NEWS STORY The Ted Offensive The North Portland activist who put the brakes on Tri-Met's expansion plan is hoping to derail some City Hall careers. BY BOB YOUNG byoung@wweek.com

Ted Piccolo, a registered libertarian, claims to be a descendant of Chief Joseph.   Ted Piccolo was recently profiled as a "New Urban Warrior" in Brainstorm, a magazine with a libertarian bent. The story was reprinted in East County News, published by former OCA spokesman Mike Wiley.   Tri-Met's new proposal calls for a "northside" light-rail line running down the middle of Interstate Avenue from the Rose Quarter to the Expo Center, just south of the Columbia River.

Ted Piccolo is the man who stopped south-north light rail. Now he's going after career politicians. This week Piccolo, a conservative North Portland radio-station owner, launched a campaign to impose term limits on City Hall. He aims to put a measure on the November 2000 ballot that would restrict the mayor, auditor and city commissioners to eight years in office. Piccolo says he's got no particular target in mind; he just wants to open up city government. "We need a purging from time to time," he says. Voters rejected a similar city measure in 1996, however, and term limits are not as in vogue as they were in the early '90s. But Piccolo, a Native American activist who's viewed as a rising star in Republican politics, sees a couple of promising signs. For one, Piccolo says the 1996 term-limits measure suffered from poor wording and a weak campaign. He also notes that last November voters trounced a ballot measure to repeal existing term limits on Multnomah County officials. The measure lost in 256 out of 260 precincts. In addition, Piccolo is supporting another campaign that he says would further open up City Hall by electing commissioners from geographic districts. Currently commissioners are elected citywide, which forces them to run campaigns that cost well over $200,000. Piccolo, 33, first garnered attention in political circles by publishing an anti-government newspaper in Portland's blue-collar St. Johns neighborhood. He became visible throughout the tri-county region last fall when he led a coalition opposed to the $475 million south-north light-rail measure. Piccolo used newsletters, panel trucks, fliers, postcards and a political-action committee to promote his coalition and spread his anti-tax philosophy that "money is life." When elected officials started talking in December about resurrecting light rail, Piccolo stepped up. He said that if the Metro Council supported a new south-north project, he'd raise money to unseat at least one of the councilors. Piccolo's shadow now looms over the new $350 million North Portland light-rail plan being suggested by Tri-Met. When City Commissioner Dan Saltzman was asked about the new plan, he said he wanted to get the pulse of the community before going ahead with it. Because the more extensive light-rail proposal was voted down last year, Saltzman says he is wary of Piccolo asking, "What part of 'no' don't you understand?" The abbreviated Tri-Met project does not have to go to voters because it will be funded from existing government revenues, not new taxes. (The proposal calls for $25 million from Tri-Met, $35 million from the City of Portland, $55 million from Metro and $240 million from the Feds.) Still, Piccolo says he will campaign against the project and predicts it will meet a "slow agonizing death." "I'm going to give elected officials some kind of pulse," he says. "It depends on how this proposal actually looks before I know how much opposition I can garner." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published March 17, 1999