It is the first week after the Primary election and that means it is the first week of the fall campaign. It is also the week of Memorial Day and my birthday. Memorial Day is more inward and thoughtful this year since we are in lockdown. It was also a week of Legislative Days with the Oregon Legislature trying to figure out how to recover from the pandemic economic crisis. I viewed several online sessions on water and environmental issues. There are many things in motion and little resolved. Lockdown is slowly lifting but the future is insecure. I also attended tax and revenue sessions trying to devise ways to adjust to an altered economy.
It was not, however, a week without campaign activities. The Metro Council had a work session on Tuesday that I attended (on-line of course) and in which they discussed serious concerns regarding demand pricing and infrastructure spending. Metro is engaged in a serious effort to study congestion pricing which includes 4 options: cordons (areas specific fees), vehicle miles charges, fees or tolls, and parking limitations. Metro is assisting ODOT to expand the legislative mandate to study tolls, as well other options, on I-205 and I-5. Chair Peterson was quite definitive that “demand management” must be included with “tolling” studies.
A second set of items under consideration are the priorities for implementation of potential bond measure funding. The transportation bond is scheduled for November and represents a potentially critical economic investment and job creation aspect. The most controversial item was the extent to which “Youth Fares” would be subsidized.
From my campaign standpoint, this was a week of outreach to one of the Metro candidates, Patricia Kepler. We engaged (on line) on topics of equity and Metro’s efforts to make it a priority, which was the theme of her campaign. I hope this dialog continues.
I also made contacts with several members of the Metro Council, notably Councilor Craddick and Chair Peterson, and I hope to schedule meetings with them in the next week. I also contacted OLCV, an endorser, and hope to schedule a meeting with Lindsey Schouten.
I finished retrieving road/lawn signs and, in the process, connected with some of my informal advisors. I had several good discussions on longer term strategy and the key items to accomplish in the next two months. More meetings are scheduled next week. I also made outreach to the WFP in the hopes of establishing a dialog.
Finally, with my media manager, we took to revising and expanding the half-page campaign handout, expanding it to a full page so that I have updated materials with detailed objectives when talking to various interest groups.