We made up our minds this week on which flawed candidate ought to be mayor next year. Sometimes it's a stinky job, but it's what we do.
But it's pretty clear that an awful lot of you have yet to do the same. And who could blame you? You start leaning toward Jefferson Smith, but then you learn he didn't 'fess up, right away, to visiting the woman he hit mere hours before the story about the 20-year-old incident broke. Or you start leaning toward Charlie Hales, and you find out that he's undercutting his own campaign finance rules for unions and outsourcing fundraising calls to some of the wealthiest and most entrenched fat cats in Portland.
It's no surprise, then, with ballots about to drop in mailboxes and time ticking away before November 6, that we've suddenly been hearing more and more about a third way: the quixotic, semi-pointless write-in. Ex-city council candidate Ed Garren is among a low-but-steady hum of voices (as demonstrated, at least, by my Twitter feed) calling for a reconsideration of our current mayor, Sam Adams.
Garren emailed the following about the mayor, whose negatives last summer were simply too high mount a serious run while still also governing the city:
There is an old Asian saying, "Better the devil you know, than the devil you don't know." Sam made one big mistake. He apologized for it, he's worked very hard, he'd demonstrated courage with the Police department, stood up to the Police Union on behalf of previously ignored communities.
Blogger Jack Bogdanski has pushed, for months, a write-in campaign for the city's independently elected auditor, LaVonne Griffin-Valade. And three names from the primary also keep popping up, sporadically: big-money, third-place finisher Eileen Brady; water-issues-advocate Scott Fernandez; and hunger striker, housing advocate, occupier, and Amanda Fritz volunteer Cameron Whitten. Shit, someone commenting on one of our endorsement doodads even threw in Bud Clark's ancient name.
So what about it—are you thinking about going rogue? More importantly, if you are, on whom will bestow that (probably wasted) vote? Explain yourself in the comments. As always.