The skanner., May 09, 2012, Page 9, Image 9

Election Special
The Skanner News 2012 Endorsements
Over the past few weeks we have had excellent
interactions with our readers over the May 15 pri-
mary elections. We solicited your questions for the
candidates on Facebook – and received some of
the best feedback ever, which we incorporated into
our coverage. We also fielded calls from around the
city from voters who directly expressed their opin-
ions about the candidates of their choice – and we
enjoyed hearing their views.
This election season is rolling out at a time when
our local communities are facing an economic and
social catastrophe. In Portland, two of the most cel-
ebrated schools are back on the chopping block;
public transit has been trimmed so severely that
whole sections of the city worry they are being cut
off from the downtown core; home foreclosures are
swamping the housing system and driving skyward
even the cost of rentals.
Our youth of color and our elders seem to be in
the path of this deadly tornado as service programs
of all kinds are set to be decimated by budgets cur-
rently under consideration at every arm of local
government. Meanwhile, unemployment is dragging
down our community like a cement weight on a
swimmer.
We ask ourselves: What kind of political leader-
ship will lead us out of this mess?
Is it fair to criticize the incumbents who failed to do
what even the most powerful figures in the nation
can’t fix — the economy? And all the backbiting,
negative campaigning and misinformation has kept
us shaking our heads at times.
One thing is clear: Whoever is elected to office
had better be ready to stop attacking their col-
leagues and start engaging in the real issues. For
this crop of endorsements, we at The Skanner
News put a premium on individuals who know how
their prospective elected offices work, because our
region doesn’t have time for learning curves right
now. We also looked for people who value public
input, collaboration and grassroots community.
M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY
C OMMISSION D ISTRICT 1
4 D EBORAH K AFOURY
Candidates
C ITY OF P ORTLAND MAYOR
M ETRO C OUNCILOR D ISTRICT
5
4 S AM C HASE
M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY
C OMMISSION D ISTRICT 3
4 C HARLIE H ALES
M ETRO C OUNCILOR D ISTRICT
6
4 J UDY S HIPRACK
C ITY OF P ORTLAND
C OMMISSIONER
P OSITION 1
4 B OB S TACY
4 A MANDA F RITZ
C ITY OF P ORTLAND
C OMMISSIONER
P OSITON 4
4 S TEVE N OVICK
And here’s a heads-up for the candidates them-
selves: You’d better be up to the challenge and
ready to get things done.
In the races for Multnomah County Commission,
we endorse incumbents Deborah Kafoury for Dis-
trict 1 and Judy Shiprack for District 3.
In the City of Portland races we endorse Charlie
Hales for mayor and Amanda Fritz for City Com-
missioner Position 1. We are endorsing Steve
Novick for Portland City Commissioner Position 4,
because he is politically sophisticated, smart and
has a long track record of fearlessly confronting
large institutions in the public interest – however we
don’t see him as a consensus builder, and that is a
concern.
For Metro Councilors, we endorse Bob Stacy for
District 6, and Sam Chase for District 5. Chase is
not an incumbent, but his political ties to the Oregon
Opportunity Network, the Clackamas Community
Land Trust and currently the Coalition of Communi-
ty Health Clinics puts his knowledge base squarely
on some of the crisis hotspots right now. This was a
tough decision because we like Helen Ying’s focus,
stamina and positive attitude; hopefully Ying will run
for office again and we will have a chance to possi-
bly give her our endorsement in the future.
We also endorse Measure 26-125, funding for our
local library system. If passed the levy will simply
continue the previous levy, at .89 cents per $1,000
assessed home value.
Ballot Measure
R
Y ES ON
M ULTNOMAH C OUNTY
#26-125 L IBRARY L EVY
Committee Honors Black Suffragist Hattie Redmond
Century of Action seeks family or friends who know more about mysterious 1912 activist
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
An obscure grave in Portland’s Lone Fir
Cemetery is the final resting place of a
Black woman who helped change the
world. Her name was Hattie Redmond, and
she was a leader in the 1912 campaign that
won equal voting rights for Oregon women.
Now, 100 years later, the Century of
Action com-
mittee plans to
give
Red-
mond’s grave
some
long
o v e r d u e
respect. Cen-
tury of Action
is leading the
centennial
celebrations
for the women’s voting rights victory. And
they are looking for family, friends, or any-
one with information about Hattie
Redmond, to come forward and help design
a headstone worthy of her achievements.
“We have a wonderful story to celebrate
in telling Hattie’s story and how she helped
bring about these changes of such great sig-
nificance,” says former Sen. Avel Gordly.
“It is so wonderful to have that history.”
Century of Action project director, Janice
Dilg, has been poring over old newspapers
and city records to find out as much as pos-
sible about this unsung Portland hero.
“We’ve been piecing together some
information,” Dilg says. “She lived in Mult-
nomah County her entire life. She was
married to Emerson Redmond, and we’re
not sure when he died, but she was a widow.
“These women poured so much of
themselves into building community.”
-- Avel Gordly
And she was very active in her church, one
of the founding Black churches in Portland:
Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.”
Black Women Worked For the Vote
Redmond was secretary, and later presi-
dent, of the Colored Women’s Equal
Suffrage League, which had grown out of
the Colored Women’s Council of Portland.
Black women formed the Women’s Council
of Portland in early 1912, with the mission
of helping “poor and unfortunate women.”
Soon after, women from five different
churches joined forces to campaign for the
vote. One early meeting was held at the
African Methodist Church, 68 North 10th
Street. Other meetings were held at Mt.
Olivet, 85 N.W. Seventh St., and at the
library. Among the early Black women
leaders named in news articles were:
Katherine Gray, Edith Gray, Mrs. Lancaster,
Mrs. Lizzie K. Weeks, Mrs. Virgil Keene,
Mrs. Will Allen and Mrs. Bonnie Bogle.
“The women involved in that were
involved in all kinds of programs, organiza-
tions and activities that benefited the
See HATTIE on page 10
May 9, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 9