Thread by @NancyRomm

Portland to Progressives: Not So Fast

While the nation waits to see how badly presidential pollsters got things (again), Portlanders already know how far off local statisticians were: 11 points.

That was the spread touted several weeks ago, in terms of how far ahead Sarah Iannarone, openly pro-antifa and partial to skirts featuring murderous dictators, was in her bid for mayor.

That she was running against someone about as popular as a jar of moldy Velveeta did not dissuade citizens from giving Mayor Ted Wheeler a second-term, the first time in two decades voters have delivered such largesse.

Also losing last week was Chloe Eudaly, another darling of progressives who, in her one-term on the city council, ushered in an ordinance that required landlords pay tenants to move and, this past July

...barred Portland police from communicating with the federal officers sent to the city by Trump to protect federal property.

“This is a sad day for Portland,” Eudaly said in a concession speech.

“We were poised to have one of the most progressive City Councils in history but, with the wins by Ted Wheeler and Mingus Mapps, we’ve taken a step back.”

That’s one way to look at it.

Another is that Iannarone and Eudaly, squarely on the side of protestors, peaceful and otherwise, were out of step with a majority of citizens, who were less enthusiastic about the fires, broken windows, and hordes of black bloc kids shining lights in their windows at night.

While Portlanders are largely sympathetic to the protestors stated goal of police reform, you had to squint pretty hard to see throwing Molotov cocktails at federal officers and busting up the Oregon Historical Society Museum as progress, and through their votes perhaps…

…signaled that they were ready for the nightly tantrums to stop.

“The outcomes of these races represent a clear defeat for the far left,” wrote Lewis & Clark Law Professor Jack Bogdanski, in a blog post entitled, “In Portland, Grown-Ups Take the Car Keys Back.”

The defeats were far from a landslide, Wheeler getting 46% of the vote to Iannarone’s 41%.

(The spoiler was Teresa Raiford, a write-in candidate that Iannarone’s campaign took to court last month, ostensibly over registration issues but, it was largely thought, because they sensed, correctly, that Raiford would bleed off votes from Iannarone.)

Eudaly was defeated by political first-timer Mingus Mapps, who was backed by the Portland Police Association.

Gregory McKelvey, Iannarone’s campaign manager, was equal parts no-biggie and defiant in a tweet the morning after the campaign failed.

“The only thing that keeps me not from being super sad about this loss is I am 27 and I will outlast the people who beat me this time and I’m just a black kid who did protests who almost beat those people and I’m gonna get them. Someday.”

Eudaly attributed her loss to a benightedness on the parts of citizens. “It’s a win for big business, the landlord lobby and the police union,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that voters couldn’t see more clearly.”

Or maybe, they did.