HEY, PORTLAND, there’s a Senate seat up for grabs! Of the
five candidates currently vying for the seat, most observers agree that
the final choice comes down to State Representative Chip Shields and
Oregon Action Executive Director Jo Ann Bowman, who was a state
representative between 1997 and 2001. We’re pleased to report that
whoever gets the seat, the district wins. But it’s tough to choose
between super candidates Shields and Bowman.
In a strange twist of the democratic process, regular voters won’t
get to cast ballots for the new senator. Instead, Multnomah County
Commissioners will select their favorite.
“Usually, it’s the case where the person who wants the seat most
gets it,” says County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury, one of the five who
will ultimately make the choice on September 24. “But in this case, I
really don’t think you can say who wants it more, between Chip or Jo
Ann.”
Nevertheless it would be chickenshit for the Mercury to sit
on the fence. So here’s an issue-by-issue look at why we think the
county commissioners should pick Jo Ann Bowman for the job.
INCARCERATION
Shields is a relentless defender of a smarter, more rehabilitative
justice system—he’s one of only a handful of legislators who
voted against mandatory minimum prison sentencing. And as a sponsor for
nonprofit Project Clean Slate, Shields helped ex-cons get back on their
feet with jobs and clean records. Bowman has also put in time turning
inmates into model citizens—in 2002, she led a campaign
registering former felons to vote.
On this issue, the difference comes down to approach. During our
interview, Bowman criticized Measure 11’s creation of mandatory minimum
sentencing, saying that removing the judge from the sentencing equation
has worsened the justice system’s racial and economic inequality. We
preferred her blunt attitude to Shields’ more cautious statement that
Measure 11 “needs to be improved.”
EDUCATION
Like the rest of Portland, District 22 has some of the most troubled
schools in the state: Citywide dropout rates are as high as 40 percent
and the district also hosts some of the poorest schools in the city.
Bowman says high suspension and expulsion rates show some students just
do not work in the current school environment and suggests hosting
“community education forums” to rework curriculums. “I think that how
we spend our education dollars could be drastically improved,” she
says.
“It’s not so important what people say they will do—and
they’re all well intentioned—it’s the results that have been
accomplished,” says Shields, pointing out that as a house
representative, he recently passed the best K-12 budget in well over a
decade.
Apart from Shields’ recent house experience, there’s little
difference between Bowman and Shields on this issue.
BUDGET
Bowman and Shields disagree on the chances of recent Democratic tax
increases surviving a January ballot initiative. Shields thinks they’re
likely to pass, while Bowman thinks, “We’re going to be called back to
special session [next February] to cut across the board.”
Shields’ experience on the house Ways and Means Committee would set
him up for handling budgets in the Senate.
While it may be paranoia talking, we’d like to see Democrats be more
outspoken in this fight. Bowman argues that more progressive
legislators should be pounding the streets to make the case for the
Democratic tax increases. “I’ve always told voters the truth,” she
says. “And when I was a legislator, voters could count on my telling
them what the hard choices were.”
RACIAL EQUALITY
When former District 22 senator Margaret Carter resigned the seat
late last month to take a job with the state’s Department of Human
Services, her departure cut the number of Oregon’s African American
legislators in half.
Bowman’s nonprofit Oregon Action aims to involve low-income people
and communities of color in debates around issues like health care and
housing. “When you bring kids of color into the building, I think the
assumption they walk out with is that this is not a place for people of
color,” says Bowman about the legislature. Bowman has also fought
uncompromisingly over the last three years for the Portland Police
Bureau to change its tactics to avoid racial profiling.
For his part, Shields has worked hard to help minority businesses
get equal footing when bidding for government construction contracts.
His recent big success was passing a bill to invest $1.5 million in
pre-apprenticeship training for women and people of color. These are
not achievements to be sniffed at, but Shields hints that the
legislature could improve its diversity by filling his vacant house
seat with a person of color, and we disagree. There’s no reason Shields
shouldn’t continue being effective as a representative while Bowman
uses the Senate seat to raise uncomfortable race equality issues at the
highest level.
“Though Chip is an excellent legislator, I don’t think that entitles
him automatically to go to the Senate,” says Bowman. “I have been an
excellent legislator, but I’ve also been an excellent community member
who has galvanized and mobilized people around issues that a lot of
people just don’t want to talk about.”
Agreed.
THE OUTLIERS
FRED STEWART—Kudos to Stewart for being the only
candidate who promises to resign Carter’s former seat in May to allow
for an open and more democratic election. But this well-connected real
estate agent opposes the tax package the legislature approved last
session, which will protect state services for the needy by increasing
corporate taxes that haven’t been raised since 1931. Stewart’s long
family history in Northeast Portland (“Some of these gangbangers here
that we’re talking about, my grandfather dated their grandmothers, and
their great grandmothers,” he says) and interesting education ideas
make him a more viable candidate for a city council seat.
HAROLD WILLIAMS II—A Portland Community College board
member who runs a local consulting company with his father, Williams
speaks out on behalf of the regular Joes. When Williams and Stewart
disagreed over the effectiveness of tough crime law Measure 11 during
our group interview, Williams stood up and reached into his pocket,
suggesting the two wager money on whether the measure has sent 15-,
16-, and 17-year-olds to prison (the district attorney’s office
confirms Williams would have won the bet). Williams’ strength is
political inclusion, but he needs more experience within the system to
turn his impressions into effective policy suggestions.
RICHARD ELLMYER—The first Google hit for this candidate
reads, “Richard Ellmyer is truly a DICK.” Not a good sign. The strident
backer of single-payer health care said during our interview that the
most important role of an elected official is “the public platform, the
bully pulpit, if you will.” Ellmyer’s current bully pulpit is the world
of email spam, where he has bombarded the Housing Authority of Portland
and other foes with frequent, scathing missives. He boils down the lack
of African Americans in the legislature to “personal choice,” not
discrimination and says low voter turnout to school board elections is
the cause of our poor public school system, because “voters don’t
care.” Let’s keep Ellmyer as the ubiquitous public-meeting attendee and
hot topic spammer, instead of state senator, shall we?
