Posted in2026 election City Council

City of Salem hiring Eugene attorney to help with investigation of Betsy Vega’s eligibility to be city councilor

Initially the City of Salem announced that the City Recorder and City Attorney would investigate an allegation that Betsy Vega is ineligible to be a city councilor even though she beat incumbent Mai Vang in the May election. That investigation was expected to be completed by June 22. But yesterday the City of Salem said that the investigation deadline now is July 7 because a Eugene attorney, Truman Stone, has been hired to help the City Recorder. Here's a screenshot of part of an email from the Salem Reporter (I'm a subscriber). This seems like a wise decision. If the…
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Posted in2026 election National politics

Democratic Socialists of America do well in New York primaries. Great news for Democratic Party.

I'm a firm believer in the Big Tent approach to Democratic Party politics. We need to include all sorts of people under the party banner. Including those who don't pass the sort of purity test that some Democrats demand of their politicians. Opposed to abortion? Welcome to the Big Tent. Love your assault rifle? Welcome to the Big Tent. Support Israel? Welcome to the Big Tent. Big fan of billionaires? Welcome to the Big Tent. Favor more drilling for oil and gas? Welcome to the Big Tent. Those are examples of how people with some right-wing leanings can find a…
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Posted in2026 election City Council City of Salem

Betsy Vega’s election as Ward 6 city councilor may hinge on definition of “qualified elector”

Betsy Vega has been certified by Marion County Elections as the winner of the May 19 election for the Ward 6 city council seat, as she got 44 more votes than Mai Vang, the incumbent. But Paige Barton, Vang's campaign manager, has filed a complaint with the City of Salem that asserts Vega may not be qualified to be a city councilor, according to the City Charter. Section 25. Qualifications. (1) An elective city officer shall be a qualified elector under the state constitution and shall have resided in the city during the 12 months immediately before being elected or…
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Posted in2026 election National politics

Graham Platner’s Maine primary victory is a win for flawed people — which is everyone

Today the voters of Maine made Graham Platner the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat currently occupied by Republican Susan Collins. With 71% of the vote in, the New York Times shows Platner ahead of Janet Mills, the governor of Maine, 72% to 20%. Sure doesn't look like Maine Democrats have lost faith in Platner, even after reports surfaced that he had behaved badly with several girlfriends, and had exchanged sexual text messages with some other women at the beginning of his marriage. Nineteen polls were taken between July 2025 and June 2026 of the Democratic primary between Platner and…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Salem city officials are refusing to enforce the city’s own requirement to be a city councilor

We're all familiar with bureaucracies behaving badly. But I expected more from officials at the City of Salem when it comes to enforcing their own requirement for serving as a city councilor, because they're refusing to make sure that Betsy Vega meets the residency requirement for serving as the Ward 6 city councilor. There it is, on the City of Salem web site, on a page titled Elections - Run for Elected City Office. I'll attach a screenshot. The residence requirement for becoming a city councilor is "Live within the city ward candidate seeks to represent 12 months prior to…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

If Betsy Vega didn’t live in Ward 6 for a year before the May 19 election, she is ineligible to be a city councilor

Currently Betsy Vega has a 40 vote lead over incumbent Mai Vang in the Ward 6 Salem City Council race. Since it looks virtually certain that Vega will have gotten more than 50% of the vote when this race is certified by Marion County Elections, seemingly Vega will replace Vang as the Ward 6 councilor next January when her term begins. Seemingly. Not certainly. Because the Salem Reporter has a May 28 story by Joe Siess with the provocative title, "Vega's Ward 6 residency questioned as Salem city council race remains unsettled." Excerpt: State elections officials are reviewing allegations that…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Looks like progressives have gained one seat on the Salem City Council

Today was the end of the seven-day deadline for mail-in ballots to be returned to the Marion County Elections Office after the May 19 primary election where the races for Salem mayor and four city council seats would be decided if a candidate got over 50% of the votes. As I wrote about on May 20 in "Election for Salem mayor and city council turned out well for progressives, but not perfectly," from the initial results of these five races it seemed virtually certain that Vanessa Nordyke would defeat incumbent Julie Hoy in the mayor race, incumbent Linda Nishioka would…
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Posted in2026 election City Council Vanessa Nordyke

Election for Salem mayor and city council turned out well for progressives, but not perfectly

The races for Salem mayor and city council are nominally nonpartisan, but in reality almost always there are conservative and progressive slates for these offices. So given the extent to which even local politics has become nationalized, every two years control of the city council hinges on whether the election winners tilt more toward the right or left of the political spectrum. Since Oregon's vote by mail allows for ballots to be counted if they are postmarked on or before election day, May 19, there's an unknown number of ballots remaining to be counted. What I've shared below are screenshots…
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Posted in2026 election 2028 election National politics

Democrats need to make “Won’t Get Fooled Again” their political theme song

This morning I woke up to news that the Virginia Supreme Court had ruled that the redistricting referendum recently approved by the state's voters by a 52-48 margin had been overturned by the court -- causing Virginia's congressional map to revert to a 6-5 likely Democratic majority rather than the 10-1 likely majority under the redistricting proposal. A song title popped into my head. "Won't Get Fooled Again." That was a 1971 song by the Who. The title perfectly encapsulated how I feel about well-meaning Democratic efforts to do the when they go low, we go high thing. Several blue…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Vanessa Nordyke and Julie Hoy have very different visions for Salem. Vote for mayor accordingly.

This screenshot from the Salem Reporter home page nicely sums up the race for Salem mayor that will be decided in the May 19 election. Here's excerpts from the Salem Reporter profiles of the two candidates that illustrate the differences between them. Vanessa Nordyke -- Mayoral candidate and Salem City Councilor Vanessa Nordyke says she’ll prioritize ordinary people over the rich and powerful if elected on May 19. -- She’s backed by Progressive Salem, which is supporting a slate of progressive candidates in city races. -- She has cast the upcoming race as a contest between moneyed interests and the…
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Posted in2026 election City Council Julie Hoy

This is important to know about candidates for mayor and city council

I'm a political junkie. I'm addicted to following politics closely. But many people here in Salem aren't. They believe in voting, including in the May 19, 2026 election that likely will decide the races for mayor and four seats on the city council. (While this is a primary election, a candidate that gets more than 50% of the vote in those races wins outright; such will probably happen, given that there are two candidates in each race.) But those people don't have an inclination to dig deep into the qualifications and policy positions of the candidates vying to be mayor…
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Posted in2026 election National politics

Democrats now lead in redistricting battle. Take that, Republicans!

Revenge is sweet. That's how it felt to me last night as I rejoiced when Virginia voters approved a redistricting plan that is expected to result in a 10-1 Democratic majority in the state's 11 congressional districts, up from a 6-5 majority under the current plan. Is this fair in a purple state where the electorate narrowly favors Democrats? No. But Republicans have been happily gerrymandering in states that they control for decades, rejecting Democratic pleas to institute a national requirement for independent redistricting commissions to redraw congressional maps every ten years after a census. So after Trump demanded that…
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Posted in2026 election Homeless

Homelessness in Salem will be affected by the upcoming mayor and city council elections

Today the Salem Reporter published a great story about an important impact of the May election for mayor and four city council seats, "WHAT'S AT STAKE: How Salem city council races could impact local homeless policy." This is a summary of how the progressive and conservative slates of candidates differ in their approaches to homelessness. Candidates this year are largely divided between two philosophical approaches. In general, progressives describe the homelessness issue as a matter of affordability, particularly around rising rent costs and challenges finding housing. Conservatives point to addiction and a lack of personal accountability as the main drivers…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Julie Hoy and Vanessa Nordyke agree on some things, disagree on others, in polite You Tube forum

I was hoping for some dramatic political fireworks, but mostly I got some mildly interesting sparklers. That pretty much sums up my reaction to a hour-long "mayoral debate" on You Tube featuring Julie Hoy and Vanessa Nordyke sponsored by What's Happening Salem and Capital Community Media. Which really wasn't a bad thing. Both candidates for mayor in the May election were polite with each other, frequently saying "I agree" to what their opponent said in response to questions posed by the moderators. Who did a very good job. The questions were thoughtful, and the production value of the You Tube…
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Posted in2026 election Donald Trump National politics

Tariff decision by Supreme Court could have helped GOP in midterms, but Trump is doubling down on tariff tax

When I checked my iPhone for the latest news upon waking this morning, my mood instantly brightened. Yay! The Supreme Court has ruled that most of Trump's tariffs were illegal. And not by a narrow 5-4 margin, by a 6-3 margin, so three Trump-appointed justices ruled against him. Up until now the Supreme Court has mostly been allowing Trump to pursue his authoritarian dreams with minimal pushback. But this was a big rejection of unfettered presidential power. Even three conservative Supreme Court justices realized that the Constitution gives Congress the power of taxation, and tariffs are a tax paid by…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Mayor Julie Hoy chickened out on debating Vanessa Nordyke at Salem Reporter forum

I apologize to all the chickens in Salem for lumping you in with Mayor Julie Hoy, but "chickened out" just seemed like the best way to describe Hoy failing to agree to debate city councilor Vanessa Nordyke at a Town Hall event sponsored by the Salem Reporter. As described in the email message below that Salem Reporter editor and owner Les Zaitz sent to subscribers yesterday (I'm a subscriber), every other candidate for the four city council seats and the mayor position that will be voted on in the May election has agreed to participate in the event. Julie Hoy…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Julie Hoy is acting like she doesn’t want to be reelected as Salem mayor

I'm beginning to think that Julie Hoy feels she would be happier if she wasn't the mayor of Salem, which entails putting in a lot of time for exactly zero money, the position being unpaid. I say this because while Hoy has filed for reelection, she's been making some dubious choices if she truly wanted to defeat Councilor Vanessa Nordyke in the May election. For example, (1) Hoy has declined to admit that she violated Oregon's public meetings law, even though the Oregon Government Ethics Commission determined that she was the instigator of prohibited private conversations with city councilors about…
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Posted in2026 election City Council

Once again, city council and mayor candidates in May election are divided into progressive and conservative tribes

In an ideal world, which for sure we don't have, political candidates would be judged on the basis of their unique individual qualifications and not on which political tribe they belong to. Maybe because they don't belong to any tribe, having foresworn membership in the Democratic, Republican, or some other party. But we live in polarizing times. And unlike a parliamentary system, our country has two enduring dominant political parties. So even though nationally unaffiliated voters are 47% of the electorate, with Republicans and Democrats at about 27% each, there's a strong impetus for candidates to identify as progressive or…
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Posted in2026 election Julie Hoy Vanessa Nordyke

Given Julie Hoy’s serious lie, her future as Salem’s mayor seems bleak

Four days ago I wrote a blog post about how Salem Mayor Julie Hoy lied to the city council president, Linda Nishioka, about how Hoy had supposedly learned that a majority of the council wanted the City Manager, Keith Stahley, to resign. After Nishioka passed that falsehood on to Stahley, he resigned -- setting in motion a fiasco that culminated in a recently-concluded investigation by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. The investigation found that instead of a majority, five, of the city council members wanting Stahley to resign, actually just one did: Mayor Hoy herself. Yesterday I talked about Hoy's…
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Posted in2026 election Donald Trump National politics

If Trump tries to rip my mail-in ballot out of my hands, he’ll get a nasty paper cut

Hopefully the title of this blog post doesn't earn me a visit from the Secret Service. Guys, this isn't a threat against the president; it's a warning to Trump that if he messes with the much-beloved universal mail-in voting we have here in Oregon for every election, this will generate bad karma for him, possibly including a well-deserved paper cut. Trump's threat yesterday to issue an executive order banning mail-in voting is toothless, because the Constitution makes the states responsible for elections. Any changes to state election laws would have to be approved by Congress. Good luck getting that through…
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