Is it me, or is the music in the background a little heavy-handed? As soon as Emilie starts talking, they start tinkling that creepy Twilight Zone sound behind her. Unnecessary to make the point, I'd say.

I dunno Jack. I was stuck on that N.Y City tram story. Suspended high above everyone with little children and all. Hmmm. Powerful stuff.
M.

A little heavy handed? At first I thought it was a parody but if that were true it would have required the sponsors of 'Candidates Gone Wild' to have an actual sense of humor but before they develop that they are in need of some massive transfusions of irony because how can they call their forum 'Candidates Gone Wild' and exclude the only candidate who actually fills the bill? The forum might as well be sponsored by The Oregonian, and called 'DECISIONS 2006'. Willamette Week has just demonstrated how it's become as much a Granite facade as the Big o. She is not being excluded because she availed herself of 150,000 but because she's a chunky woman who lives in a trailer in East Multnomah and that's so so not a part of the Willamette Week aesthetic of hip. Erik Sten is going to be reelected and I bet she'll even get blamed for that. If she were a man, thin, and well connected she'd be President. I think she even handles herself a lot better than the chimp did in the Rose Garden yesterday when he was fielding softballs about Rummy. Give me a break.

This comment is not paid for by the Go Sten Go Committee.

The music, faux typewriter sounds, down-in-the-mouth narration and other aspects clearly identify this as a negative campaign piece either/both against Boyles or/and for Sten.

Have Candidates Gone Wild and WW filed an independent expenditure report with City Elections officials?

Either way, Boyles and/or the other candidates must now file for matching Free Money contribution(s), representing the cost/value of the work that went into this ad and its distribution.

The candidates need to give the Citizen Commission a chance to look this over and decide.

1. Are Candidates Gone Wild and WW are acting and spending either against or for a candidate?

2. Are independent expenditures to be compensated by paying out the matching funds called for under the Free Money rules?

3. Are all these folks ducking the law to enable campaign spending for Erik Sten in excess of the legal limit?

This shows why the MSM like WW should not be exempted from the calculation of campaign expenditures. What we have is Big Speech from people who buy ink by the barrel, and it all rolls in favor of the incumbent, in favor of the fawning MSM's Free Speech monopoly, and against the Free Speech rights of critics like Boyles and her fellow challengers.

She is not being excluded because she availed herself of 150,000 but because she's a chunky woman who lives in a trailer in East Multnomah and that's so so not a part of the Willamette Week aesthetic of hip.

Wow...

the MSM like WW

hahahahahahaha....

Now thats the best thing I have read so far this week!

Dont do that, man...I think I hurt my side....

I agree that this video was not produced in a manner designed to portray a fair look at Ms. Boyles. It's obviously designed to make her look as bad as possible, and the effects really annoy me. That being said, what's even worse is Ms. Boyles herself. She's fooled herself into thinking that she has a viable campaign and has the audacity to basically say "If I broke the law, it's not my fault and people should vote for me." Wow...

I love how she says that it is somehow the fault of the people who designed the VOE system if she broke the law. Wow.

Forget City Council--she needs to be the new White House spokesperson.

Six or seven years ago, I heard Normon Soloman, who once wrote for WW, say he would refuse a copy even if he were stuck in prison with nothing to read. I think it's better than it was then, but it is in the same league as the O insofar as both have long been ignoring major public interest angles on stories.

As for Boyles, she is far from perfect, but is being cast in the worst possible light. And it ain't fair. Both Sten and Boyles recognize that
the capital P Poor is a potentially a major voting bloc in the CoP. I will be perfectly frank and say that Dave Lister's "poor by choice" characterization bothers me some. There are problems with some of our major institutions and employers in this area, some have been illustrated on this blog. Not everyone has high bs tolerance. And I think about a guy my parents knew back in the 1960s in Palo Alto: he was the first, or one of them, to perfect "instant replay" technology while working for one of the big electronics houses there. An intellectual property fight ensued (I was too young to care about details) and he was blacklisted to the point that he was lucky to find a job selling shoes. I don't think we can oversimplify when we address the problems of poverty and homelessness.

Anyone wonder why Dave Lister isn't being included in the Bus Porject's debate tomorrow or the Candidates Gone Wild forum May 1?

I was shocked, SHOCKED, to see his face not caricatured with Sten, Linn, Burcick, Saltman, Fritz, and Wheeler on the CGW website.

Please email the WW and the Bus Project to ask that Dave be included. Even if you aren't voting for him, he's a viable candidate with a right to appear.

Dontcha think?

He was invited, I think, but it was a real second-class invitation. It was back when the argument was that Boyles was viable and Lister wasn't. The bus kids got it wrong.

Sharon Nasset was also not invited to WW's party which leads me to believe that the once "alternative paper" in Portland has become just as MS as I had feared. Where is Mike Casper, Chris Iverson??? These two qualify as wild as well. It would have been fun had the whole roster been included, even emily, but now ho hum

For the record, I have been invited to "Candidates Gone Wild". The caricature is forthcoming.

Viability is a slippery concept, expecially in these days of public relations and trolling gone mad.
I look forward to hearing Dave in the debate, but wish the others were included as well.

One logistical problem is that the format has all the candidates on the stage at once, and they're already pushing it with seven candidates and three questioners. There were six candidates last time, and it was kind of tight.

If you have a limited number of positions then wouldn't the fair thing be to allow all candidates a chance? Say put everyones name in a hat and pull out 6 or 7?

That's a good question. I don't think you can have a decent show without the incumbents, though.

Her "uninvitation" is probably unnecessary anyway. She (and she alone) ditched the Mercury debate at PSU last week. I doubt she would've bothered showing up to this WWeek event either.

Yes, I'm sure they kicked her out because she's fat. Not because it seems she broke major campaign laws.

Yes, you're right we can't have politicians breaking the law. That is not allowed and Emilie has been culled from the herd insuring the integrity of our democracy. I was stupid to think adults would behave like children on a playground excluding the fat kid w/ the glasses from playing with them. I need to adjust my medication again I'm becoming delusional. Thanks. I needed that.

So, maybe she should be on the outside looking in, with a sign asking for contributions to pay back her VOE funds. "Help! I v'e spent my campaign funds, but now have to repay!"

Also, has she found a nice progressive lawyer yet? I am sure that we have many commenters on this blog who are retired lawyers who can help her out with some legal advice for her and her daughter.

I can see why the payments to Boyles' daughter are raising red flags. But, imho, the fact that Sten considered her campaign viable at one time lends credibility to her assertion that she was targeted. That's how the Goldscmidt machine operates: trolls pretend to be friends and confidants to people considered threats and then set them up or smear them.

And I will believe Neil is out of the picture when I see him in a cage on display in Pioneer Square. But some people think he's just a patsy himself; someone who understood how Oregon worked and brought in friends from outside. This could be. Phil Stanford wrote that the Golschmidt machine was just a continuation of another: Schrunk-Kell?

Goldschmidt vs. Emily Boyles! This is good...a deep game indeed: Neil PRETENDS to be working to engineer the Texas Pacific take over of PGE...which Sten PRETENDS to oppose, so as to make his secret blood pact with Neil all the more secret...Then Neil slips Willamette Week the tip about the 14-year-old girl...so as to arrange his "disgrace", right...meanwhile Sten continues to pretend to push the PGE take over, which the Goldschmidt circle pretends to oppose tooth-and-nail, all the while secretly working with Sten to set up this climatic showdown with... EMILY BOYLES.

This is mind-blowing stuff.

The city's asking Boyles to pay the money back - with interest and penalties. They're citing one offense; there may be more.

The O's City Hall blog and b!X both have more...

"And I will believe Neil is out of the picture when I see him in a cage on display in Pioneer Square."

Ooooh. If this could be arranged on some sort of pay-per-view system, we could sell enough tickets to pay for the tram [rimshot]! Especially if we put the cage next to Lars' Christmas Cross.

And! I forgot one crucial aspect of Goldschmidt vs Boyles: the clever feint-campaign of Ginny Burdick, who publicly PRETENDS to be the big-biz pick to take out Sten, but in reality is helping cover up the fiendish plot to destroy...EMILY BOYLES.

Mind gone haywire.

Sten is part of that system; when he was being groomed, he was likened to Neil in his younger days.

I forgot; Emilie Boyles is a nobody, a fat nobody. It is easy to hold someone like that accountable,and it is easy for the Oregonian to cover it. Makes it look like there is some accountability at City Hall. "Clean money" is a small part of the waste over there.

Once again I would like to point out that WW is being unfair by not inviting ALL of the candidates. I have attended many forums at this point and have not seen anyone getting out of hand or crowding each other out for space. We are all adults here. Where is the Fair and Honest look at the candidates at this venue?????

Maybe the money should be distributed the way Peter Sellers got rid of his fortune at the end of 'The Magic Christian' dumping it all in a vat of raw sewage and letting all those who want it bad enough dive in.

From some of the above comments it appears that we need to resurrect both the HUAC and Bobby Kennedy to look into this Goldschmidt thing. He seems to be behind it all...