On a graph of increasingly improbable events, I’d put Budweiser merging with Miller and Playboy dropping nude models before the most unexpected news of the week: former Portland City Councilor and Mayor Cheryl Leeman endorsing Ethan Strimling’s mayoral bid.
In a letter to the editor in this month’s edition of The Bollard, Strimling calls Leeman — who, in addition to her decades in city government, also worked many years for Sen. Olympia Snowe — “the most prominent Republican in Portland.” I resisted the urge to correct that error by changing “most” to “only,” but you get the idea. The woman who was long the most conservative elected official in town is backing one of the most liberal pols Portland has ever produced.
What to make of this?
Well, for one thing, it could be another nail in the you-know-what of incumbent Mike Brennan’s reelection prospects. A relatively small, but definitely significant portion of Portland voters — closet Republicans, off-peninsula conservatives, people who lived on the peninsula before it was fashionable to do so — wanted Leeman to run for mayor this year. If those voters follow her to Ethan’s camp, the tally this Election Day won’t be close.
Leeman served on the City Council under Brennan for three years before she retired in 2014, so you can count her among the four disgruntled current councilors who, having sat through many meetings with this guy, desperately want someone else to wield the gavel. The so-called “weak mayor” political system Portlanders adopted at the polls five years ago doesn’t give the person at the podium much power — no veto, no ability to hire or fire city staff, no special budgetary role. But even with that limited authority, Brennan has managed to make enemies of colleagues across the political spectrum.
I’ve noted before that Strimling’s endorsement by exactly half of the City Council doesn’t exactly support his claim to be a “uniter.” Brennan now claims to have the backing of exactly half the city’s state legislative delegation, further fracturing political consensus in this community.
But voters should ask themselves whether they really want to live in the place Strimling calls “Portland Together,” a city where all political differences are subsumed in service to a single agenda shaped and executed by the personality-cult leader known simply as “Ethan.”
Strimling has bashed Brennan for the fact there have been some close 5-4 votes on the council. Ethan would apparently prefer all council actions to be unanimous decisions. I know numerous places where this kind of consensus is common, but they’re all in either North Korea or China. Differences of opinion make democracy stronger and usually lead to smarter public policies. They should be encouraged, not condemned, in politics.
Strimling also takes Brennan to task for the fact there have been several citizen-initiated referendum questions on the city ballot during his tenure. For example, he claims the existence of this fall’s referendum regarding the protection of scenic views is evidence of Brennan’s lack of leadership. Under Mayor Strimling, citizens will not need to resort to referenda to get their goals accomplished, because the leadership at City Hall will “listen to them.”
Sorry, but that’s pure manure. Listening alone will never assuage the concerns of such people. Ultimately, you either give them what they want or you don’t. Are we to believe that the mere threat of a referendum will be enough during the Strimling administration to change laws and policies, even when the petitioners’ ideas are stupid?
Compromise is wise and admirable in some political circumstances, but certainly not all. And again, it’s hardly a bad thing when citizens get so fired up about an issue that they’re willing to force a citywide debate about it. Given how apathetic Portlanders are about many important municipal matters, like the city and school budgets, we should be glad some of them care enough to stand in the public squares gathering petition signatures.
That said, it is remarkable that Leeman has jumped aboard the Strimling bandwagon. There is no conceivable universe in which she backs the third candidate, Green Party leader Tom MacMillan, a proponent of rent control and a $15 minimum wage, but she could have remained neutral. Instead, she’s endorsed someone whose politics don’t align much with her own in order to weaken the similar candidate who’s pissed her off more recently.
“Definitely strange bedfellows,” Strimling wrote in his letter, referring to “positive pieces” I’ve written about Leeman over the years.
Hey, Ethan, quit hoggin’ the covers!