Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in Oregon Politics: Mark Wiener, Ted Ferrioli, Terry Bean

Friday, August 21, 2015

Douglas Fasching, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Every Friday, GoLocalPDX breaks down who's rising and who's falling in the world of Oregon politics. Check out who made the lists this week.

HOT:

Independent Party of Oregon. No more Thanksgivings at the kiddie table. This week the Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) qualified for majority party status. To qualify as a major party, state law requires that at least 5% of the registered voters in the state must belong to that party 275 days before the primary election. The IPO needed to have about 109,000 registered voters. They got 109,363. Nice work. Now they get to participate in the primary election next May, just like the Dems and the GOP already do.

To discuss this new chapter in Oregon politics, I called up the current Secretary of the IPO, Sal Peralta. (Yes, I really called him!) He said that the party is thrilled to hit this milestone and the goal of the party is to "provide a path for candidates who have some mainstream appeal but who do not fit neatly into the Democratic and Republican parties.” As a major party, they will be able to nominate candidates in all partisan contests and county commissioner in about one-third of Oregon counties.

Mr. Peralta said that he expects to have 12-16 candidates running for state-wide office in the 2016 election. He also said that candidates who want to run as Independent Party candidates need to register with the party by September 10th. You can learn more here.

Currently there are about 18k registered Independent Party members in Multnomah County. This new status will give the party more visibility and some would argue, more legitimacy. Expect those numbers to increase between now and the 2016 election. They have a long way to go to overtake the Dems (223k registered voters) but they have a shot of overtaking the GOP (62k registered voters) especially with the Motor Voter Law adding about 300k new voters state-wide.

Mark Wiener. Do you like to Uber? Who doesn't, well, besides the cabbies? Uber wanted entree into the Portland market. And for that they needed the City Hall to be on board. Enter Mark Wiener. The latest City lobbying reports show that Mr. Wiener has been a paid lobbyist for the car-sharing business since earlier this year. The funny thing is that he is a political consultant, not a lobbyist. Something tells me that Uber didn't worry about that little fact. As the political advisor and campaign strategist to Commissioners Steve Novick and Dan Saltzman and Mayor Charlie Hales, three fifths of the Portland City Council, Mr. Wiener has access to City Hall that no one else has. His influence is unequalled. When it comes to Portland politics, he is 'the one who knocks'. And that is what Uber was paying for.

Senator Ted Ferrioli. Elected in 1996, Senator Ted Ferrioli has been in the Senate for 18 years representing District 30, the largest in the state. He is the senior member of the Oregon State Senate and serves as the Senate Republican Caucus Leader. He is one of the most respected legislators in Salem on both sides of the aisle. And effective. Well, as effective as one can be in the minority. The rumor mill has him not seeking re-election. And this is unfortunate. His experience and willingness to work across the aisle will be missed. That is why I am hoping this rumor is not true. Representative Cliff Bentz out of Ontario is rumored to be the replacement.

NOT:

Terry Bean. Terry Bean is a successful real estate developer. He is a civil rights activist. He founded the Human Rights Campaign and is a major contributor to Democratic causes here in Oregon. That is his public side. His private life is not so noble.

Mr. Bean is currently facing charges in Lane County stemming from an alleged incident that took place a few years ago. In 2013, court documents allege that Bean, then 64 years old, and his boyfriend, then 23 yrs old, drove down to Eugene to have sex with a 15 year old boy. Let that sink in for a second. As far as I can tell, Bean's lawyers aren't even disputing the fact that the incident took place, but that Bean thought the boy was 18. That doesn't make it better.

Bean's lawyers attempted to have a civil compromise to make this whole thing go away. That is where you throw money at the v̶i̶c̶t̶i̶m̶ alleged victim and the State drops the charges. The judge said no bueno. So the trial was scheduled for early August and that is when the alleged victim went MIA. Lane County detectives tracked him down to San Diego and back but to no avail. It is hard to find someone who is not using their credit cards or driving their own car and is using a disposable cell phone. To call him a reluctant witness would be an understatement. The judge rescheduled the trial for September 1st giving the State some extra time to track him down. If the State can't find him by the scheduled court date, then who knows.

What is Mr. Bean doing in the meantime? Staying out of the public eye ruminating over some poor life choices? Hardly. He is hosting political fundraisers. Which leads us to...

Multnomah County Democratic Party. To reward the people who donate the most in their annual fundraiser, the MCDs announced this week that it has planned a VIP soiree at Terry Bean's home. Seriously? The man is awaiting trial on some serious charges. Controversy is to be avoided, not courted. Couldn't they just have taken his $5,000 and called it good? For their actions, the Multnomah County Dems get to join Mr. Bean in the Not Column...for now. Hopefully with all the public outcry the MCD will decide to change the venue and maybe they will find themselves in a different section of this column next week.

Gresham City Council. The Gresham City Council had a vacancy to fill when former Councilor Michael McCormick learned the hard way that public office and restraining orders don't mix. The council had 30 days to fill the vacancy per city charter rules. The new councilor, is former councilor David Widmark and is well regarded and the feedback from his appointment has been positive. One city leader I spoke with even said "Great choice". So it is not who the Council selected that gets them in the Not Column, but how they went about it. This appointment was made after a few conversations in the hallway and with no public notice or comment. It was not even put on the meeting agenda. We all know this was a done deal when everyone came back into the Council Chambers after the break, but there needs to be some notice given so the public has a chance to participate when important issues like this are addressed.

Correction: Last week in my journalistic zeal, I wrote that Patrick Sheehan had 'filed, this week, to run for House District 51.' That was not correct. What I should have said was that he had updated his paperwork with the Secretary of State's office which suggested he might run for the House seat. Jodi Bailey did the same thing this week, so hell, maybe she is running for the seat again. What I do know is that Shemia Fagan will have an opponent in the general election of 2016. Even Steve Duin makes a mistake every now and then, right? Right?