Skip to main contentThe Write Stuff
Portland's noise-control officer answers WW's call for write-in sheriff candidates.
Last week, WW solicited brave souls to volunteer as write-in candidates for the otherwise-desultory Multnomah County sheriff's race.
But only one reader dared square his shoulders against Sheriff Bernie Giusto and his one opponent on the ballot, cable-access TV host Don DuPay. Calling himself "Speed Razor," the write-in wannabe offered this slogan: "Give me Librium...or give me meth."
Uh, OK. In desperation, we kept searching and found a perhaps unlikely, but quite willing, challenger for the May 16 election toiling away in Portland's City Hall. Paul van Orden, a 36-year-old former pro skateboarder from New Jersey, has worked as Portland's noise-control officer for the past 10 years. Before that, he worked in environmental enforcement in New Jersey.
He's shot a gun but doesn't own one, gets around town on a handmade Canadian commuter bike and admits to being arrested for skateboarding back in Jersey. Here's more:
WW: What would you change in the Sheriff's Office?
Paul van Orden: There's a lot of language about more jail beds, which we can talk about again and again. But it would be much better to focus on getting these folks back into the community so when they wind up on the street, they don't find themselves back in jail.
The second issue is fiscal responsibility. This position is to run a jail system, and Giusto doesn't come into this with any more experience than I do. He's a law-enforcement officer, he is not a fiscal administrator. We'd be better off having somebody who has a sound background of serving the citizens and using the resources that are available.
The third part is that this shouldn't be an elected position: I would work from day one to have the position moved to be a professional hire.
Give me an example of a time when you made good use of available resources.
Almost all code enforcement happens from 8 am to 5 pm. That's ludicrous. That's not when the problems happen. Tonight, for instance, after I go home and have a bite to eat, I'm going to go out and deal with a problem. One way to use the money in a fiscally responsible manner is actually having schedules at a time that serves the community.
OK, what's one time you've had to kick ass?
There was a [heavy-metal] concert at PGE Park and one of the sponsors was an RV company. Towards the end, the RV tank blew open and started filling up the stadium with propane. I immediately said we need to have people leave the stadium, and do it in a calm fashion. So we got folks out.
A final note: Most of our emails came from writers annoyed with our reference to the "cult following" for DuPay's cable show, Cannabis Common Sense. To be clear, we didn't mean to demean the medical-marijuana community as a cult. Rather, we were comparing DuPay's fans to fans of other small obsessions, like Star Trek or Beanie Babies.
—Angela Valdez
Can You Believe This?
Rule 1 for an ex-state treasurer-turned-gubernatorial candidate: Pay your bills.
Jim Hill (left) still owes the state $4,883.50 in unpaid fines from his run for governor four years ago, when he lost the primary to now-Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
The former state treasurer was fined for submitting a report with an incorrect address and occupation, failing to provide full details on TV ad purchases, and filing a post-election contribution-and-expenditure report more than a year late.
Such fines are not uncommon. Current Republican candidate Kevin Mannix got hit with more than $12,000 in fines when he won the 2002 GOP gubernatorial primary. Unlike Hill, however, Mannix paid his fines.
No interest or additional penalties accrue for letting fines linger, but the state Elections Division says certified statements of unpaid fines go to both the candidate and the campaign treasurer.
"We make it pretty tough to ignore us," says Carla Corbin, a compliance specialist with the Elections Division.
Hill campaign manager-treasurer Jef Green referred questions about the fines to his counterpart from Hill's 2002 run, Maria Smithson. Hill's 2002 campaign made one $300 payment in December 2005 as part of a payment plan set up with the state.
—Jon Weatherford
Blog Watch
City Council candidate Emilie Boyles has broken through on the blogosphere to make the "Hot Topics" page for Orblogs.com (www.orblogs.com/topic/boyles). But publicity isn't always good news. The links on that directory of Oregon blogs aren't as friendly to her as Portland's Slavic community. Many of the posts question her campaign's legitimacy amid concerns about whether the many Slavs donating to her campaign did so knowingly. Or they ridicule her angry letter to The Oregonian accusing the paper of discrimination against Christian conservatives.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jason Atkinson (pictured) has become the favorite son of Oregon's right-wing bloggers. The Atkinson for Governor Blog Network, created by David Gulliver (www.gullyborg.typepad.com), includes NW Republican (www.nwrepublican.blogspot.com), Antihippies (www.fritoy.wordspace.com) and RINO Watch (www.rinowatch.blogspot.com). But progressive skeptic Kari Chisholm of BlueOregon tells the National Journal (www.blogometer.nationaljournal.com/archives/2006/03/323_a_nice_blog.html#9) that "the Atkinson kids are just blogging amongst themselves."
The Main Event
April 6 and April 10
AWOL from recent gubernatorial debates, the Guv finally steps into the ring twice with Democratic primary opponents Jim Hill and Pete Sorenson. That's right, two debates in one week! After failing to win endorsements from big-time unions, Kulongoski will attend a debate hosted by Local 290 at the Plumbers & Steamfitters Hall in Tualatin at 7 pm Thursday. 20210 SW Teton Ave. Free. Then, on April 10 at 7 pm, KGW and The Oregonian will host a televised debate airing live on Channel 8 and Northwest Cable News.
April 11
Frustrated that your favorite City Council candidate didn't make the guest list at other recent debates? The League of Women Voters of Portland and St. David of Wales Episcopal Church have scrapped the notion of A and B lists and invited all 14 contenders for the two council seats to their public forum. The event starts at 7 pm. But get there early, because if all these candidates show, audience pews may have to be emptied to accommodate them. St. David of Wales Episcopal Church (Bishop Morris Hall), 2800 SE Harrison St. Free.
Political Chatter
Sometimes those grip-and-grins can come back to haunt you. The one below is of Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Volodmyr Golovan, who's in deep borscht over helping Portland City Council candidates Emilie Boyles and Lucinda Tate qualify for public financing of their campaigns (see Rogue of the Week, page 12). The photo was on the local Russian Chamber of Commerce's website, russianchamber.com, before disappearing in a Stalin-esque effort to erase history. Kulongoski's office says it doesn't know when the picture was taken, and the chamber didn't return WW's phone calls.
Ticket-pimping alert: Don't risk getting shut out of the Greatest Campaign Show on Earth. No, not the circus. We're talking Candidates Gone Wild on May 1 at the Roseland. Buy your $3 ducats now at WW, the Oregon Bus Project and City Club of Portland.
Erik Sten
What he's doing: Running for a third term on City Council.
What he's done: Focused on affordable housing, Internet access and making life hard for monopoly utilities.
What he wants you to know: Enviros, unions and progressives back him; the Portland Business Alliance doesn't.
What he doesn't want you to know: He's far more interested in tilting at windmills than fixing potholes.
Read the letter @ www.wweek.com/media/7409.htm
WWeek 2015