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Endorsement season is overwhelming, right? My kid went to open up a Daniel Tiger video on YouTube and an aggressively terrifying Christine Drazan attack ad threatening all Oregonians’ right to abortion blasted in his face.
Yes, I get how ads work (and also facts), but this is a particularly toxic fuckscape of a year. Like, can we chill? The public is so divided, and so weirdly angry, but the stakes are only really high for some of us, particularly the houseless, the working poor, women, LGBTQ, parents, elderly and infirm, anyone making less than $200,000 a year, and every single brick downtown.
Did I miss anyone? Is that everybody? If you need a panacea, I suggest visiting the alien autopsy at the Peculiarium as a reminder that things could be worse. We could be being flayed open in outer space by hostile alien overlords.
Vote Healthy 2022 is WW’s official endorsement issue. Over the past month, Willamette Week’s news team conducted interviews with candidates seeking the paper’s endorsement. They examined the new measures we’d see on the ballot and gave their arguments for or against them. Now, it’s up to Portland voters to consider—or not—the opinions of our city’s dedicated news writers before ultimately coming to their own informed conclusions about what choices best represent the places they live.
News editor Aaron Mesh will join me to unpack some of the more controversial endorsements of WW’s news team and give us an insider perspective on the entire endorsement process.
