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The Regional Arts and Culture Council hosted a forum for Portland political candidates Tuesday. But the event, billed as an opportunity to debate the city's lively arts scene, also turned into a showcase for political exclusion.
Invited to the event were mayoral candidates Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey, Commissioner Amanda Fritz, Commissioner Steve Novick and one of Novick's opponents, Stuart Emmons.
Not invited? Sarah Iannarone, who announced last week she would run for mayor; Chloe Eudaly, who announced the same day as Iannarone that she would challenge Novick; and Fred Stewart, an African-American candidate who filed to run against Novick in November.
Organizers of the RACC event, which was recorded for Oregon Public Broadcasting, said they pulled it together before candidates such as Iannarone and Eudaly surfaced as possible contenders. Emmons' inclusion, however, complicates that explanation. He announced his bid against Novick only two days before Iannarone and Eudaly publicly declared their bids. And he jumped into the race two months after Stewart, who was excluded.
"It appears to me that people with my background are not welcome at this event," Stewart wrote in a press release about RACC's decision.
Jeff Hawthorne, RACC's director of community engagement, says the group isn't required to include every minor candidate. Groups such as his that host forums are allowed to look at news reports, campaign fundraising and polling to determine who are viable candidates. They can extend invitations to only those people.
Unlike last time, RACC put together this forum before the filing deadline. "I'm not sure we would do it again," Hawthorne says.
Curiously, the forum repeatedly addressed the exclusion of minorities and low-income Portlanders from arts organizations in Portland. Fritz, for example, spoke of the need to encourage arts institutions to improve diversity both in terms of who serves on their boards and what programs they offer.
Separate from the controversy, the candidates offered many interesting responses to moderator April Baer's questions. Among them:
- Bailey said he would restore the arts liaison position to the mayor’s office, if elected. Mayor Charlie Hales cut the positions for arts that former Mayor Sam Adams had. Bailey also said he would increase city funding for RACC and use the city’s general fund budget to backfill funding for arts organizations that were promised more arts tax dollars.
- Wheeler shied away from such commitments. But he did say Portland must start to enforce arts tax collection to make it clear people can’t skip the $35 annual payment year after year. “We cannot let the word be [that] we’re going to let it skate indefinitely,” he said. (Bailey agreed.)
- Fritz said she’s not interested in sending collection agencies after people who make only $20,000 a year but was fine with going after wealthy scofflaws. She also said she was open to revisiting the tax structure, saying it was unfair that Portlanders paid the same amount “whether you make $20,000, $220,000 or $2 million,” a sly allusion perhaps to tax records disclosed Tuesday that show Bailey and Wheeler’s annual income.
Willamette Week