the transportation tax proposed by Adams (Dozono’s rival), says he’s done nothing to support Dozono. “Before this started, I liked Sam,” says Romain, whom Adams has cast as Cascadia’s Darth Vader.

Former State Rep. Mike Fahey , who’s running for Commissioner Sam Adams’ seat, has been quiet lately but says his campaign will pick up later this month. His wife was in the hospital last month for gallbladder surgery and is now “on the mend.”

This will be an action-packed election year, if by “action” you mean talking about action. Though Dozono told WW he would lead a “listening tour” of Portland’s neighborhoods this month, campaign manager Amie Abbott “would characterize it as more of an ‘action tour.’” And so continues the pre-emptive exorcism of Tom Potter ’s ghost. Mayoral candidate Vladislav Davidzon writes: “At the end of the day it is action , and action alone, that counts. In this election there is only one candidate who will take real, concrete action for change.” Don’t pull a muscle, Slav.

Lewis will get his hands dirty at a “pothole protest” Feb. 13 on a dirt road in Southeast Portland. City engineers tell WW he probably doesn’t need a permit, unless he plans to lay asphalt.