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One look at the brat pack running for office in 1998 and this much is clear: X-PAC, the political action committee for Portland Gen-Xers, was not just a vehicle to advance the career of Erik Sten. It may have looked that way--and some said as much--in 1996 when Sten rode the energy of the 450-member group he co-founded to become Portland's youngest city commissioner at age 29. Two years later, however, Sten's just another youthful face in the crowd: He's one of 10 X-PAC members running for office. Topping the list are two other incumbents, state Reps. Chris Beck, 34, and Ryan Deckert, 26. Hoping to join them in the state House are Jason Dimen, 30, Andrea Hungerford, 27, Deborah Kafoury, 30, and Martin Taylor, 28. Rounding out the field are Metro candidates Tim Raphael, 32, and David Bragdon, 38, and County Commission hopeful Serena Cruz, 30. The X-filing phenomenon goes beyond X-PAC. In the Portland suburbs, five young Republicans--with no X-PAC connections--are also seeking office. Leading the GOP gang is Molly Bordonaro, a 29-year-old considered the early front runner in the 1st Congressional District race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Furse. "Age is one of my most positive assets," Bordonaro said this week while announcing her candidacy. There's no evidence, though, that Portland's kiddie-corps candidates are part of a larger national youth movement. Instead, it appears to be a distinctly local phenomenon driven by several factors. For one, there are the term limits imposed by voters on state legislators and Multnomah County commissioners: Four of the 10 X-PAC candidates are running because popular incumbents are being forced out of office by term limits. "Nationally, we're not seeing this kind of youth movement," says political analyst Jim Moore. "But there are places where it's beginning to happen; that's where term-limit laws are kicking in." "I can't imagine I'd be running for County Commission or any other seat if not for term limits," agrees Serena Cruz, a lawyer and Sten aide who's running for the North Portland seat of County Commissioner Gary Hansen. The state term-limits law, which voters passed in 1992, takes effect this year, forcing some veteran lawmakers out of office. Kafoury, for example, is seeking to succeed Rep. Margaret Carter, who was first elected in 1984--before Kafoury was eligible to vote. Although the Democratic Party establishment is largely opposed to term limits, the opportunities created locally are leading some young Democrats to view term limits in a new, more favorable light. "We need turnover," says Sten. "If we're not going to get it from campaign-finance reform, then term limits is a good second choice. That's a new thought for me." More important than term limits to Gen-X candidates, though, is Sten's election, which reminded Gen-Xers of Portland's history of electing younger candidates. In the 1970s, Portland voters sent Earl Blumenauer to the state Legislature at age 23 and made Neil Goldschmidt mayor at 30. Apparently, Portland-area voters are still bullish on youth: Besides Sten, X-PACers Beck and Deckert were also elected to the state Legislature in 1996. "The success of three of our members last election meant a lot to this group of candidates," says X-PAC chairwoman Kafoury. "They realized that age wouldn't be held against them." Add to the mix X-PAC's nurturing environment--which provides contact with a network of like-minded souls and a monthly forum to discuss issues with Oregon's top political figures, including John Kitzhaber, Ron Wyden and Bill Sizemore--and a new paradigm emerged, says political analyst Moore. Young politicos believed it was time to stop complaining about the world and start changing it. The question was no longer "why run?" but "why not?" "Erik and X-PAC put a lot of energy in motion," says Cruz. "Suddenly people weren't just talking about issues--now they were going to do something about them." If there is an issue that links the X-PAC candidates, it's growth and how it will effect education, environment and housing. "The young candidates are not running because they're angry at the government, or trying to get back to some good old day, or to protect some industry or interest group," says Taylor, a state House candidate from Southwest Portland. "Most of the issues that young people feel attached to concern growth. They know rowhouses and apartments will never give way to forests and open spaces. We only grow in one direction. If that growth is not paced and done well, the consequences 30 years down the road will really affect young people." That's not to say the X-PACers are a sober bunch of policy geeks. Levity was big in Sten's campaign--with its emphasis on music, beer and wacky icons like the Stenmobile--and still is at X-PAC meetings. "I think it was key that we made it fun at the Flying Saucer Cafe with food and beer," says Kafoury. "We purposefully didn't have breakfast meetings." "Fun is an important element of politics that had been lacking in the 1980s," adds Bragdon, who had a role in forming X-PAC (see "The X-PAC Files"). "Erik's campaign was very important in showing that this kind of thing could be fun." That raises the question of whether some young candidates got intoxicated on Sten's exciting victory and are seeking office before they're qualified. But as Taylor notes, it was more than Sten's election that inspired candidates; it was how well he has performed on the job. "It wasn't just Erik winning," says Taylor, who was emboldened enough to challenge incumbent state Rep. Anitra Rasmussen, a fellow Democrat, in the primary. "It's the fact he's doing such a good job and earning people's respect. That makes it easier for the public to see young people are capable of doing the job." Sten, however, was unusually gifted for his age. He worked for five years in City Hall and demonstrated--among other skills--an uncanny talent for getting good press. By contrast, his X-PAC confederates, Beck and Deckert, did not garner such glowing reviews during their rookie legislative session last year. Sten says he's not making any blanket endorsements of young candidates. But, he says, elections are the ultimate form of meritocracy. Voters will decide if candidates--no matter what age--are well-qualified. In the meantime, Sten says, he thinks it's good for young candidates to run and find out if they're cut out for electoral politics. "If this country suffers from one thing," he says, "it's not enough good candidates." |
