Vote suppression and vote dilution of the correct, socially just sort! Let’s all hope it keeps that deserving love child of Flavor Flav and Gollum battening indefinitely at the public trough.
Oct 6, 2022·edited Oct 6, 2022Liked by Richard Cheverton, Pamela Fitzsimmons
Portland is nobody's idea of a broadly diverse city, but it absolutely could be divided into more than four mega-districts. Why did the charter commission not do that instead of divvying up representation with three officials for each of those four districts -- unless the point was to keep current elected officials in their well-paid jobs and to deny smaller local groups the opportunity to promote candidates relevant to different neighborhoods of a city that for several generations has been notable for personally corrupt political leadership?
As for ranked-choice voting, it seems obviously to favor the best-funded candidates. Given Portland's already unique-but-weird city governance arrangements, why not wait until other cities' and states' experiments with the idea work out?
The young and inexperienced (the median on the commission) have no time to wait! They have beliefs--evidence can wait, probably forever. Besides, we need to freeze "diversity" into place--no one will be allowed out of their tribe (one of the problems that wrecked the Roman republic). They have the answers and anyone with any actual "lived experience" is useful only to be shocked. It's more fun that way!
Interesting to note that most of the members of the commish come from organizations that DO NOT PAY TAXES. That's for mopes.
Vote suppression and vote dilution of the correct, socially just sort! Let’s all hope it keeps that deserving love child of Flavor Flav and Gollum battening indefinitely at the public trough.
Portland is nobody's idea of a broadly diverse city, but it absolutely could be divided into more than four mega-districts. Why did the charter commission not do that instead of divvying up representation with three officials for each of those four districts -- unless the point was to keep current elected officials in their well-paid jobs and to deny smaller local groups the opportunity to promote candidates relevant to different neighborhoods of a city that for several generations has been notable for personally corrupt political leadership?
As for ranked-choice voting, it seems obviously to favor the best-funded candidates. Given Portland's already unique-but-weird city governance arrangements, why not wait until other cities' and states' experiments with the idea work out?
The young and inexperienced (the median on the commission) have no time to wait! They have beliefs--evidence can wait, probably forever. Besides, we need to freeze "diversity" into place--no one will be allowed out of their tribe (one of the problems that wrecked the Roman republic). They have the answers and anyone with any actual "lived experience" is useful only to be shocked. It's more fun that way!
Interesting to note that most of the members of the commish come from organizations that DO NOT PAY TAXES. That's for mopes.
This sounds like its being engineered for the scamster Candace Avalos to take office with maybe 15% of the vote.
When the method of electing people to public office requires advanced algebra, something is really rotten.