FROM NOW ON, this is what every candidate forum in next year’s mayoral race ought to include: a “talking circle,” a mystical “talking stick,” a dozen or more citizens answering the same questions as the candidates, and the candidates required to sit and politely listen.
This was the semi-absurd—and surprisingly candid—setting that the candidates confronted during a sustainability-themed forum on Monday, November 28, over at Portland State’s Native American Student and Community Center.
And it was marvelous. Because it forced everyone to shut up and get spiritual. No speeches. No parsed talking points, applause lines, or rebuttals. Just talking. And listening.
“In the circle, no one is first, and no one is last,” the room was told, after some drumming, chanting, and sage burning. “We are ourselves here.”
Initially, the candidates struggled. The first time he got his mitts on the talking stick, Representative Jefferson Smith answered a question about a personal commitment to sustainability with stiff remarks about how difficult it is for his Eastside neighbors to bicycle downtown.
He found his footing later, when he railed about having “five city council members sitting on what look like little thrones.” He also decried the influence that donors, not voters, have on campaigns here. “Where do you get [big campaign checks] from? It’s not this room.”
Meanwhile, Eileen Brady—again the frontrunner now that Police Chief Mike Reese is officially out—managed to weave in her New Seasons pedigree while also embracing the room’s vernacular.
“I still have a garden at home, an organic garden, and it’s really big,” she said. “The closer you are to your food and soil, the healthier and happier you are.”
Max Brumm, the community college student, wasn’t bad. He lamented that he had to go “out to the suburbs” to play baseball and attend school, forcing him to drive more than he’d like.
But ex-City Commissioner Charlie Hales outdid everyone, waxing rhapsodically about the Bull Run Watershed and promising that all of his land-use decisions would be “informed most by contact with the land.”
“My wife Nancy is here,” he said. “She knows I insist that we spend time every year in the wilderness.” (No, he wasn’t referring to their house in Washington.)
Afterward, a couple of campaign staffers who hadn’t expected a “talking circle” privately wondered whether they’d just wasted their bosses’ time. If this were March, or April, then maybe. But not now. At a point in the race when no one, really, loves any particular candidate, I prefer to see it as a much-needed bonding experience. And I think we’d all like to see more.
Jefferson Smith campaign HQ party last night was packed and full of familiar city activist and players. Clearly, we have found a favorite candidate even if the media hasn’t discovered the story.
While I know it’s hard for you to resist taking a dig at Charlie Hales for living in Washington (though his rationale- doing the right thing by allowing his new family to complete school without too much disruption) , thank you for stating Charlie’s commitment to protecting our water and our land.
Often lost in political discussions are the very things that make people and businesses flock to Portland- our landscape, our pristine water and our parks, trails and natural areas. Charlie’s on the Portland Parks Foundation, was THE champion of the first Portland Parks bond measure in nearly 60 years, and has been on the Board of Friends of Trees for years. THAT’s the leadership and experience Portland sorely needs- one based on a proven track record of success, NOT how many people show up for free booze.
Its a shame that in an otherwise interesting report on an unusual campaign event, the writer chooses to take a snide little side-swipe at the tired non-issue of Charlie Hales’ brief residence in Washington with his wife Nancy. To once again set the record straight: when Charlie and Nancy got married, her job required that she live in Southwest Washington and she had two children in high school up in the Gorge. So Charlie, not surprisingly, lived with his wife in Stevenson until the kids graduated from high school, when Charlie and Nancy moved to SE Portland where they live now. While living in Washington, Charlie paid his Oregon taxes on Oregon income just like all the rest of us, since his office remained in Portland. I’m not sure what this writer would have done instead….refused to marry? made the children move in the middle of high school? lived apart from his wife because someday he might run for Mayor? There are real issues that should be considered when the next Mayor is chosen; this isn’t one of them.
It’s funny how the media likes recast Hales’s short term Washington residence into a sensational story about tax dodging, when in fact he moved there so that his wife’s kids could finish school there. Come on Mercury, can you spare us cynicism?
It’s a shame the media keep ignoring Jefferson Smith’s time in Stevenson after marrying his wife, Brian Rohter.
@Aqua-Blue studio: Having your campaign HQ party packed with familiar city insiders isn’t something to brag about. Getting out in the community (for that matter building community) and establishing a grass roots campaign is what’s going to win this race.
I realize there isn’t a lot of drama in this race but Hale’s house in Washington is such a non-issue. Bringing it up just makes candidates and journalists look amateur.