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March 07, 2018

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Brian, why does your analysis leave out the fact that McCoid has been endorsed by the five progressives on the City Council? You paint him with a broad brush as a "conservative" (bad!). He is more of a moderate (he is not a registered Republican). The situation is much more nuanced than you present here. The five progressives on the City Council obviously like working with McCoid and believe they can find common ground with him on most issues. Also, Jackie did not decide to run until the last minute, months after Progressive Salem had made their decisions about the May 2018 Primary. I think you are being unfair.

Jim, just because some city councilors endorse an incumbent doesn't mean the incumbent is the most progressive candidate. Chuck Bennett got endorsed by some of the current progressives on the City Council when he ran against Carole Smith in 2016, even though Smith was by far the most progressive candidate. As I said in this post, I'm not big on the "go along to get along" thing when collegiality is valued over the best candidate.

Interesting debate. Maybe the structural racial discrimination of Salem is part of it? My wife, an African American Professor of Law, has suffered many forms of racial discrimination here. Last year we went to lunch to celebrate the last day of her radiation treatment for cancer. We went to a place we’d gone for 14 years and know the owners who are women of color and always nice to us
The staff refused to serve us food. Businesses have also refused to honor coupons to her. We couldn’t find anyone who would rent to us so we had to buy a house. It goes on and on. It’s not just us.
This structure could affect the vernacular of our progressives here. Poor people, and people of color are excluded from electoral processes. One reason to be late to the party is the lack of invitation.
Just personal, and professional, observations to frame this discussion through a different lens.

Bob Collin are you saying a restaurant in Salem refused service because your wife is black? What one was it?Something like that should be named.

As a member of the Board of Progressive Salem, I would be very offended at any suggestion that Jackie is not getting our endorsement because she is a person of color. That had absolutely nothing to do with our decision to stick with the plans we made months ago and devote our limited resources to reelecting Tom Andersen and Chris Hoy in Wards 2 and 6 and electing Micki Varney to replace arch-conservative Jim Lewis in Ward 8. We recognize the need to elect more persons of color to serve as elected officials in Salem. We worked very hard last year to elect Levi Herrera-Lopez to a seat on the school board, but came up short. We will continue to look for persons of color that we can endorse and support in the years ahead. This is an important goal of Progressive Salem.

Steve McCoid has been endorsed by the five progressives on the City Council.
Steve McCoid is more of a moderate Independent.
Steve McCoid has been endorsed by the five progressives on the City Council and they obviously like working with McCoid and believe they can find common ground with him on
Jackie Leung did not decide to run until the last minute, months after Progressive Salem had made their decisions about the May 2018 Primary.
Jackie Leung is not getting our endorsement because she is a person of color?
I am a Progressive Salem board member, and I know we work hard to elect persons of color to serve as elected officials in Salem.
Our efforts right now, however, are devoted 100% towards getting Micki Varney elected as city councilor for Ward 8.

Geoff, I didn't say that Progressive Salem has failed to endorse Jackie Leung because she is a person of color. I gave other reasons that could explain why this hasn't happened. I realize that Progressive Salem is putting a lot of effort into electing Micki Varney, but Progressive Salem could have various levels of endorsements.

Tier 1 would be a full-out campaign for a candidate with money donated and canvassing organized. Tier 2 could be offering a lesser degree of help with a campaign. Tier 3 could be a simple "we endorse ______", which indicates that this someone is the most progressive candidate.

Leung certainly is more progressive that McCoid, so she should get a endorsement from Progressive Salem. The fact that all five progressive city councilors are endorsing McCoid should be irrelevant. That's their mistake, in my view.

Also... back in 2014 progressives worked hard to elect Scott Bassett in Ward 4 rather than his opponent, Steve McCoid. Yet now supposedly all five progressives on the City Council are endorsing McCoid. Wow. I don't get it.

As I've noted, McCoid favors building a Third Bridge. He voted for the Lone Oak Road Reimbursement District, which hasn't endeared him to people in the Creekside neighborhood. So there's good reason to support Jackie Leung, given the non-progressive nature of McCoid's policy positions.

If Bassett had been elected in 2014 rather than McCoid, I strongly doubt that the conservatives on the City Council would be endorsing Bassett. Yet the five progressives appear to be endorsing McCoid.

This is what drives me crazy about progressives. All too often they play nice, rather than playing to win. I respect conservatives not for their politics, but for their commitment to winning.

It demoralizes liberals to see progressives who have been elected to an office start to forget that their goal should be to elect more progressives, not endorse incumbent conservatives.

I would be interested in knowing if Jackie asked for Progressive Salem's endorsement? From what I understand, endorsement requests go to a committee appointed by the Board who then make a recommendation back to the board on whether or not to endorse. So, as a regular member of Progressive Salem, I don't have any way to know who's seeking an endorsement or an opportunity to weigh in on that endorsement before a decision is made.

Michael, yes, on March 5 a request was made to the Progressive Salem board by someone affiliated with Jackie Leung's campaign to endorse her Ward 4 candidacy. An email asked for an emergency meeting of the board and laid out reasons why it makes sense to endorse Leung. This person also noted to me that Progressive Salem decided last year what May 2018 races would be supported. So even before it was known who would run in each of the City Council races, Progressive Salem settled on which races to support.

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