Smith: From senator to university president?

A tantalizing rumor percolating has U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith as a candidate to replace retiring University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer, a fellow Republican who got his job after losing the 1990 gubernatorial race. A person close to Smith says high-level Ducks have encouraged the defeated senator to consider the post but adds the job’s fundraising and campus politics don’t interest him.

A federal raid on a Portland-based Iranian charity last summer has had a curious effect: tripling its membership. Hossein Salehi, public relations and fundraising officer for Child Foundation, says the number of new people signing up with the nonprofit to help children in Iran, Iraq and elsewhere has jumped from about 30 to 90 a month since WW reported on an FBI raid July 15 at its downtown office (see “Mystery Raid,” WW, July 23, 2008). Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland continues its no-comment on the raid.

Situational allies? One of the few bright spots for Republicans in this election cycle was Rob Kremer’s optimistically named new political action committee, the Conservative Majority Project. The PAC raised and spent 450,000 on legislative races—about 80 percent of which came from Loren Parks (“The Man Behind Mannix,” WW, April 19, 2006). Curious since Kremer called Parks a “shadowy out-of-state eccentric recluse” in a 2006 blog post when the two backed different GOP gubernatorial candidates. So what changed? “It’s easy to poke fun at Parks as I did,” Kremer says. “But all he cares about is making positive changes in Oregon—no strings attached.” 

Some Reynolds High School students have been Ebenezer Scrooged by administrators from the East Multnomah County school district. Through a free Portland Center Stage program, 90 Reynolds students were supposed to attend a sold-out matinee performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on Dec. 11. But recent concerns about students’ spending too much time away from class prompted district leaders to cancel the field trip and all remaining field trips to PCS. Kelsey Tyler, PCS’ education director, says live theater is an important experience for teenagers. District spokeswoman Andrea Watson says a new policy limits field trips to two per year per grade.

Shhh! Please don’t tell WW’s incredibly generous readers the economy’s in the tank. As of press time Tuesday, you’ve given over $120,000 to the 55 fabulous nonprofits participating in this year’s Give!Guide effort. That’s more than twice last year’s total before Thanksgiving. To check out the results in realtime, go to wweek.com/giveguide. While you’re at it, check out the incredible incentives to anyone who gives more than $25 between now and midnight, Dec. 31.

And the winner of a $50 gift card to Kells for the best caption among 30-plus entries for this photo of Commissioner Randy Leonard in Manhattan is Bill Warner for “Wait till Rosie sees my new friend.” Indeed.