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Love this story. In my hometown in Pennsylvania, which is mostly Trump country, three Democrats ran for three township council seats on issues that Fox News doesn't have talking points for - mainly, funding local libraries (pre-book banning hysteria) and the expansion of a landfill encroaching a nature reserve area. They ran as one and pooled all of their resources so they could create mailers and billboards for all three together, and they also did creative things like marching in the Halloween parade dressed up as the landfill itself, which got lots of applause. My sister said it was surreal seeing people with a Trump lawn sign, as well as a lawn sign for this very liberal trio. All three of them ended up winning, which meant they overturned the township council for the first time in years. It will be interesting to see how our candidates' sense of collaboration continues as we head into the fall.

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While the collegiality among opponents is a welcome side-effect of RC voting I rue one aspect , that is not the fault of RC voting, but rather due to the zeitgeist. If candidate preference among the voters is driven by social media such as instagram and tik-tok we'll be no better off than the current choice by TV ads that drive the current election process.

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Hi Michael! I share your concern as our media and political culture shrinks to shorter and shorter snippets of information. There are no short answers to Portland's complex problems and for voters' sake, I hope candidates will find avenues to display the nuance of their positions. Rose City Reform will certainly try to be a platform where that is possible.

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thank you for your efforts @Rose City Reform. It is a trusted part of where I gather PDX-centric knowledge

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I think Angelita Morillo is really leading in this space. She uses social media to provide clear, consistent updates and context, while also using good storytelling techniques to demonstrate how abstract policies can show up as something concrete and actionable.

Compare that to when I asked Jessie Cornett on IG this weekend if he could provide more information about his platform in his social media updates; I've followed him for months now and get little sense of what kind of fighter or collaborator he would be and what his key issues are outside of homelessness and addiction issues. His response was to refer me to his website. I know his website is there, but I'm looking to see how he shows up in the community, feel his motivation and passion and understand how he's living his beliefs. I'm definitely not getting that from his feed - even, apparently, when prompted - so that tells me something too.

I agree that social media is complicated and can be misleading, but it does give me a sense of who these people are and helps me focus my attention in such crowded fields.

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