SE Examiner

November 2005

To the editor

I want to urge Portlanders to support Voter Owned Elections.

They are successfully implemented in Maine and Arizona and recently have been adopted in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This method as written, rekindles the adage that anyone can aspire to serve.  It levels the playing field so that one does not have to be beholding to deep pocketed donors to run for office.  It will also enable a public servant to actually serve the public in an election year instead of a non stop fund raising routine to compete.  The cost to the city is roughly one per cent of its budget.

The opposition to voter owned elections is mainly a group of well-heeled contributors who don’t want to share their place at the table.  These are people who have gotten far more in tax breaks from the city than this campaign funding will cost.

The public will vote on this, after 2 or 3 election cycles display how this works.

Please allow this to go forward and don’t buy into the business lobby and their agenda to deny others a place at the table.

Mark Sturbois