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As this political semester winds to a close, you're dying to know what kind of grades local candidates earned, right? University of Portland prof Jim Moore has the answers. KOIN-TV reporter David Okarski studied the expense accounts of some local incumbents, and Moore (a KOIN analyst) scored them on the basis of what voters got for their money. The winner? Former County Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who received an "A" for spending just $255 this year and producing tangible legislation on child abuse prevention. Metro Councilor Jon Kvistad bagged the lowest grade, a "C-minus," for a weak defense of the $486 he spent mostly on lunch and dinner meetings. Other Metro councilors didn't fare much better. Susan McLain, Ruth McFarland and Lisa Naito all received "Cs." McFarland spent $1,564, with most of the money going to meals and parking. Naito charged taxpayers $1,355 for parking, newspaper subscriptions (including The New York Times) and film and pictures. Cyber politics can be a bitch. Ask Jason Dimen. A state House candidate in Southeast Portland, Dimen tried to drop electronic campaign literature on 30,000 Portland e-mail addresses last week. Some people didn't like it. His Web site was shut down by his Internet service provider, IPNS, owned by Jon Newell, who says he received about 20 complaints. "People consider it trespassing," Newell says. The secretary of state's office has never dealt with such a problem, says state campaign-finance manager Fred Neal. "I'm not aware of any campaign law that governs this," says Neal. "We don't regulate the Internet." Meanwhile, Dimen touts e-mail as an alternative to bulk mailing. "It is simply cleaner and cheaper," he says. Gov. John Kitzhaber is bedridden with the flu, but when he comes back he's willing to join Walter Cronkite in an election experiment. Cronkite heads a national group hoping to use this year's Oregon governor's race to show how TV can improve its coverage of politics by getting candidates on mini-debates during the late-night news. It's a very small step for democracy, but it's still a tough sell for broadcasters. Bill Johnstone, director of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters, says his group "supports" Cronkite's idea. Hammering out details is another matter. Questions abound: "How do you get all the stations in a market to broadcast politics," asks Secretary of State Phil Keisling, "so no one gets a competitive advantage by showing reruns of The Simpsons?" The Alliance for Better Campaigns has one bit of leverage: Broadcasters prefer voluntary mini-debates to mandatory free air-time for candidates, which is one idea being debated in Congress. Experts can't blame the Voters' Pamphlet for the disinterest in this week's election. It was much cheaper for candidates to advertise in the statewide voters' guide this year than in 1996--thanks to government fumbling. Last year the Legislature was slated to renew existing charges for the Voters' Pamphlet ($300 for a half-page for state legislators, $1,000 for statewide offices such as governor and supreme court). If the charges weren't renewed, they would revert to lower 1992 rates. The bill got bogged down in the GOP-controlled Legislature, however, and died on the House floor on the final day of the 1997 session. Keisling blames GOP leaders such as Sen. Randy Miller and Rep. Lynn Snodgrass for the snafu. In a feeble defense, Miller and Snodgrass blame Keisling for not lobbying hard enough for the housekeeping legislation. The result: The state collected $63,000 in revenues from the Voters' Pamphlet, instead of the $121,000 it garnered in 1996. "Spending her money to boost staff morale is part of her job as a manager," political analyst Jim Moore, criticizing Metro auditor Alexis Dow for spending $281 in taxpayer money on a staff party. |
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