By Bob Walsh
Something really interesting is happening in Portland this November. They really ARE throwing the bums out. All of them.
The
city is not going to suddenly go conservative. They will however
almost certainly go less psycho-liberal than they have been for the last
several years.
The city is
going to a weak mayor system from a strong mayor system and is
expanding the city council by a factor of about three.
A
lot of the problems came with Proposition 110 four years ago. That
essentially decriminalized drugs. At the time 74% of the county voted
for it. It turned out to be a disaster and the people now know it.
There
are currently 19 people running for mayor and 98 running for city
council. There has been a major flight of tax payers from the city in
the last four years removing over $1 billion in taxable income from the
city. Parts of downtown Portland looks like a bombed out city in
Germany in 1945.
The old
city council had four at-large seats. The new city council has 12 seats
representing four districts, in ranked-choice voting. Most are
lefties. Three of the 98 are current council members. The city will no
doubt continue to be "quirky." Hopefully it will shift to being
functional as well. We will find out in about 25 days.
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