Update, 11:30 am: Ted Wheeler still wants people to show up at Revolution Hall tonight, Oregonian imprimatur or no. With the paper ditching its debate plans, Wheeler's campaign issued a press release that says he'll still show up at 6 pm—and he thinks other candidates should, too.
"Those who were planning on attending the debate as an audience member should plan on coming and asking questions," Wheeler says.
Will there be people on hand to operate the sound system and set up microphones? Will someone moderate or will it be a free-for-all? Will anyone show up? Interesting questions left in the chaotic vacuum of the O's decision.
Another update, 12:09 pm: Sounds like Revolution Hall owner Jim Brunberg, a Wheeler supporter, is taking over organization for the event, and inviting a slate of moderators to ask questions (from what we're hearing, two of those could be interesting!). So far, candidates Sean Davis, Jessie Sponberg, and David Schor have said they'll attend.
Original post:
The Oregonian has hurriedly canceled a mayoral debate it had planned this evening, amid outcry that the paper only deemed two out of a dozen mayoral candidates worth its time.
As first reported by the Mercury a week ago, a group of community activists posted an open letter to Facebook, threatening to disrupt the O's event—which was slated for 6 pm tonight at Revolution Hall—if the paper didn't open up the stage to more candidates than perceived frontrunners Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey.
Dozens of people have since signaled interest in such a disruption, and nearly 400 people have signed onto an online petition demanding more inclusion in the debate.
Oregonian Editorial and Commentary Editor Erik Lukens told the Mercury last week he had seen the threats, but that the "lineup for this debate is set." But something clearly changed.
The paper sent out a notice last night to people who'd RSVPd to attend the debate.
"Over the past several days, a number of people have threatened to disrupt Monday evening's debate between Portland mayoral candidates Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler," it said. "The Oregonian/OregonLive takes these threats very seriously. Out of concern for both the safety of those who've registered to attend and the security of the venue, Revolution Hall, we have decided to cancel the event."
The O says it offered to livestream a debate on its website instead—no live audience required. Neither Bailey nor Wheeler were interested.
The last-minute cancellation is just the latest example this election season of demands for more inclusion as Portland gets ready to vote on a replacement for Mayor Charlie Hales in May (if no candidate gets more than half the vote, a runoff race between the top-two candidates will occur in November). As we reported a month ago, a slate of lesser-known candidates have been pushing hard for entree into forums and events around town.
Their self-advocacy has been yielding results. Candidates like Sean Davis, Sarah Iannarone, and David Schor have participated in forums around development, housing, and homelessness alongside Wheeler and Bailey lately, and you can expect to see some of them at a slate of upcoming events.
That's making 2016's race a more-inclusive event than 2012, which largely featured three candidates: Hales, Jefferson Smith, and Eileen Brady. This might change, of course, as the city gets a better idea what the sentiment toward the candidates is. The mayoral race hasn't seen much opinion polling, to date.
As to the Oregonian's suggestion that its audience would be unsafe at tonight's debate: It's unclear where it comes from. The Facebook page where activists have been coordinating their efforts indicates, at most, a raucous protest with signs and noisemakers. We've reached out to Lukens with that question.
By the way, activists weren't the only people urging the Oregonian to include more than Wheeler and Bailey in the now-scuttled debate. Revolution Hall owner Jim Brunberg tells the Mercury he asked the paper to reconsider.
"In their phone message to me, the organizers of the event made it clear that they had given it thoughtful consideration and that their aim was to have the highest level debate possible in the timeframe such events allow, not just soundbytes and short answers," Brunberg wrote in an email last week. "I respect that, and it's their event."
Well, it was.
