Elections: Public financing worth a try

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

I appreciate David Reinhard's foray into satire as he critiques Portland's new plan for campaign financing (Oct. 16 column). "Dave for City Council" has a nice ring to it, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time a conservative latched onto the good ideas of progressive politics and took advantage of them.

[Regarding] Sunday's front-page headline, "Low-income Oregon workers fall behind in getting ahead," I believe the growing disparity between the very rich and everyone else is disgraceful, but that it is not coincidental. It's organized that way.

Campaign finance reform that gives more people of color and folks from the working class (and even a "conservative curmudgeon") a better shot at representing the common good is worth a try.

JOE RASTATTER
Northeast Portland

 

The new taxpayer-funded campaign system may well turn out to be flawed, but not by David Reinhard's bizarre logic. If eliminating the entrenched pay-to-play mentality in Portland prevents just one or two dubious property-tax abatements for real-estate developers, the system will have paid for itself.

I say let's give it a chance.

I also challenge Reinhard to actually run for the City Council, and with a real platform, not the typical GOP mishmash of carefully coded bigotry and appeals to resentment.

JOSEPH WALDER
Northeast Portland

 

I am not a Portlander. I observe the happenings of that city from Lake Oswego. I'm a retired trucker on a Teamster pension and Social Security, plus I work at two part-time jobs for extra cash.

I believe the taxpayer-funded election system has merit. Were it approved, I would be thrilled to see David Reinhard run for City Council using its benefits.

Why? Because Dave, if elected, would be beholden to the citizens of Portland and would have to conduct his political career for the benefit of the people, rather than the special-interest groups his avowed philosophy favors.

DENNIS McNISH
Lake Oswego

 

David Reinhard finds plenty wrong with Portland's new publicly funded campaigns. What Reinhard leaves out are the savings that publicly financed campaigns will give us, both during and after a campaign.

The money saved during the campaign is largely the result of the candidate not receiving large corporate donations. Expenses resulting from money spent by corporations on campaigns are then not passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services.

After a candidate is elected, the candidate is then not beholden to corporate interests and can concentrate on public interests.

GARY WITTEMAN
Northeast Portland