Salem Chamber of Commerce is overly political

"The Chamber of Commerce runs this town," a Salem City Councilor said to me in a moment of candor at a social event. I hear this frequently. 

The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce is highly political. Photos I took last Sunday at the Chamber's office on Commercial Street NE tell the tale.

Mayor candidate Chuck Bennett has been endorsed by the Chamber. Bennett, a lobbyist, is running against Carole Smith, a businesswoman.

Councilor Warren Bednarz also has been endorsed for re-election by the Chamber. His opponent is Sally Cook.

Jan Kailuweit is the other person endorsed by the Chamber in the May 17 election. He's running for the Ward 1 City Council seat being vacated by Bennett. His opponent is Cara Kaser. 

Here's what strikes me as weird -- and unhealthy for this town -- about the Salem Chamber of Commerce's hyper-political activism.

(1) Many Chambers of Commerce aren't political. A recent issue of Salem Weekly had a great piece on this subject, "Different chambers, different approaches." 

“The Ashland Chamber of Commerce plays an important part in bringing the community together,” says Pam Marsh, city councilor in Ashland, OR. For the last 30 years, although the Ashland chamber coordinates community issues forums and hosts a discussion series to introduce all candidates to local people, it does not endorse candidates at any level, and does not provide funding for any candidate with a PAC.

“Avoiding politics really enables our Chamber to reach out to every part of the community,” Marsh says.

In Salem, the Salem Area chamber of Commerce endorses candidates and funds their campaigns through its Create Jobs PAC. Advocacy is emphasized at the local, regional and state level, with prominent links on the organization’s website to its PAC, to its positions on policy matters and to current openings on City of Salem boards and commissions, bodies the chamber encourages members to apply for.

The Salem Chamber of Commerce has made a choice to be overtly political in a polarizing right-wing way. But why should it be assumed that businesses in this town are better served by conservatives rather than liberals?

Alex Kohan left some interesting comments on the Salem Weekly story. One said, "Since 2008 the Chamber of Commerce has given money to 17 candidates, of those 15 have been Republicans." Well, even if one assumes the Chamber should be political (which I don't), does this make sense? 

Which gets me to...

(2) Democratic leaders tend to be better for the economy. Today the Statesman Journal reported that Oregon unemployment hit a record low in March, 4.5%. 

State employment economist Nick Beleiciks said in a release that the jobless rate shows the Oregon labor market is "stronger than it's been in decades." Beleiciks said people are "flocking to Oregon's labor force."

Oregon has a Democratic Governor and Dem majorities in both the state Senate and House. If liberals have been good for the state economy, why does the Salem Chamber of Commerce only favor conservatives for Mayor and City Council?

Likewise, on the national level the economy does much better when a Democrat is president. 

“The U.S. economy not only grows faster, according to real GDP and other measures, during Democratic versus Republican presidencies, it also produces more jobs, lowers the unemployment rate, generates higher corporate profits and investment, and turns in higher stock market returns. Indeed, it outperforms under almost all standard macroeconomic metrics.”

So another question is, if liberals have been good for the national economy, why does the Salem Chamber of Commerce favor conservatives for Mayor and City Council?

(3) Salem is a liberal-leaning town. Businesses want customers/clients. Period. I've never been told by a Salem business owner, "We don't serve Democrats."

So it's hard for me to understand why businesses that are members of the Salem Chamber of Commerce are OK with the Chamber taking political positions that not only are at odds with what is arguably good for this town's economy, as noted in (2) above, but also go against the political leanings of a majority of Salem's citizens. 

Yes, Salem leans liberal. Check out my post about how Salem voted in the 2012 presidential election, "Salem, Oregon is more liberal than many people think." 

Six of the eight wards went for Obama, two of them (wards 1 & 2) overwhelmingly. Only two wards, 4 and 8, cast a majority of votes for Romney. Yet even in conservative-leaning South Salem and West Salem, Obama got 46% and 48% respectively.

Yet the Salem Chamber of Commerce is dead-set against people in a liberal-leaning town electing -- oh, the horror! -- liberals. 

Here's what the Chamber said in their March 2016 announcement where they endorsed Bennett, Bednarz, and Kailuweit. 

It is important not to become complacent. There is still a small, but vocal, group who would like to see Salem return to the way things were 20 years ago. We believe that agenda will take Salem in the wrong direction. The livelihood of businesses and the livability of our community is dependent upon electing the right people to local government.

Hmmmm. I guess the Chamber is referring to the Mayor Roger Gertenrich and Mayor Mike Swaim era, 1994-2002. 

I wasn't following Salem city politics very closely back then.

From what I hear, the liberal voters of Salem elected liberals to be Mayor and a majority of the City Council. Then the Chamber of Commerce rose up and said Can't have that!, which led to the Chamber throwing around its money and influence to elect conservative candidates.

Well, I found a statement by Swaim from 1998, when he decided to run for re-election. His vision doesn't sound at all like it would "take Salem in the wrong direction," as today's Chamber of Commerce leadership considers. Decide for yourself:
Download Community Values - Making Choices for Livability by Mike Swaim

I feel like the divisiveness and polarization in Salem would be much reduced if the Chamber wasn't so committed to pushing a right-wing political agenda.

I come from a very business-oriented family. Growing up, I never got the impression that business was all about politics. Business was about making money by providing products and services to people.

Here's part of another Salem Weekly comment from Alex Kohan which expresses nicely how I feel:

As far as I am concerned, the Salem Chamber should act like the Ashland Chamber. They should remove themselves from politics, stop buying city elections along with their friends the Salem Realtors and the Homeowners Association. I would have zero problem with the Chamber if they actually worked to make Salem a better place instead of just buying elections, pushing their Republican agenda and trying to gain benefits for the small elite of Salem residents.

Update: Googling another subject related to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, I came across a 2011 PDF file of the "Create Jobs PAC & Salem Chamber Endorsement Process." Interesting reading, if you're into this sort of political stuff.
Download Create Jobs PAC

The Create Jobs PAC board makes a recommendation to the Chamber's board about which candidates to endorse. Then the Chamber board votes on the endorsements.

Peculiar factoid -- in the questionnaire that goes to candidates, there's this statement:  "The Salem Area Chamber of Commerce is made up of over 1,200 businesses located in the Clackamas County area."

Salem is in Marion County. Does the Chamber of Commerce know this? Or does it really have lots of members in Clackamas County?

Comments

[Not Even Wrong]

The name of the association game (Chamber or otherwise) is membership recruitment and retention. If you can't point to concrete examples of how you have delivered value for the members, then it's tough to do either. And if you can't recruit and retain members, you cannot collect membership dues.

The Salem Chamber is no different. They've simply chosen political activism as their story to tell. Through endorsement of candidates and measures, they can trot out to their members and potential members all the "good things" they are doing for the membership. This doesn't mean I don't wish they chose a different way to provide value to their members, it's just the reality.

[MicahDavis]

I’m not sure that the Fortune Magazine piece you reference actually provides any evidence showing Liberal leadership has any direct correlation to the performance of the economy. It seems to be saying that it's just coincidence. I could be wrong…

The Chamber’s political activity is a simply manifestation of the competing class interests at play in our city. As an advocacy group for the local ownership class they’re going to do whatever it takes to protect their class interests. While this may be shortsighted (for example, fighting the payroll tax for improved Cherriots service in the short term) it makes perfect sense. They are simply doing everything they can to protect business owners from increasing worker protections, environmental protections, and taxes that fund public services.I think Ashland’s Chamber is an outlier and reflects a much different approach to how to run a Chamber. Most local Chambers (and the national Chamber) are right-wing and politically active.

The point about Salem being more left-leaning than appears, I think, is a good one. I think the problem is mobilization. That is something the Chamber does very well. They have built a very strong network locally, obviously with local businesses, but also with ideologically aligned groups and individuals. The other factor is funding. Looking at the Cherriots measure that failed last year, the Chamber outspent Cherriots supporters 10-1 and they lied the entire time. Setting aside Oregon’s awful campaign finance rules the financial advantage that the Chamber holds can only be overcome by actual community organizing.

My understanding of 90’s and early 00’s Salem politics was that it was much more progressive. There was even a socialist councilman (Bill Smaldone). I don’t know what the shift was that led to a firmly entrenched right-wing majority but the fact that we had a progressive mayor and progressive councilmembers 15 or 20 years ago tells me that, with proper organizing, we can change the makeup of the City’s leadership.

I also think the way the City currently runs elections favors right-wing candidates. The primary election is essentially where we choose our City Council and Mayor. Primaries have very low turnout which absolutely favors conservative candidates. I don’t know why we have that system but it sucks.

[Jim Scheppke]

Micah Davis: your diagnosis is right on. That's why a group of us has formed Progressive Salem — to organize the progressive majority in Salem to take our city back from the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce, realtors and home builders. We have three candidates who we have endorsed for the Salem City Council in the May 17th election: Sally Cook (Ward 7), Cara Kaser (Ward 1), and Matt Ausec (Ward 5). If you live in one of those Wards I hope you will vote for a progressive. To learn more go to: .

[Brian Hines]

Micah, I'll echo Jim's praise of your cogent comment. With this addition: there's a fourth progressive person running in the May 17 election, Mayor candidate Carole Smith. She's up against the Chamber of Commerce pick, Chuck Bennett.

If Carole and the three progressive City Council candidates win, those four City Council seats -- combined with the existing progressive councilor, Tom Andersen, will produce a five member Fresh Start majority.

So to see progressives return to power in Salem, voting for Smith, Kaser, Ausec, and Cook is necessary to get us there.

[MicahDavis]

Well thanks for the comments Jim and Brian. I plan on supporting the Progressive Salem endorsed candidates in general. I live in Ward 3 so I am stuck with Nanke. It would be a major victory if we were able to have a Mayor and a majority of council-members that shared a more progressive vision for Salem.