McCarty's been running for one office or another for 20 years. In 1984, he was elected as state representative for District 16. The Portland Democrat spent his rookie year abusing witnesses and insulting fellow lawmakers. His bullying tactics and bizarre behavior put him in the "awful" category in WW's 1985 biennial ranking of metro-area lawmakers ("The Good, The Bad and the Awful," WW, June 20, 1985). The next session, political observers were even harsher in their assessments. McCarty's scores were so low that WW had to create a new category just for him: Beyond All Hope. Voters tossed him out the next year, but McCarty wasn't done. The habitual candidate managed to win a seat on the Mount Hood Community College Board in 1995. Two weeks ago, he filed a last-minute candidacy for his old job in the Legislature. It's not McCarty's voting record we object to, it's his history of disrupting deliberations. Colleagues on the college board say he shows up under-prepared and over-opinionated. He once told a fellow board members to shut up and last year got into a fistfight with a Mount Hood instructor following a meeting. His performance on the college board indicates that, if anything, McCarty has gotten more out of control. That makes his entrance into the Democratic primary unfortunate. His mere presence in the race will most likely prove to be a bothersome distraction to the other candidates vying to replace Rep. Frank Shields. Even scarier is that his high name recognition in the crowded contest gives him a real shot at winning. |
