Wednesday, May 19, 2004
( 8:48 AM )
Victory!
I am proud to report this morning that Tom Potter won the Oregon primary for Portland Mayor last night! Now, according to our system, because no one got a majority of votes, the top two winners go into a run-off which is decided in November. But Tom's win is pretty amazing because he was up against Jim Fransesconi, who raised $1 MILLION - the most money ever raised for a Portland mayoral race ($1 million for approximately 600,000 voters).
Potter, who limited his donations to $25 apiece and collected about $63,000, upset conventional political wisdom that equates success with fund raising by getting roughly 41 percent of the vote. Francesconi, who raised more than Potter and the other 21 candidates combined, came in second with about 37 percent.
It's nice to know that integrity still can win. On to November.