Candidate Endorsements for the May 17, 2016 Primary Election

About Portland Clean Air and Our Endorsement Methodology

Here at Portland Clean Air, we work to educate and activate our own neighbors to work for community health and well-being, becoming their own voice. The voices of our neighbors affected by pollution are more compelling than those of (still necessary) professional lobbyists and legal teams with tenuous grasps of the real effects visited upon we who never directly consented to the immoral and greedy use of our common airshed as a dumping ground for gaseous and particulate wastes.

Government should promote public awareness with transparency to support its own accountability to the democracy of the public will.

We see a major role of government as an enabler of the public will. If we all knew that the primary task of the "Department of Environmental Quality" was merely as a rubber-stamping permitting agency, funded from fees paid by all the worst polluters, we would insist that it carry a more accurate name such as, "The Oregon Department of Environmental Pollution."

The system of air "permits" to "regulate" pollution is so shadowy, that it took a year and threats of law suits to get access to those very same permits and reviews the "Department of Environmental Quality" issued to hundreds of major air polluters in the Portland region. It's easy to see why they are kept secret. The permits directly inform the reader on what the requirements for being an air polluter are in Oregon, so citizens know what and how to investigate and make public complaints. It's a crucial step in holding polluters accountable. Without knowing what exactly is in each permit, we in the public are at a disadvantage due to the information asymmetry of ignorance.

In contrast, the intentional hiding of public record data is not normal behavior for many other agencies. The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency publishes all their permits online on their simple but effective website. The State Fire Marshal, even though under control of the Governor, has been very cooperative in releasing data. Multnomah County has also been proactive in releasing what data they have to help clean air investigations, with pressure coming from their elected leadership, including Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury.

Elected officials, especially executive officers, have real effects on the implementation of regulation.

As a result of our experience investigating public records and working for transparency and accountability, we know how important it is to have elected executives and representatives that do not need lobbying, law suits, and massive public pressure to get results.

The bare minimum reason why all elected officials fear the public is because their future elections are at risk. We cannot abide the minimums. To maximize the efficacy of our advocacy, it is important to support candidates that are not going to oppose us, but stand with us. In that vein, we offer candidates we know personally who are strong champions for transparency and immediate action.

There are other candidates who are also with us rather than against us, and a vote for them can also send a similar message. In these races, some of their opponents require "disendorsement" for their anti-transparency and pro-establishement records and policies. But given those situations, we feel it is also important to have positive endorsements palatable to the larger electorate to replace bad elected officials or keep them from getting into office in the first place using the resources of their big money, corporate backers.

We also admire the efforts of those participants in the electoral process pushing particular progressive issues and representing normally disenchanted, disenfranchised communities. Their lack of mention does mean we are against them. In advocacy, a coalition of diverse voices is usually what forms to win every issue.

Julian Bell for Oregon Governor

Oregon Gubernatorial Race - Julian Bell

The Governor's impact on our air quality

The Oregon Govenor has a deep amount of control over our air quality. The EPA delegates much of the regulatory process under the Clean Air Act to the Oregon DEQ. The DEQ is overseen by a board directly appointed by the governor. This board is called the Environmental Quality commission (EQC). The EQC then appoints the director of the DEQ who directs the entire agency. The Governor frequently has a direct hand in the selection of the director. The Governor's office sent a letter to the EQC with their chosen interim director after the most recent permanent director, Dick Pedersen, friend of industry, resigned "for health reasons" after the recently glass factory scandal. The Governor's pick is a close government insider who works for the law firm that represents Philip Morris in Oregon. The lack of transparency at the DEQ continues despite the new pick. DEQ has yet to agree to give us or publish data updates on a regular basis, despite a nationally-notable scandal at the DEQ that's also exposing gaps in federal regulations and their failure to ensure state oversight to prevent DEQ's cozy relationship with industry. The Governor also proposes agency budgets and sits on the State Land Board which manages our air-cleansing State Forests.

Even if we were to form a regional air quality agency in Portland similar to the LRAPA mentioned above, the EQC has the right to veto their actions.

Governor Brown's failure in her role as guardian of our airshed

It's our view that Kate Brown, the current Governor, who herself fell into the role after Governor Kitzhaber himself resigned in scandals of access brokering, has completely failed to ensure accountability and transparency at the DEQ. We've also observed that her natural resources policy officers are too cozy with industry as she accepts or is scared of their large campaign donations. Note that we've lobbied her for a decade, without any success, to support campaign finance reform.

Dr. Julian Bell, climate and air quality activist

Julian Bell is an emergency room medical doctor from Southern Oregon who entered the race for Governor because of his own observations pressuring the state to actually move the needle on air quality and climate change.

He's been a clean air activist for years, putting his resources and those of our allies into billboards and media to pressure real action for our environment. He's been involved with fights at the legislature and has worked to be green in his home life. One thing we like about this set of candidates is that they are examples of how to lead greener lives in their personal lives. This philosophy is deep in the Oregon and Portland ethos.

Julian's campaign is first about educating the public about the dangers of air pollution and climate change and pressuring the legislature and our government agencies to actually act for the health of all future generations, not just his own. He's a young father and understands the science of air pollution and climate change, and he doesn't want to leave a worse situation to his child than the one he was given.

Julian also understands the tight links between environmental pollution, social justice, and income inequality. He has endorsed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Primary, unlike his major opponent. The most harmed by air pollution are the poor and minorities. We find those in rarified air often aren't willing to work to clean up air pollution because they see they aren't the worst affected.

Julian's focus on climate change is also important, for the fossil fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas loads are also, according to the data we have available, the worst air pollution problem in the region. If we can reduce our carbon output, our Diesel Particulate Matter emissions will be reduced. Our Volatile Organic Compounds are reduced. Heavy metals such as arsenic and mercury are also emited by fossil fuel burning. Our watersheds are permanently destroyed by fossil fuel expansion by fracking and coal pollution. A more sustainable economy will rely upon fewer Hazardous Air Pollutants for the basic logistics systems in our economy.

Further, Julian recognizes the greenwashing campaigns of the backers of "Coal to Clean" style bills that merely encode the ongoing shift in fossil fuel use from coal, which was already on the way out, to natural gas fracking, which is already destroying water tables and leaking methane, a much, much worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. When mainstream "environmental" organizations like the OLCV get behind such programs and claim them as victories, Julian can see past such efforts and push for real reform instead of fake reform that gives us the illusion of real advancement.

Sarah Iannarone for Portland Mayor

Portland Mayoral Race - Sarah Iannarone

The Mayor's impact on our air quality

The City of Portland has a peculiar and unique commissioner system that dates to a series of special elections culminating in a narrow victory for the commissioner form of government in 1913. In our system, there are six elected officials, all at-large. Portland does not have districts. Some district-like representation is afforded by the neighborhood association system run by the Office of Neighborhood Involvement. We have one Mayor, four Commissioners, and a City Auditor. Half are elected every two years, all for four year terms. The City Council is made up of the Mayor and the Commissioners. The Mayor proposes a budget and divides up the city bureaus to be directly managed by the Mayor and each of the four Commissioners. As a result of the budget power and the bureau selection power, the mayor has the most control over the power of regulation, including environmental regulations. Their power is thus both direct and indirect.

Portland and Multnomah County have earlier indicated willingness to form a regional air quality regulatory agency, similar to the LRAPA mentioned above. We already have fairly good representation at the County. What we are more concerned about are the two establishment candidates, Ted Wheeler, and Jules Bailey.

Wheeler, Bailey, and the failure of their historically market-based approach to regulation, justice, and the environment

Wheeler is as inaccessible as the DEQ, for the same pro-business reasons.

Ted Wheeler is a scion of old timber money, having amassed vast resources from profit off of Oregon's formerly large expanses of old growth forests. He rose to the position our friend Kafoury is now in by going after a leader who had expended political capital on overturning gay marriage with backing by close conservative connections. When he sought higher office, he went to the Treasurer position where he opposed fossil fuel divestment and proceeded to continue chopping down our State Forests. While he's running for Mayor, he's using proxy campaign managers to try to sweet talk enviros into believing he's a changed man. When given a list of questions by a board member, Wheeler's campaign refused to answer them for months, and only after insisting on a response did a campaign surrogate call and try to smooth things over.

At the same time he's racked up conservative endorsements from the Oregonian and the Portland Business Alliance. We have no reason to buy the talk that he's an environmentalist in conservative clothing with conservative and corporate backers.

Bailey can only think in dollar signs, thus can only work in half-solutions.

Jules Bailey is an ambitious economic consultant with a history of claiming to be an environmentalist and proposing only market-based approaches to "solving" environmental issues. Despite his claims, while in the legislature, he voted against tree sitters by supporting an explicit right of timber companies to sue tree sitters for supposed economic losses when they were successful in preventing the cutting down of our forests. He also advocated for massive highway expansions that would have dramatically increased the particulate matter and fossil fuel pollution, especially in minority and low-income areas. He claimed this was good because it had a bike path and light rail. We only see Bailey on a bicycle for special events. He's more commonly seen in an suit and tie. When asked why he accepts money from polluters such as the natural gas industry, he says he would rather accept the money and "argue against them" rather than refuse the corporate money.

As only the most recent example of how he bends with the dollars, Bailey refused to speak out against the "48 hour rule" preventing police accountability investigators from interviewing officers involved in use of force cases until 48 hours later in order to gain the Portland Police Association backing, and then changed his tune when pressured by police accountability advocates to say he would work to end that rule.

Regarding campaign finance reform, both candidates are sparring over how much worse the other one is when each refuses to limit their campaign cash in meaningful ways so they both retain access to their funders. Wheeler supports the independent expenditure campaign pledge, while Bailey is limiting direct donations. Real campaign finance reform would include both direct and indirect limits.

As avid daily cyclists, we're supportive of bike lanes and light rail, but by not being a champion against massive highway expansions, he fails to understand the induced demand that every extra lane creates, and the increased pollution that comes from it. He claims he is for improving our carbon goals, but he acts against those goals when the money shows up. We again see no environmental credibility from Bailey since he's only for the environment when there's no money at risk or there's money to be had. While we don't disagree with the latter, the former is the problem. Not everything in life has a price. Our health and the health of nature, our air, and our water are some of those things.

Both Wheeler and Bailey are corrupted by big money.

With these types of candidates, we just see more of the influence of big money, misleading talk, half solutions, and insidious greenwashing.

Sarah Iannarone, sustainability, livability, and transportation policy genius

Sarah is a relative newcomer to electoral politics, but she's been deeply involved in the "polis" of Portland for a long time. She has a deep understanding of livability, transportation, and development policy like few others. She's supportive of campaign finance reform, particularly public funding, and is being supported by individuals closely tied to livability, transportation, and development issues, and not corporations. While she doesn't have a long "voting" record in government like the two candidates above, she has worked on city committees that create development, transportation, and liviability policy. She owns a small business, works, and lives east of 60th, sandwiched between Bullseye and Precision Castparts, two of the region's most famous polluters. She is a daily bike commuter and lives a car-free lifestyle. As such, she's directly exposed to much of Portland's worst pollution and sees more of the neglected parts of the city.

Her extremely deep sustainability policy chops are badly needed at City Hall. She's the only candidate talking about closing off downtown to cars, not just congestion pricing. In addition to having the most radically pro-environmental policies, Sarah understands how cities work well enough to make bold bets on how to implement them successfully through her experience with urban leaders all over the world. She's not afraid to copy what works elsewhere and to adapt ideas when necessary.

Sarah is extremely knowledgable about the city of Portland and the regional governments, and is open to election reform that would bring equity back into the city. One of the problems preventing real solutions to Portland's air quality is that much pollution takes place in lower income and minority areas. Part of making change is bringing in the people most directly harmed. That may require making deep changes to electoral system so that we can diversify our city's form of representation. That may require empowering neighborhoods to have more real power at the city to make change. All of these things Sarah understands and as such, she's supportive of efforts to evaluate systemic reforms for the next round of the Portland Charter Commission. A number of interesting ideas have been floated that would be game changers not only for representation, but for environmental reforms as initiatives. If the Charter Review Commission were fully-empowered to evaluate and improve on such ideas, then we may win both in areas of social justice and environmental justice. And when environmental justice wins, so do our whole airshed and watershed.

Sarah's also advocating for a much-needed freeze on rents while the city can get its head around the out of control rent increases long-time residents are seeing. Allowing the market to "sort" people out of our neighborhoods because of a temporary runaway market bubble is a very strong policy lever that normally has unintended consequences, but letting things go without any relief will carve out the soul of Portland before it's too late. Sarah's policy genius will be necessary to help us develop the infill and low and middle income development that increases our density as our population grows, with an eye toward preserving livability and our environment. As we clean up our air, we will become even more of a refuge and even more people will want to come. Our transition plan has to take into account how desirable we are becoming due to our innovations in livability policy.

Sarah has also been endorsed by Bike Walk Vote and the Portland Mercury, and if you haven't read their endorsement guides, you probably should. Although we don't "green light" all the same candidates, what they say about Sarah is spot on.

The next chapter of Portland is already being written. It's time to choose one of us that gets Portland and what we stand for. It's time we had bold leadership that moves us into the future as a continuing example and model for other cities, and states, to emulate. In many ways, we forgot some things in our rise as a major world city. We neglected inclusionary policies and equity. We forgot our environmental quality and let DEQ get taken over by corporate interests. We forgot a lot of other issues, too.

And lastly, we urge you not to vote believing these politicians will solve any of our problems alone. Even the best elected leaders are only as powerful as their community, and regardless of how we speak and who we vote for, as long as we are working in good faith together for a community that helps us all, we'll all create a better city, together.

- Seth Woolley for Portland Clean Air