Rocking the politics of 2008
Carla Axtman
Not to be left out of the various and sundry retrospective pieces for the year that (just about) was, I've been pondering the Oregon political stories of 2008. In what was a watershed political season for Democrats, there were benchmark stories that I think are worthy of remembrance and recognition. They're in no particular order here, but they live in my brain as standouts. And so I place them here for consideration, contemplation and cogitation (ain't alliteration grand..?)
MySpace turned out to be a player this cycle. Arlington mayor Carmen Kontur-Gronquist faced a recall challenge after sexy photos of her turned up on her MySpace page. The lesson: if you want to run for public office, yank the skimpy lingerie photos from your social networking page early and often.
Portland City Councilor Sam Adams became the first openly gay mayor of a large city in the U.S. Adams has laid out what's being called an "ambitious" mayoral agenda. He also had the odd distinction of being on TV last week during Snowpocalypse to tell us that the Portland metro area was out of tire chains at the same time I was purchasing them at Les Schwab in Hillsboro.
Entrenched Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake got the boot courtesy of Dennis Doyle and the big bats at Nike.
I haven't decided who is more damaged by the train wreck that is Mike Erickson. Is it Erickson himself? He of the abortion scandal and the Cuba scandal? Or is it Kevin Mannix--who couldn't topple Erickson in the 5th Congressional District GOP primary even with all of Erickson's foibles? Not to mention the fact that Mannix's ballot measure took a beating at the polls.
Jeff Merkley upsets Gordon Smith (yay!)
The Oregon House Democrats turned their majority status into a supermajority. This outcome is likely due in no small part to a massive Democratic voter registration edge which came to pass this year. Further, the youth movement in the Oregon legislature is continuing its rise. Adding to the young guns of 2006 (Clem, Read, C Edwards, Gelser, Cannon), were the young guns of 2008 (Kopel-Bailey, Garrett, Barton, Kahl, J Smith). Kari tells me that the Oregon Legislature is likely at its youngest since 1974.
That Democratic registration edge was in many ways due to this guy, who drew a nice, little crowd to Waterfront Park in May.
Senate primary candidate Steve Novick had some pretty phenomenal success of his own with this ad, which went viral on the tubes:
In a somewhat less-than-successful court appearance, Oregon's own initiative racketeer Bill Sizemore took a perp walk, and spent a couple of nights in the Mult Co. slammer for contempt of court.
In related news, all of the conservative-backed, rightwing ballot initiatives in Oregon were shellacked at the polls.
State Senator Brad Avakian was tapped to replace retiring Labor Commissioner Dan Gardner. Avakian's political star continues to be on the rise.
SEIU came to play serious this cycle. They flexed some hardcore political muscle (to the tune of $300K) to help John Kroger defeat Greg MacPherson in the Democratic primary for Attorney General.
Three statewide offices were open this cycle: Attorney General, State Treasurer and Secretary of State (not to mention a special election for Labor Commissioner). The Oregon Republican Party utterly failed to mount a serious challenge to any of them.
Oregon actually mattered in the Presidential primary.
That's it for me--feel free to put your additions, corrections and various arguments villifying my choices in comments.
Just one more thing: for nonpolitical fun and in the rocking holiday spirit, here's the best song of 2008 (it even has a kick-ass video):
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3:53 p.m.
Dec 29, '08
Now I get the FB reference!
Dec 29, '08
Only the second time since 1984 that an anti-gay measure didn't appear on the ballot!
Dec 29, '08
Best song of 2008? I've heard fifth graders with more highly developed musical chops.
But why learn to play your instruments when you can just go out and get some tattoos and piercings?
THIS CAT sounds better, and he just recovered from throat cancer.
Dec 29, '08
You say "fifth graders" like its a bad thing, reject.
:)
Dec 29, '08
Oregon is a great state, and Sam Adams is a great mayor - and a great beer. Happy New Year!!!
Dec 29, '08
Oregon, having survived the pithy training of a decade-long, continuous soft-core economic recession complete with slow, throbbing bleedout, is far ahead of the rest of the nation in survivalist adjustment chops. That's good, right?
Dec 29, '08
Well, that's not a bad song. But also a very good song from 2008, which a much better music video, is "Keep an Open Mind" from Captain.
Dec 29, '08
Arlington will never amount to anything if they can't appreciate the natural gifts of their former mayor.
Dec 29, '08
I really like Kulongoski's new tax scheme to install GPS devices in vehicles - Brilliant!
[Homophobic crap deleted. -editor.]
Dec 29, '08
C-La, I'm going to have to fight you on the song. Fight figuratively, of course. My vote goes to "All the Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it). That song is a perfect pop song, perfect video, and perfect message for this single lady. :)
Dec 29, '08
I posted this already, but it disappeared...
My fave 2008 song: All the single ladies (put a ring on it)
Best Bob Fosse style video, best You Tube knock offs, best pop song, awesome lyrics and enough Beyonce motivation to keep me at the gym.
Dec 29, '08
A tiny tribe in Alaska has launched a Torts against the oil industry, as the global warming phenom attending climate change is destroying their little piece of land and now they must fight to stop efforts to make them relocate. Watch for a decision late this summer.
Not expected to win, but another groundbreaking action by a tiny people not being listened to.
Dec 29, '08
http://narfnews.blogspot.com/2008/02/narf-alaskan-native-village-sues-24-oil.html
Regarding that lawsuit above. It may not win, but will provide potential for groundbreaking precedent viz logic and shameful awakening-type awareness, much as that provided when the Samish sued for tribal existence again by using the Endangered Species Act to gain sovereignty and protection via that status.
10:28 p.m.
Dec 29, '08
Also, Carla, Glad to see Sam's pic and good words in your post. Maybe to comp you back, he could massage your son or 'tutor' him or something? He's such a great guy!
Duke: I'm assuming you're referring to this nasty little smear campaign toward Adams by Bob Ball. If you're gonna resurrect stuff, at least make a veiled attempt at something with some truth to it.
7:13 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
I have to dispute the assertion that Rick Dancer and Allen Alley didn't mount serious challenges in the Secretary of State and State Treasurer races, respectively. In a big Democratic year, they both made very respectable showings.
8:34 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
Jack: Dancer lost the Secretary of State race by five points and Alley lost Treasurer by six. While I concur that it was a good Democratic year--these results aren't even close. Smith/Merkley was 3 points. In the Oregon House races, Van Orman beat Lindland by just 2,Forsberg lost to Kennemer by just 2,Barton beat Flores by 3--etc.
The GOP simply has to field better candidates and mount serious challenges if they're going to win statewide again. That simply didn't happen this year.
9:25 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
In a big Democratic year, they both made very respectable showings.
Yes, you might even call 'em "moral victories". Or, as in sports, they "beat the spread".
Of course, we call that "losing".
Dec 30, '08
"...the Portland metro area was out of tire chains at the same time I was purchasing them at Les Schwab in Hillsboro."
Carla, are you sure that Hillsboro qualifies as the "metro area"? Or are you accusing the mayor-elect of lying about a matter affecting so many metro-area people? Is this a matter that should be brought to the attention of Fox News? Dave
10:05 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
Carla, are you sure that Hillsboro qualifies as the "metro area"?
To me it does.
Or are you accusing the mayor-elect of lying about a matter affecting so many metro-area people? Is this a matter that should be brought to the attention of Fox News? Dave
Also no.
I would guess that Adams doesn't consider Hillsboro part of the Portland metro area. And he isn't the mayor of Hillsboro, last I checked.
(shrug)
Dec 30, '08
You forgot the section "Proven Republican Losers LOSE Again! LOL!!" with pictures of Kevin Mannix, Ted Piccolo, and others.
I may have missed one or more two-time, Republican losers, but then again the Oregon GOP has a habit of putting losers who are ideologues in positions of influence whenever they lose an election.
They blame the election loss on moving to the "mushy" middle (to use a Huckabee term), put these ideological nutjobs in positions of influence, and hope that a hot button issue such as land use, Gay Marriage, or abortion will get their voters out to the polls.
Literally, that strategy will not work in 2010 because the Oregon GOP is as dead as the wooly mammoth that spawned it:
No reliable source for funding (besides sugar daddy Loren Parks)
No pool of candidates (Consider Tony Marino)
No GoTV effort (Mannix measures were THE GoTV effort in 2004)
I don't see Republicans making a run to get majorities in the Oregon House and Senate until another 10 to 20 years. As for the Governor's office, let Oregon history speak for itself.
Dec 30, '08
I don't want to take anything away from Mayor Sam's status but cheerfully gay David Cicilline is the mayor of Providence RI.
Wikipedia: "Despite having an estimated population of 172,459 as of 2007, it anchors the 36th largest metropolitan population in the country, with an estimated MSA population of 1,600,856, exceeding that of Rhode Island by about 60% due to its reaching into southern Massachusetts."
Does that make Providence a minor American city?
And by the way, could we just quit already with the "openly gay"? Let's put it in the cliche crapper with "admitted homosexual," "self-described 'gay'," and "apparently African-American." Oh, right. OK, make that last one "publicly gay."
Dec 30, '08
By the way, Carla...
Were you referencing (and repeating) an editorially deleted homophobic reference in your reply to Duke?
10:25 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
I have no idea what you mean, Larry.
Dec 30, '08
And by the way, could we just quit already with the "openly gay"? Let's put it in the cliche crapper with "admitted homosexual," "self-described 'gay'," and "apparently African-American." Oh, right. OK, make that last one "publicly gay."
Really. It sounds like they're going to show up at the Erotic Exotic Ball for a conference on urban issues. It's still weird to mention; when the conversation has nothing to do with sex, your orientation don't enter into it. It's like a heterosexual candidate adding at the end of a stump speech, "and there are rumors, I won't deny it; I'm really good in bed". Bottom line, that's what is still unacceptable, across the board, promiscuity. Maybe Rudy can grab that mantle. "Hello, I'm Rudy, I was the mayor of New York, I'm a promiscuous guy and I'm running for President". Ahead of anti-Arab sentiment, it's still the one great bashing ground of right and left alike. By denying JFK his legacy, by dressing it up, you seriously crippled the Clinton Presidency. Americans have to get over this "everything sends a message to youth" mentality. Not every statement is intended for the youth. I was actually scolded once for making the statement in a public forum that "carbon is promiscuous". We protect them alright. Protect them from ever learning one gd thing! This should be off topic for 2008 Political Round-up. It isn't; that's a prob, imo.
(BTW, did gays ever used to have sex in a closet, or is that a reference to dress sense?)
11:17 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
Carla, I think you're setting the bar a little high comparing the showing by Dancer and Alley to that of a two-term incumbent United States Senator. Frankly, going into that race, if someone had told me Gordon was going to lose by 3 points, I would have expected Dancer and Alley to lose by more than they did. And by comparison, both Dancer and Alley came closer than Saxton did in 2006 or frankly than any Republican statewide candidate has done for the last decade except Kevin Mannix.
Frankly, I think it's too easy to say Republican just need to nominate better candidates. Somehow we need to revisit what it is we stand for and what it is that Oregon voters are looking for if we are going to compete with you Democrats for the statewide offices again.
11:24 a.m.
Dec 30, '08
Jack: We can definitely agree on the idea that Republicans need to revisit what they stand for and how it stacks up to what Oregonians want.
It will behoove Democrats to continue to do that as well.
1:29 p.m.
Dec 30, '08
Zara & Larry --
Your point is well-taken. "Openly gay" is certainly clunky. How, then, would you recommend drawing a distinction between the small number of elected officials who acknowledge their sexuality prior to running for office, and the presumably much-larger number of folks who have run for office over the years while remaining closeted?
And while I agree with you that the best part of the Sam Adams story is that no one in Portland even seemed to care, I do think it's notable.
...
The good people of Providence RI are certainly welcome to talk about the size of their metro area (or MSA) if it makes 'em feel better, but you're not the mayor of a metro area - you're the mayor of a city.
Providence ranks #131 among American cities, down around Brownsville TX, Huntsville AL, Rancho Cucamonga CA, etc.
Portland ranks #30 - larger than Tucson, Atlanta, Sacramento, Cleveland, Miami, Minneapolis, Honolulu, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Newark, Buffalo, New Orleans...
List of U.S. cities by population.
Dec 30, '08
Kari: is that "sexual orientation" or "sexuality"? Curious if there is a semantic distinction?
Dec 30, '08
Yeah, Kari hit the nail on the head. In a society where it's stigmatized, honesty counts. Counts big. A reasonable dose of practicality to my ideation.
Dec 31, '08
About that Nike bullying Beaverton issue-the media has become so inept at explaining out of control Nike activity that I have resorted to posting six videos on Youtube explaining some of their harsh eminent domain arena related activity down here in Eugene. Oregon democrats are very silent about that problem and the governor is a top Nike cheerleader. To watch the videos use the search at the Youtube website with keywords:nike university of oregon.
Jan 1, '09