It's right to warn that PR will face "an onslaught of repeal efforts from the get-go" like in the 20th century, perhaps starting with "mixed" initial reviews of the new system, sponsored by those who lose power and influence in the change to PR. The dominant major party loses seats on the council, and therefore power, and the second major party, by definition, isn't powerful enough to stop repeal (or may support repeal, particularly if notable local groups begin to act like a proliferation of parties and undercut the #2 party). The real problem won't be whatever the mixed reviews complain about. It'll be that Portland's council will be, for the time being, an island of proportionality in a political world of disproportionality that benefits only the two major parties, where plurality elections for single-seat assembly districts are accepted without a second thought.
The only way to protect Portland's expanded and more proportional council is to (1) sell the broader public on those same goals for the Multnomah County commission, for other Oregon cities and counties, and then for the state legislature, and (2) further expand the Portland council and make it even more fully proportional. In other words, the only defense is an effective offense that attacks disproportionality in amenable venues, one by one, until eventually it's PR that is normalized and accepted without a second thought.
Now that we have polarized major parties, disproportional elections have become like a cancer. PR is analogous to chemotherapy. The cancer wins unless the chemotherapy is introduced, increased and continued at sufficient strength. If the therapy is discontinued before the cancer is totally wiped out (or just never used at a sufficient strength), the cancer returns and eventually takes over. Having embarked on a PR future, there's no alternative but for Portland to evangelize the Multnomah County commission and other Oregon cities' councils, and in a few years, further strengthen its council and refine its new system, if it wants to remain free of disproportional council elections. Let's hope Portland is really in it to win it - at home and on the road.
It's right to warn that PR will face "an onslaught of repeal efforts from the get-go" like in the 20th century, perhaps starting with "mixed" initial reviews of the new system, sponsored by those who lose power and influence in the change to PR. The dominant major party loses seats on the council, and therefore power, and the second major party, by definition, isn't powerful enough to stop repeal (or may support repeal, particularly if notable local groups begin to act like a proliferation of parties and undercut the #2 party). The real problem won't be whatever the mixed reviews complain about. It'll be that Portland's council will be, for the time being, an island of proportionality in a political world of disproportionality that benefits only the two major parties, where plurality elections for single-seat assembly districts are accepted without a second thought.
The only way to protect Portland's expanded and more proportional council is to (1) sell the broader public on those same goals for the Multnomah County commission, for other Oregon cities and counties, and then for the state legislature, and (2) further expand the Portland council and make it even more fully proportional. In other words, the only defense is an effective offense that attacks disproportionality in amenable venues, one by one, until eventually it's PR that is normalized and accepted without a second thought.
Now that we have polarized major parties, disproportional elections have become like a cancer. PR is analogous to chemotherapy. The cancer wins unless the chemotherapy is introduced, increased and continued at sufficient strength. If the therapy is discontinued before the cancer is totally wiped out (or just never used at a sufficient strength), the cancer returns and eventually takes over. Having embarked on a PR future, there's no alternative but for Portland to evangelize the Multnomah County commission and other Oregon cities' councils, and in a few years, further strengthen its council and refine its new system, if it wants to remain free of disproportional council elections. Let's hope Portland is really in it to win it - at home and on the road.