VARIOUSLY DUBBED THE “RECALL RECALL,” “recall 2.0,” and the “Total Recall” after the film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, a second effort to recall Mayor Sam Adams appeared to be cranking up for a Wednesday launch when the Mercury went to press on Tuesday afternoon, January 19.
A previous all-volunteer effort following the Breedlove scandal crashed and burned last October [“Going… Going… Go, Already,” Hall Monitor, Oct 1, 2009]. But Ross Day, co-owner of signature-gathering firm Voice of the Electorate, told the Mercury that his firm plans to hit the streets with 18 to 20 paid petitioners as soon as the campaign files.
“God love the volunteers, they did a great job, but we’ve got processes in place that will allow us to collect signatures more effectively,” said Day, who does not yet have a signed contract with the campaign to gather the signatures. Last year, Day speculated that such a contract would be for between $150,000 and $300,000 [“Enter Puppeteers,” News, Nov 12, 2009].
The timing of the effort is also interesting, in the context of efforts by Oregon conservatives to defeat Measures 66 and 67. Voice of the Electorate successfully gathered signatures for the no campaign on the measures, and a second recall campaign is likely to distract voter attention from the January 26 election.
“I think the citizens of Portland need to vote to determine whether or not they want to have Adams represent them,” says Tim Boyle, boss of Columbia Sportswear, who has donated to the campaign. “It’s important that we have a leader that citizens feel comfortable with, and who other government officials feel comfortable having their photographs taken with.”
Meanwhile, all the other major players in the second effort were elusive on Tuesday. Spokesperson Avel Gordly did not return calls for comment, while wealthy auto dealer Ron Tonkin was asleep, recuperating from a month in the hospital after undergoing heart surgery, when the Mercury called him at his vacation home in Indian Wells, California. Also unavailable for comment were Stimson Lumber executive Andrew Miller and SKB real estate firm boss Peter Stott.
Mayor Adams was at a conference of mayors in Washington, DC.
Teabaggers and fundies on one side, and a comedically-incompetent mayor on the other. Oh what to do.
Huh? Wouldn’t a “Recall Recall” be a recall against the last failed recall? And “Recall 2.0” would be a social networking site for old people who can’t remember stuff? And “Total Recall” is a great movie that you’re totally soiling by associating it with this mayoral recall. I reject all of the dubs!
What about rerecall? Or we can call the old recall ‘Recall: The Prequel’, and this one just recall.
Or maybe we can change the story altogether and make it a buddy pic.
They are also recalling 1.2 million pounds of pepper-coated salami. Coincidence? I think not.
The clearest metric that the mind set of small town politics thrives and is sustained in the back room, closed-door, deal making of Portland’s ole boy political elite is that governance is performed (inexpertly) through damage control and crisis management. Sam learned his brinkmanship politics OJT as Vera Kraft’s mentee. So Sam has been solely schooled in precious Portland’s frontier ideology. BTW: Running a slate of unskilled ‘social agenda’ candidates (with the possible exception of the Evans woman running for Fishy’s seat) as coattails of the Obama’s change agenda is no better. Watching politics-in-play in Portland Oregon is like watching bloated gold fish swimming in murky yellowed tabletop bowls – careening off the bowl’s sides and bumping into each other.