And now for something completely different. I have gone “off topic” a few times before on the blog, but obviously it’s mostly technical in nature, around here. Today I’d like to talk about something incredibly important, the upcoming Portland Mayoral election, in a couple months here.

Vote for Sarah Iannarone. Not because I think she’s a better candidate than Teressa Raiford, but because she is on the ballot. Think of the voters we can pull off of Ted Wheeler – they will either vote for Iannarone or Raiford. There are no swing voters between Wheeler and Raiford, there are just Wheeler voters and Iannarone/Raiford voters. I believe in being able to vote your actual truth for people that represent you, and I also know that Wheeler has gotten far too many of my community maimed and killed, and he has GOT. TO. GO.

Raiford is amazing. She founded and runs Don’t Shoot PDX, which provides legal support for families affected by gun violence. Her entire pedigree is fantastic. I want to see Raiford in local politics for as long as she’ll have us.

However, the election needs to go to Iannarone. She has utterly endless DETAILED policy which Raiford’s handful of campaign sites lack. And in the generalities of Raiford’s sites, being an advocate for public education, transportation, transparency, labor rights, Iannarone has practically the same POV except a) she has details about every level of these policies and how to institute them, and b) she is on the ballot.

That’s really the critical piece here. Teressa is great! But Sarah is ALSO GREAT, and she is on the ballot. Sarah is on the ballot. Sarah has a genuine shot at being able to capitalize on how much a tremendous, continuous, and DELIBERATE failure Wheeler has been in his role as police commissioner and mayor.

The thing is, Sarah is on the ballot. She’s the one who can win. We must must MUST vote to change our voting structure to Ranked Choice voting rather than first-past-the-post. Until we do however, if it’s Wheeler vs Iannarone, then Sarah might get over 50%. She’s an outside candidate not entrenched in local government already & not incredibly, densely backed by enormously moneyed interests. If it’s Wheeler vs Iannarone vs Raiford, Wheeler will get the same number of votes, and Sarah and Teressa will be sharing the remaining pool of votes.

Here’s the very critical article: https://medium.com/@adie.bovee/an-open-letter-regarding-portlands-upcoming-mayoral-runoff-eb31e2624181 , posted about Iannarone’s involvement with Don’t Shoot PDX, which appears to be based on a now-deleted tweet of Sarah’s that questioned the wisdom of running a write-in campaign, saying that telling a black woman that running against her is a vote for Wheeler, is itself a silencing and racist action. I don’t think I agree that saying that a write-in campaign is less likely to win than someone on the ballot, is itself racist, but please, come to your own conclusions. The article also says “… it doesn’t take much digging at all to learn some critical history of Iannarone’s campaign’s relationship with Don’tShootPDX,” and hey, maybe it’s out there, but I couldn’t find anything in the first two page results of the term “iannarone “don’t shoot pdx””. What I found was coverage about mayoral debates which mentioned Iannarone, Raiford, and Don’t Shoot PDX.

Finally, please read what each candidate says, and decide for yourself. PLEASE read. I’ve provided handy links to ALL of the official campaign policy for either candidate. I’ve also got word counts because I find it pretty remarkable, the level of detail and difference.

Raiford’s platform is here, 2599 words: https://www.movingportlandforward.com/the-peoples-platform

Sarah’s platform on entirely reimagining public safety, 5933 words (be sure to click through all the “Show Full Policy” expansions): https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/rethinking-public-safety/

Sarah’s platform on transportation and the “green new deal”, 1215 words: https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/green-new-deal/

All of Sarah’s writings and platform proposals for Coronavirus response, 1726 words: https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/covid-19/

Sarah’s massive reformation ideas for monetary and economic support for marginalized and out of work members of our community, 7519 words (!!):
https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/recovery-and-resiliency/

Sarah’s platform on Housing for All, 3644 words:
https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/housing-for-all/

Sarah’s platform on vastly VASTLY transparented (not a word, but it’s fine) government, including municipal internet, FOIA request improvement, cracking open wide the voter rolls, and so so so much more, 3327 words:
https://sarah2020.com/en/policies/good-government/

I have looked and looked, and asked staunch advocates for Raiford, for similar policy plans from her, and I just haven’t been able to find them.

Thanks for reading.