^ortlanh (Ohserurr
O ctober 13, 2010
Page 13
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Effective
May 1,2010
Fair, Open and Accountable Elections
A co u n terw eig h t to
wealthy special interests
K ayse J ama
When I was growing up in
Somalia, I remember won
dering what it would be like to
be able to vote and choose
who our next president, gov
ernor or our mayor would be. O f course, that
was not an option in Somalia, but now I am a
United States citizen and I take my electoral
participation very seriously.
by
dates to run based on their ideas, values,
and com munity support rather than on their
ability to raise money. They also agreed to
put the program on the November 2010
ballot for us all to vote on. Voting Yes on
Measure 26-108 will keep Voter-Owned
Elections in place and prevent the Portland
Business Alliance and other wealthy spe
cial interests from drowning out the voices
o f everyday Portlanders.
The organization that I lead, the Center
for Intercultural Organizing, empowers
many Portlanders who have historically
choose to use the program are required to
collect at least 1,000 (1,500 for mayoral
candidates) $5 contributions just to qualify
for a limited amount o f public financing.
Candidates are then free to continue listen
ing to and earning support from everyday
Portlanders. And, when they’re in office,
there are no big donors to worry about —
just the voters who elected them.
This means we get more choices and
better representation in City Hall.
Voter-Owned Elections is getting big
money out o f politics — candidates using the
program don’t accept any private
funding once they qualify. It has only
been in place for three election cycles
but has already seen two candidates
to run and win. The program is lim
ited to 0.2 percent o f the budget and
k has never even come close to that
cap. If we vote yes, no new taxes or
fees will occur.
L et’s keep Voter-Owned Elections when
it comes to the ballot in November. L et’s
make sure that all o f our voices are heard.
L et’s continue to work together to make
Portland a better place. And let’s not let
special interests dominate our elections or
City Hall.
L et’s keep our elections fair, open, and
accountable. Please join the Center for
_____________
o_____ o ________
Intercultural Organizing
and more _____
than 30
other community organizations and thou
sands o f everyday people in voting YES on
26-108. Visit www.yesforportland.org for
more information.
K a y s e J a m a o f P o r tla n d is th e
fo u n d e r o f th e C e n ter f o r In te rc u l-
tu r a l O rg a n izin g .
Voter-Owned Elections provide a
“one person, one vote’’ should
.
be what matters, unfortu- pathway for everyone to participate
S
S
E
S
'» ‘he political process, no! ju s, those
are voting with their wallets that have money or political capital,
Here in the us, i know that
who want to keep it that way.
What if instead o f spending time on the
phone calling wealthy donors and special
interests for money, our candidates ran for
local office in a way that trained them to be
good public servants? What if they spent
their time talking with everyday voters in-
stead? And what if, once we elected them
to office, our candidates remained account-
able and accessible to us, rather than those
wealthy donors and special interests?
Under Portland’s Voter-Owned Elec-
tions, we can have just that. In fact, we
already do, but we ’ 11 have to vote yes on 26-
108 this November if we want to protect
our program that keeps our local elections
fair, open and accountable.
In 2005, the Portland City Council passed
Voter-Owned Elections to allow candi-
been shut out o f the political process to
develop a unified voice, advocate for their
rights, and create an environment in which
they are recognized and supported as val-
ued community members. In that same
spirit, Voter-Owned Elections provide a
pathway for everyone to participate in the
political process, not just those that have
money or political capital.
At the heart o f the program is the goal o f
fairness. Portland voters can contribute $5
to help select a candidate that they want to
represent them in City Hall. That $5 makes
just as much difference as someone who
can write a big campaign check. No longer
do candidates have to spend all their time
talking to big donors while ignoring every-
day Portlanders — in fact, candidates who
Cultural Heritage Makes Me Diverse
Em pty music
classroom
brings tears
K imberly H oward
It was a cool summer morning
when I stepped into Jefferson
High School, on a mission. I was
there to meet Alumni President
Maggie Mashia and Rose City
Music Festival Event Coordina
tor Bonnie Gilchrist, who’d called
me to say, “I have something to
share with you. And you have to
see it to believe it.”
By the end o f that morning, I
had watched a little less than 500
students gather on the field dur
ing an unexpected fire alarm
drill, and been taken on a tour o f
w hat is now Jefferson High
by
School’s empty music depart
ment classrooms.
As manager o f the Oregon
Cultural Trust, the only cultural
funding mechanism o f its kind in
the nation, and as a trained per
forming artist, I ended our tour
o f a ransacked choir room, empty
practice cubicles and a sheet
m u sic-strew n classro o m , in
tears. I was standing in a beau
tiful wood-lined room full o f
marching band uniforms, pur
chased in the 1980s and never
worn.
This is why I do what I do, I
thought. This is why I spend my
days making sure that Orego
nians know that the Cultural Trust
is how we provide our young
people with the tools to imagine
their futures - as musicians, art
ists, teachers. It is how we pro
vide our young people with the
tools to preserve and celebrate
their past, as African-Ameri
cans, Latino-Americans, Native-
Americans, A sian-Americans,
and European-Americans in Or
egon. It is how we provide our
young people with the tools to
think critically and with a spirit o f
exploration to be civic and com-
Q
ii
• U
h p
n U 1 1 U C
JUSt $60 p er year
( p le a s e in c lu d e c h e c k )
munity leaders.
Oregonians are the why. The
Oregon Cultural Trust is the how.
Culture makes me diverse be
cause it asks me to look closely
at our world, to see it, imagine it,
create it.
K im berly H ow ard is trust
m anager fo r the Oregon Cul
tural Trust.
503-288-0033
Attn-. Subscriptions, The
Portland Observer, PO Box
3 137, Portland OR 97208.
N ame : ____ _______
T elephone :
A ddress : _
o r e m a il subscriptions@ portlandobserver.com
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