Thanks, Terry. Well, I hope the measure passes, and then we’ll see. Given my own experience working as part of a three-person Senate team (senator and 2 reps), where we and our staff support one another in providing service to constituents and engaging with state agencies on their behalf, I believe this can and will work. Obviously, in our case, the three legislators are all different, have different priorities, don’t always agree on legislation, and are judged accordingly. But when it comes to constituent service and advocating for the needs of our constituents, we’re there. And I would say the same is true for our counterparts who represent other parts of the city. So I’m optimistic that this is going to be a huge improvement over the current system.
Horvick is right that voters look for people and organizations they trust for advice. What's so frustrating for me as an opponent of the measure is that it looks mostly like a lot of these trusted people and organizations (who I typically support) all simply trusted each other while nobody did the homework.
The list of organizations in Baltimore that endorsed *repeal* of multimember districts looks almost identical: Baltimore Teachers Union, Baltimore Fire Officers Union, League of Women Voters, ACORN, environmental groups, community philanthropy, and neighborhood organizations galore. The arguments pro and con are the same then as they are now. But time and experience has proven Baltimore's decision to repeal and replace multimember districts (by a 2-1 margin!) was correct. If any of the Portland organizations had bothered to ask their Baltimore counterparts about it, they'd have come to a different conclusion.
Thanks, Terry. Well, I hope the measure passes, and then we’ll see. Given my own experience working as part of a three-person Senate team (senator and 2 reps), where we and our staff support one another in providing service to constituents and engaging with state agencies on their behalf, I believe this can and will work. Obviously, in our case, the three legislators are all different, have different priorities, don’t always agree on legislation, and are judged accordingly. But when it comes to constituent service and advocating for the needs of our constituents, we’re there. And I would say the same is true for our counterparts who represent other parts of the city. So I’m optimistic that this is going to be a huge improvement over the current system.
Michael
Horvick is right that voters look for people and organizations they trust for advice. What's so frustrating for me as an opponent of the measure is that it looks mostly like a lot of these trusted people and organizations (who I typically support) all simply trusted each other while nobody did the homework.
The list of organizations in Baltimore that endorsed *repeal* of multimember districts looks almost identical: Baltimore Teachers Union, Baltimore Fire Officers Union, League of Women Voters, ACORN, environmental groups, community philanthropy, and neighborhood organizations galore. The arguments pro and con are the same then as they are now. But time and experience has proven Baltimore's decision to repeal and replace multimember districts (by a 2-1 margin!) was correct. If any of the Portland organizations had bothered to ask their Baltimore counterparts about it, they'd have come to a different conclusion.
See: https://web.archive.org/web/20030419052822/http://www.citypaper.com/2002-06-26/campaign.html