The big-business special interest effort to repeal Voter-Owned Elections is still not on the May ballot indicating they couldn’t convince enough Portlanders to give up fair elections for all.
“Special interests paid an incredible $8 per signature for this obvious power grab, but the Oregon Restaurant Association, big utilities, developers, and big business interests still couldn’t buy enough valid signatures to tilt our level playing field back in their favor,” said Carol Cushman, president of the League of Women Voters of Portland.
“It is now time to move on to discussions of other city issues beyond this concern of special interest campaign contributors,” said Cushman. “However, we won’t be surprised if these deep-pocketed players come back again and our education and advocacy campaign will continue to ensure defeat of a repeal whenever it might appear on the ballot.
“We will prevail if they try again because Portlanders will see another repeal attempt for the power grab that it is and vote no to keep our elections fair and open,” said Jo Ann Bowman, associate director at Oregon Action. The League of Women Voters of Portland, OSPIRG, Common Cause, the Money in Politics Research Action Project and a growing list of other community organizations and leaders have joined the Vote No Power Grab campaign.
