Portland is the all-purpose whipping boy of downstate Oregon.
The three counties of metropolitan Portland -- Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington counties -- are the economic engine of Oregon. It is where the population is, where the jobs are, where the tax money is raised that subsidizes the rest of the state. The thanks Greater Portland gets for its leadership is criticism and contempt.
Greater Portland is where the political power of the state is centered. It has the population, so it has the votes and the representation. Portland-area voters skew heavily Democratic. Downstate small cities vote purple. Oregon's rural areas are bright red. This voting pattern is predictable and common across America, given American polarization based on cultural and lifestyle issues, rather than economics. Americans who are OK with diversity and institutions with shared benefits (mass transit, libraries, sewerages, educational and cultural institutions) tend to live in more densely populated areas. Cultural conservatives sort themselves into places with rural acreage, wells, and septic tanks. These are generalizations, of course, but it shows up in bright red and blue colors on maps of voting behavior. Portland voters gave some 75% of their votes to Biden. Rural counties in Oregon gave some 75% of their votes to Trump. That means rural Oregon is outvoted fair-and-square by democratic means, but it is outvoted just the same. Downstate Oregon resents Portland for its success and power.
Portland -- the bugaboo symbolic "Portland" of its current brand and reputation -- strikes downstate people as something to avoid at all costs. The bad apple. The enemy. The political bully. Since I support the three Jackson County ballot measures that would update the county charter, it may seem counter-productive for me to lead readers to the website of the PAC that opposes the measures. Their arguments are irrelevant, and probably harmless, but they serve today's purpose. They are an excellent example of downstate opposition to all things Portland. Here is the start of a page giving reasons to oppose the measures
The Jackson County measures bring the number of commissioners from three to five; they make them nonpartisan. They bring their salaries from $143,000/year to nearer the state average for counties our size -- $70,000/year -- a salary still double that of what we pay state representatives and state senators. Multnomah County has four commissioners, elected by district, and one chairman, elected at large. The four commissioners who represent districts are paid $125,000; the chair is paid $207,000.
The ad says the Jackson County measures make Jackson County "exactly the same as the Board in Multnomah County, home of Portland." Hardly. The measures do add two commissioners, but Jackson County commissioners are all at large, rather than by district. Jackson County commissioner would be very unlike Multnomah's. Jackson County is moving away from Portland, if that is relevant to anything. Yet somehow that is a "total transformation" that is "importing Portland."
The ad isn't just wrong. It is backward. The ad intends to persuade voters, not to inform them.
Portland is going through a rough patch, and its voters may turn less blue in 2024 because of it. Democrats control Oregon and Portland-area offices, from governor, secretary of state, attorney general, and treasurer, to Portland area state senators and representatives, to nonpartisan local offices. Portland badly mishandled the apprehension and prosecution of vandals and arsonists who found cover and distraction amid the demonstrations in the aftermath of the George Floyd's death.
The Multnomah County district attorney, Michael Schmidt, refused to prosecute crimes openly committed by thrill-seeking hoodlums and anarchists. The Portland police responded to the failure to prosecute by staging an unofficial police strike. They stopped making arrests. Why bother if suspects were immediately released? That gave permission for ongoing consequence-free lawbreaking. A mood and reputation grew that crime was rampant and uncontrolled in Portland, and that Democrats were soft on crime. The bloom is off the Rose City.
That rough patch affects Portland's reputation. Now the "Portland" of the mind and reputation is not the Trail Blazers or Nike or the West Coast's most livable city where most of the good jobs are. To downstate Oregon, "Portland" is the upstate political bully and failed city. The words political warriors use as all-purpose epithets -- "communist," "socialist," "racist," "pedophile," "groomer," "woke," and "misogynist" do not need to have relevance. to have punch. In downstate Oregon, one can claim somebody or something will "make us like Portland." Oh, no!
It isn't true, but it is useful.
It's rather amusing that whomever is behind "stopbiggergovernment.com" believes that increasing the number of county commissioners from three to five implies "bigger government." Perhaps we need leaders with math skills that at minimum extend onto their other hand.
Opposition is always easiest, especially in "Big Guys vs. Little Guys" and we're the Little Guys. Here in Clackamas County we had county commission candidates running against so-called "Portland Creep". (A verb, not a noun.) They won. But not anymore as folks see "Portland Creep" as nothing more than a trick phase to con them into getting their vote. Ditto "Bigger Government" as a nasty catch-all for those who are truly anti-government. The hits just keep on coming.