Posted inChamber of Commerce City Council Fresh Start Salem

Edgiest moments from Salem City Council Candidate Forum

Here's one unarguable takeaway from last night's City Council Candidate Forum: If you take the intense in-your-face vibe of either the Republican or Democratic presidential debates (especially the Republican) and flip it upside down, like turning matter into antimatter, you'll end up with something closely akin to Salem's oh-so-decorous candidate forum. Held in the Library's Anderson Room, and sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Marion and Polk Counties, along with the Salem City Club, the forum accurately reflected Salem's dual political personality: calm on the outside, seething on the inside.  So as I took notes about what the…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce Fresh Start Salem

Salem’s May 2016 election: Fresh vs. Stale is voters’ choice

Fresh is better than stale, right? Sure applies to bread. Also, to political candidates. Such as the people running for Mayor and four City Council seats in Salem's upcoming May election. Salem voters have a clear choice between two groups of candidates. Fresh or Stale? The three Chamber of Commerce-backed candidates (along with Councilor Brad Nanke, who is unopposed for re-election) promise more of the same. Top-of-the-ticket guy Chuck Bennett, the Chamber's choice for Mayor, makes this clear in the positions I've heard him take. How depressingly stale is this? -- More ignoring of what ordinary citizens see as best…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce

Salem Chamber of Commerce is overly political

"The Chamber of Commerce runs this town," a Salem City Councilor said to me in a moment of candor at a social event. I hear this frequently.  The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce is highly political. Photos I took last Sunday at the Chamber's office on Commercial Street NE tell the tale. Mayor candidate Chuck Bennett has been endorsed by the Chamber. Bennett, a lobbyist, is running against Carole Smith, a businesswoman. Councilor Warren Bednarz also has been endorsed for re-election by the Chamber. His opponent is Sally Cook. Jan Kailuweit is the other person endorsed by the Chamber in…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce T.J. Sullivan

Mean-spirited letter to editor cheapens Salem mayoral race

I'm fine with political snark. Obviously, given the theme of this blog. But ridicule, insults, and such should be based on some reasonable facts. Otherwise politics is reduced to childish name-calling.  Which is what frequent Salem Chamber of Commerce spokesman T.J. Sullivan did in a letter to the editor in today's Statesman Journal. Here's some excerpts.  I have worked with both Carole Smith and Chuck Bennett and had the opportunity to watch them engage with citizens in Salem. ...there aren’t many worse choices for mayor than Carole Smith. If she were elected mayor, and people like her elected to the City…
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Posted inChamber of Commerce

Salem Chamber of Commerce admits to using brain implants to control this town

Damn! I wish the Chamber of Commerce had scheduled their freaking amazing confessional press conference on some day other than April 1, because now people aren't going to believe this.                                                                                                              Dan Clem But I was there, taking notes as Chamber CEO Dan Clem and others spoke. Here's…
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