SPLITSVILLE
Don’t listen to what they say, look at how they vote.
By Alan Pittman
T
he best way to judge a politician is not by what they say — they’ll often say anything to get elected — but how they vote.
With that in mind, Eugene Weekly analyzed 47 key votes over the past five years. Voting records show Councilors Bonny Bettman, Betty
Taylor and David Kelly on the progressive or liberal side and Councilors Scott Meisner, Nancy Nathanson, Gary Papé and Jennifer Solomon and
Mayor Jim Torrey on the conservative side.
For the analysis, we subjectively chose the 47 key votes as revealing of how the coun-
cil splits on important issues. We didn’t choose the council’s frequent unanimous votes
because they don’t provide comparative information. Not every current councilor voted on
every issue. Some were absent or not yet in office. Mayor Torrey only votes in case of a
tie.
With the council often closely split, a single vote can be crucial on vital issues.
Councilor Meisner’s swing vote to conservatives resulted in the city continuing to pursue
the $130 million West Eugene Parkway through wetlands. Another Meisner swing vote to
conservatives resulted in the council adopting a Chamber of Commerce plan to gerryman-
der Eugene council wards to help secure a conservative majority for the next decade.
Nancy Nathanson handed Hynix an additional $1.8 million in tax breaks when she swung
a key vote to conservatives. In another swing vote, Nathanson gave sprawl developers a
continuing subsidy on road fees.
Council voting records could be particularly important for those seeking re-elec-
tion. Nathanson is running for mayor and Councilors Bettman, Taylor and Meisner
are campaigning to hold their seats.
Here’s a look at how individual councilors land on the issues:
BONNY BETTMAN — Central Eugene, Ward 1
Bettman has the highest progressive voting record on the council, 98 percent. Only once
did she vote with conservatives to rip out the Broadway pedestrian mall for cars.
BETTY TAYLOR — South Eugene, Ward 2
Taylor has a 96 percent progressive voting record. She voted with conservatives only
twice: on the renaming of Centennial Boulevard after Martin Luther King Jr. and on
removing human rights protections for transgender people.
JENNIFER SOLOMON — Bethel, Ward 6
Solomon has a 0 percent progressive voting record, voting with conservatives every time
since she took office in January 2003.
DAVID KELLY — East Eugene, Ward 3
Kelly has a 87 percent progressive voting record. Kelly voted with conservatives on the
transgender and pedestrian mall issues, on regressive road taxes, on urban renewal divert-
ing taxes to developers and on a vote to expand the urban growth boundary five years ago.
SCOTT MEISNER — Whiteaker/River Road, Ward 7
Meisner has a 26 percent progressive voting record. He has scored best on controlling
urban sprawl (60 percent) and the environment (30 percent). But Meisner has rarely voted
with progressives on fairness, fiscal, livability and poverty issues.
GEORGE POLING — Northeast Eugene, Ward 4
Poling has a 0 percent progressive voting record, voting with conservatives every time
since he took office in January 2003.
NANCY NATHANSON — West Eugene, Ward 8
Nathanson votes with progressives only 17 percent of the time. On poverty and fiscal
issues, she voted with conservatives every time. She scored better on environment (27 per-
cent) and livability (40 percent) issues.
GARY PAPÉ — Northwest Eugene, Ward 5
Papé has a 4 percent progressive voting record. He voted with progressives only twice: to
fund forest management in Hendricks Park and to support local schools with city taxes.
MAYOR JIM TORREY
In 12 cases where he broke tie votes over the last five years, Torrey always took the con-
servative position on fairness, environment, fiscal, poverty and sprawl issues.
Progressive Voting Record
Bettman
Overall
Fairness
Environment
Fiscal
Livability
Poverty
Sprawl
98%
Taylor
Kelly
96%
Poling
87%
Papé
0%
Solomon
4%
Meisner
0%
Nathanson Torrey
26%
17%
0%
100%
67%
83%
0%
0%
0%
0%
17%
0%
100%
100%
100%
0%
9%
0%
30%
27%
NA
100%
100%
63%
0%
0%
0%
13%
0%
0%
75%
100%
80%
0%
20%
0%
20%
40%
NA
100%
100%
100%
0%
0%
0%
14%
0%
0%
100%
100%
Source: EW Analysis of city recorded votes.
90%
0%
0%
0%
60%
20%
0%
10 APRIL 8, 2004