{"id":22437,"date":"2016-11-02T21:58:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T04:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=22437"},"modified":"2016-11-02T21:58:02","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T04:58:02","slug":"one-portland-oregon-residents-voting-ballot-part-one-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=22437","title":{"rendered":"One Portland, Oregon Resident’s Voting Ballot – Part One, Candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"voting-ballot-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s how I’m voting this year…. this post list my votes for the candidates. I’ll do a follow-up post with the ballot measures. Thanks for Sydney for posing for the photo. (She did her own makeup.)
\n<\/p>\n

National Offices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

President<\/em>
\nI hesitated before voting for Hillary Clinton<\/strong>, because Oregon is not a swing state, and a protest vote against the “pro-war vs even-more-pro-war” two party system would feel good. But I haven’t found Jill Stein (let alone Gary Johnson) inspiring this season, and honestly, as flawed as she is, I think Clinton is the best candidate for President this year. She’s capable, smart, and supports many policies I believe in.<\/p>\n

Congress<\/em>
\nIn Congress, the most important thing any member does is be a member of their party – because that, more than any individual vote, will determine what policies are passed. For that reason, I voted for both Democrats on my ballot, Ron Wyden<\/strong> (who’s been an excellent and wonky senator) and Earl Blumenauer<\/strong> (who has been a Congressman for longer than some of my friends have been alive).<\/p>\n

Whew! That was easy. On to Statewide Offices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Governor<\/em>
\nGovernor Kate Brown<\/strong>, who was Secretary of State and then took the office when the previous governor resigned in disgrace, has done a good job from my perspective. Automatic voter registration! Minimum wage! An easy vote.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State<\/em>
\nFor Secretary of State, there’s a close race between Dennis Richardson, a socially conservative Republican, and Brad Avakian, who keeps on making promises that have nothing to do with the Secretary of State’s duties or legal authority (i.e., keeping abortion legal). And the race is too close for voting third party (even though I agree with some of what Green Party candidate Alan Zundel says).<\/p>\n

I worry that Avakian might be a fool, or at least someone who doesn’t care about the job he’s running for. But I don’t trust a Republican as Secretary of State; I don’t trust that Richardson, or any Republican, wouldn’t abuse the Secretary of State’s authority to try and make it harder for people of color and students to vote. (Examples of Republican Secretaries of State doing just that: Alabama<\/a>, Washington,<\/a> Florida<\/a> and Louisiana<\/a>. Richardson, who championed voter ID laws when in was in the Oregon legislature, is cut from the same clothe. <\/p>\n

Besides, what happens if Governor Brown resigns in disgrace? (I have no reason to think that’ll happen, but still…) So I’m voting for Brad Avakian<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

State Treasurer<\/em>
\nTobias Read<\/strong> much more experience than any of the other candidates (which matters a lot in this highly technical position that requires the ability to work with the legislature); he’s also the only candidate for Treasurer to favor Measure 97.<\/p>\n

Attorney General<\/em>
\nCurrent (and, I hope, returning) AG Ellen Rosenblum<\/strong> – who took a stand for marriage equality back in 2014 and has worked to improve Oregon’s rape laws on a few different fronts (including confidentiality for rape victims, and extending the statute of limitations) – is someone I gladly vote for.<\/p>\n

State Legislature<\/strong>
\nMichael Dembrow (state senator) or Allissa Keny-Guyer (state representative) are both running unopposed, so I’m not even bothering. The same is true for various Judge’s races, Sheriff, the Soil & Water people, etc.<\/p>\n

In fact, the only race left on my ballot that isn’t<\/em> unopposed is the race for…<\/p>\n

City of Portland Commissioner, Position 4<\/strong>
\nI voted for Steve Novick against Jeff Merkley in 2008 – and in hindsight, I was wrong. Merkley has been terrific. And now it’s Steve Novick versus Chloe Eudaly, a political novice who owns one of my favorite Portland bookstores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I watched an hourlong debate between them, and on policy, there’s very little dividing the two candidates. Novick is more experienced and wonky, but Eudaly seems more passionate, especially about Portland’s rent crisis, and extremely smart. Besides, City Commissioner is an entry-level political job, a reasonable place to start a political career. <\/p>\n

I don’t know what the solution to the rent crisis is, and I’m not convinced Novick or Eudaly knows either. (When I checked her website, the most prominent concrete proposal I could find was restricting Airbnb rentals, which may be a good idea but would also be a drop in the bucket<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given how close these two candidates are on the issues, I’m going to let identity politics be my guide. “If elected, Eudaly would be the only member of the city’s five-seat council to live east of the Willamette River. She would be the only small-business owner. She also would be only the eighth woman to serve on the council in the history of the city.” Not having a single east-sider on the council seems unjustifiable. Of these two good candidates, I’m voting for Chloe Eudaly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s how I’m voting this year…. this post list my votes for the candidates. I’ll do a follow-up post with the ballot measures. Thanks for Sydney for posing for the photo. (She did her own makeup.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22437"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22442,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22437\/revisions\/22442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}