Skip to main content
“It’s not that half of Portland is DSA, it’s that you have a form of government where you need about 25% plus one of the vote to win....There’s no perfect voting system, but I don’t like the city of Portland’s voting system. I wouldn’t support that at a statewide level for legislative office. And I do think what’s happened in Portland—and there’s ranked choice voting now in Multnomah County and we had a failed ballot measure—it’s lowered the appetite of people to do something bold.”
—Oregon House Majority Leader Ben Bowman (D-Tigard), discussing why tensions between Democrats and the Democratic Socialists of America seem more pronounced at Portland City Hall than in the state Capitol.
WW has commenced its election-season practice of inviting candidates in contested races to our office for endorsement interviews. In his interview earlier this month, we asked Bowman why the fights between establishment Democrats and the Democratic Socialist faction appear less fractious in Salem than they do in Portland City Hall.
Bowman contended that it’s a matter of quantity, not quality. He said Democratic Socialists are overrepresented on the Portland City Council. (He characterized DSA members as constituting half of City Council, which is a slight inflation: The body’s leftist caucus, or Peacock, includes four DSA members in its six-person voting bloc. Even so, one-third of the council is formally affiliated with the DSA.)
He also argued that the obscure mechanics of Portland’s multimember-district, ranked choice voting system have largely soured the public on statewide election reforms, such as the ranked choice open primaries that exist in Alaska.
Watch a video of Bowman’s full remarks below.
