Candidates Gone Wild: Portland Candidates Showcase Talents

Over at Mapes on Politics, the Oregonian's Jeff Mapes describes the scene at last night's Candidates Gone Wild forum, hosted by the Willamette Week and the Bus Project. He specifically details the candidate talent show:

By far, the best part of the evening was the talent show. The organizers set up an American Idol-style panel of judges featuring Democratic Senate candidates Jeff Merkley, Candy Neville and Steve Novick (a veteran participant of previous shows).

Merkley, whose demeanor on the campaign trail tends to run from serious to very serious, loosened up and did a pretty entertaining impression of Randy Jackson. He probably did himself some good with this crowd.

Fritz set a pretty high bar when she and her husband, Steve, opened the talent show with a faux heavy metal performance. "When the ballots arrive, mark my bubble, have no fear," she wailed (I think, if I'm reading my scrawls right). Pretty gutsy for a woman on her 50th birthday.

John Branam brought a power saw on stage to help him fashion a wood frame in two minutes, prompting Novick to quip, "You're paying Phil Busse eight grand a month and that's all he can come up with?"

Middaugh was truly fearless, juggling knives and then lit torches while he wore a fireproof suit. An assistant knocked down the flames with an extinguisher. Large, the evening's emcee, had smartly fled the stage at this point.

Fish was also a big hit with the crowd, sporting a 50s beat look while he tossed off snatches of poetry to the wail of a sax.

Biking was a theme of several acts:

Chris Smith changed a bike tire while his campaign manager live blogged it. Adams also went for the bike theme, trying to make a smoothie on a blender powered by a bike pedaled by fellow commissioner Randy Leonard. Dozono's bit was a head scratcher, featuring pole dancing, a shark and a rap. "You say Sam," he yelled at the crowd. "I say tram!"

"It made me think and it made me wonder," Large concluded, "and isn't that what art is supposed to do?"

Charles Lewis, who has founded a music program, not surprisingly was a more accomplished musician who had the crowd singing along with him. Mike Fahey told a couple of jokes, one of which Large said was just plain gross.

Jeff Bissonnette ended the competition wearing a green frog costume as his mother-in-law played a portable keyboard and he sang about how hard it was to be green. Everyone in the room raised on Sesame Street seemed to swoon. It was a sweet moment.

There was even a few serious moments with mayoral candidates Sam Adams and Sho Dozono:

Both were asked if they could think of any services to privatize. Adams listed several possibilities, including fleet services and printing. But Dozono said he wouldn't contract out any services.

Read the rest. Discuss.