A matter of checks and balances
New campaign system is ready to go, and so is its youngest member
By JENNIFER ANDERSON Issue date: Fri, Sep 23, 2005
The Tribune
Jared Spencer is articulate, educated and full of ideas.
He’s been a regular at City Hall for several years, helped coordinate Sen. John Kerry’s local presidential campaign and was a policy adviser to a candidate for the Portland Public Schools board. And he’s only 21.
Now Spencer, a Portland State University political science major, is the youngest member of the seven-person committee that beginning this fall will oversee the city’s new “voter-owned elections” system, which the City Council approved amid some controversy in May.
“It’s about dialogue,” Spencer says of the so-called Citizen Campaign Commission. “It’s about a multitude of different opinions — it will allow people a forum to be heard. … Given my background, me being young and African-American, there’s a different perspective I’ll have on different issues.”
The commission, appointed by City Auditor Gary Blackmer earlier this month, will scrutinize the new public financing system and implement the appeals process. It will present any recommendations for change to the City Council in 2007, after the system’s first election cycle.
“Often the council will enter into debate with them,” Blackmer said of the group. “(The group will) really become the sounding board for dialogue.”
The commission’s first task will be to appoint three appeals officers to hear cases of alleged misconduct by candidates. Blackmer hopes to have the appeals process in place in six weeks.
So far, five candidates have declared their intent to participate in the system during the 2006 primary election. Three will challenge Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who said he will not run his campaign with public funds, and two will challenge Commissioner Erik Sten, who hasn’t decided yet.
Participating candidates will receive $150,000 in the primary election and $200,000 in the general election; mayoral candidates will receive $50,000 more. To qualify, candidates for commissioner and auditor must gather 1,000 $5 checks from community members, and mayoral candidates must collect 1,500 checks.
Opponents have charged that taxpayer money shouldn’t be spent on the $1.3 million campaign system at a time when funding for parks, police and other city services is short.
Spencer said he heard that argument many times during the past year as he did outreach for the measure in the community. “I think I was able to sway some people over,” he said.
The Benson High School graduate studied physics and aeronautical engineering at the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta for two years before returning to Portland to major in political science.
This year he’s serving as president of the Black Cultural Affairs Board at PSU, a position he hopes to use to recruit and unify black students and encourage them to spend time in the community.
“At Morehouse, I saw students interact with the community,” he said. “I don’t see that here — partly because it’s not really something that’s emphasized here.” He added, “I also want to let black kids know PSU is an option, too.”
Last spring, Spencer was the policy adviser for his friend Charles McGee, the 19-year-old who ran for the Portland Public Schools board.
Even Spencer’s internship is political in nature. He’s working at the Portland Family of Funds, the investment firm that has faced criticism from the city for alleged backroom loans and bad policy.
But like his other forays into politics, the experience has been a good one, Spencer said. “You have to know what’s happening behind the politics,” he said. “I think the PFF has been an organization that has the community’s interest at heart,” he said.
Spencer doesn’t know exactly where his career will take him, but he knows he wants to eventually settle in Portland and “be as effective as possible in helping people.”
As to whether he’ll run for office in the future, he’s as coy as any politician: “I have no plans,” he said with a smile.
