Posted inNational politics

Must-read: Salem protest story by a South High student

High school journalism is alive and well in Salem, judging by this highly professional story by Eddy Binford-Ross in the South Salem High School online newspaper, the Clypian.  It's a first-hand account of the protest in Salem on Saturday night that led to city officials declaring a state of emergency and imposing a curfew. I believe the state of emergency is in effect until Monday, but the curfew has been lifted.  UPDATE: Just saw that Binford-Ross is using Twitter (@Clypian) to report on tonight's, Sunday's, protest in Salem. Here's a screenshot of a recent tweet. Good job! I've got some…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Negative campaigning didn’t work in Salem City Council races

I found a lot to like in how the four Salem City Council races on the May 19 ballot turned out. Progressives won three of them, and narrowly lost the fourth, even though the conservative candidates had a lot more money to spend -- thanks to contributions from business related PACs (political action committees).  Stapleton, Phillips, Oakes-Miller, and Nordyke were the progressive candidates. The * indicates who won. So the four progressive candidates raised $70,231 as of May 22, while the four conservative candidates raised a whopping $158,350, well over twice as much.  Yet three of the conservatives lost. And…
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Posted in2020 election City Council Progressive Salem

Salem Reporter gets it right: this is a progressive town

It's wrong to think that Salem is a conservative backwater stuck between two cool progressive cities to our north and south, Portland and Eugene. Sure, for a long time some have termed our town So-Lame. But if that moniker ever was deserved, it sure doesn't describe Salem now, either from a cultural or a political perspective. As I noted on May 20 in a post-election post, "Progressives dominate in three of four Salem City Council races," progressives have made a great comeback in Salem. Back in 2015 there was just one progressive on the City Council. Starting in 2018, there have…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Campaign finance facts about Salem City Council races in 2020

If you're interested in how much is being contributed to City Council races here in Salem, you're going to love the reports that Jim Scheppke sent me -- which I've shared below in the form of screenshots.  A post-election story in the Statesman Journal said that Councilor Tom Andersen is looking into the possibility of limiting spending on the races, which points to the relevance of these reports. For five positions that pay absolutely nothing to have more than $200,000 for political campaigns is alarming, said Salem City Councilor Tom Andersen.  "I think that's way too much of an influence of big money," he…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Progressives dominate in three of four Salem City Council races

Last night progressives were heartened by the results of four Salem City Council races -- even one in which the liberal candidate is narrowly behind. Spending on these races set a record, about $220,000, with most of the money coming from individuals and groups aligned with business interests. The Chamber of Commerce and builder/realtor PACs went all out to change the left-leaning political landscape of the City Council. And in the end, they ended up with at best, the same balance of power. As the image below that a friend sent me shows, the election started with a 6-3 progressive…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Thank you, Salem Mayor and City Council candidates

I've dusted off a blog post from May 2016. Changed the election day to what it is in 2020, May 19. Updated the names of the candidates. Otherwise, left it the same, because what I said back then on election day eve is what I also want to say today, with the election tomorrow. Thank you, candidates.  I offer a heartfelt Namas'cray to all of the Salem people running for Mayor and City Council seats in tomorrow's 2020 primary election. Thank you for being crazy enough to put in so much time, effort, and money seeking an office that pays…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Oregon Right to Life inserts itself in Salem City Council election

Oregon Right to Life has a nasty habit of sending out last-minute mailers in local elections that have nothing to do with abortion. Here they go again, with the mailer below urging a vote for Brad Nanke in the Ward 3 election for a Salem City Council seat. Supporters of Nanke claim that he is a "non-partisan" member of the council. Not true. Nanke is deeply conservative. Oregon Right to Life says he is "an advocate for the unborn."  Since I'm not aware that abortion has ever been discussed at a Salem City Council meeting, it's pretty damn clear that…
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Posted inCoronavirus

Marion County not allowed to reopen. Who’s to blame?

Frustrating. Not good. Irritating. There's a lot of words I could use to describe my feeling about Marion and Polk being the only counties in Oregon whose applications to start reopening were rejected by Governor Brown and the Oregon Health Authority.  Of Oregon's 36 counties, 31 were given the OK to reopen. Three haven't applied yet (Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington). And two, Marion and Polk, have the dubious distinction of not passing the re-opening criteria, apparently mostly because of continued high numbers of new COVID-19 cases. On the sort-of bright side, today's OHA Coronavirus Update said, "The applications for Marion and…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Three takeaways from SJ story about record City Council campaign spending

Here's what came to mind after I read today's excellent Statesman Journal story by Whitney Woodworth, "City Council campaign spending breaks records, $200K in contributions." (1) We need local newspapers. I'm a frequent critic of the Statesman Journal. In-depth reporting on local issues has been lacking for a number of years. But Woodworth's story made me feel better about Salem's daily print newspaper. Temporarily, at least.  Sure, five days ago I'd written about this same subject. Being a part-time unpaid blogger, though, limits what I can do compared to a full-time professional journalist. It was great to see the quotes…
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Posted inCoronavirus

With so many COVID-19 cases, Marion County shouldn’t reopen soon

I'm as eager as anyone to have Marion County get back to a semblance of normality in these coronavirus times. i miss my Tai Chi classes. I miss going to the Courthouse Athletic Club. I miss having my hair cut (though I'm looking more like Willy Nelson every day, which can't be a bad thing). But I'm also an avid reader of the daily Oregon Coronavirus Update that gets emailed to me by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA). Disturbingly often, Marion County has an outsized number of new cases, frequently outpacing Multnomah County which has a much larger population. According…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Business PACs shower $66,468 on conservative Salem City Council candidates

Jim Scheppke, ace financial analyst of contributions to Salem City Council races, sent me an update on spending in the 2020 campaigns. As you can read below, the headlines are: Four business PACs (political action committees) have contributed $66,468 to conservative candidates. That's 39% of the total campaign contributions for all candidates of $170,977. Reid Sund, who faces Vanessa Nordyke in the Ward 7 race, has gotten a record-breaking $63,422 in contributions, only 10% of which is from contributions of $100 or less. Nordyke has gotten 29% of her $22,605 in contributions of $100 or less. Here's part of what…
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Posted in2020 election City Council

Hit piece on Trevor Phillips gets facts horribly wrong

Now that its May, the nasty attack ads come out to play -- by people desperate to get conservative Salem City Council candidates elected in the May 19 primary (which usually results in an actual winner, if one candidate gets more than 50% of the vote). Case in point: this mailer from the "Jobs PAC" that contains several false statements about Trevor Phillips, who is shown in black and white to, I guess, distinguish him from the colorful Brad Nanke. Before I point out why this attack ad is so sleazy, let's do some digging into the Jobs PAC. Here's…
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