The Oregonian's editorial board is coming under fire for endorsing a candidate who wasn't running for a position that wasn't open without consulting the people who had expressed interest.
When the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners appointed state Representative Chip Shields to fill a vacancy in the state Senate yesterday, that opened up a new vacancy for Shields' seat in the House. The appointment was made early Thursday afternoon, but in an editorial dated Wednesday evening, The Oregonian had already endorsed someone for Shields' still-occupied House seat.
That someone is Karol Collymore, a now former candidate for the Senate who says she has yet to determine whether she'll run for the House. "I'm taking the weekend to decide," she says, as she weighs the financial considerations of a run.
The endorsement "was a surprise," she adds. "I'm honored they were impressed enough to recommend me for a seat that wasn't open." Collymore is the communications and project manager for County Commissioner Jeff Cogen.
But Jo Ann Bowman, who ran for the Senate seat, tells OMC, "I received no call regarding an endorsement interview." Bowman is the executive director of Oregon Action, involved in community organizing and progressive political activism. She takes issue with how she was described by The Oregonian.
The editorial labeled her a "social worker-activist," but she says, "I've never been a social worker." Editorial page editor Bob Caldwell told The Portland Mercury, "The fact remains that she's director of an agency that does social work, so it's not fatal."
Bowman says she's "never worked for a social service organization," either. She also disputed The Oregonian's characterization of her as an "uncompromising, polarizing force" during her three terms in the state legislature, telling OMC she had "strong relationships" with members on both sides of the aisle.
'All things are not equal'
The issue of race has been present throughout the appointment process. Shields is filling the seat of state Senator Margaret Carter, one of only two African Americans in the legislature at the time of her resignation. Two-thirds of Portland's black population resides in her district, Senate District 22.
Shields is white, while his former opponents for the seat, Collymore and Bowman, are black.
"All the Oregonian has done in this race is talk about race," Bowman told The Mercury yesterday. "And then lo and behold in this morning's paper they're making an endorsement and just talking about race again."
But Bowman and The Oregonian have at least one point of agreement. Both say that "all things are not equal," referring to the factor of race in the appointment. The Oregonian wrote it in their editorial, and Bowman said it during the Board's appointment process.
The Oregonian noted that Carter was "the first African American woman elected to the Oregon Legislature." The editorial board then proceeded to choose between Bowman and Collymore to replace Shields.
But Lew Frederick, who, unlike Bowman or Collymore, is actively vying for the House seat, took exception to being overlooked. Like Bowman, he says the editorial board did not call him. Frederick told the Mercury that The Oregonian "developed this meme, which was that they needed an African American woman to run for something, but the fact is, we've not had a black male in the state legislature since 1998, or a black person in the city or county offices since 1992." Frederick is black and has 14 years of experience in Portland Public Schools and the Oregon State Board of Education.
He continued to lay a heavy charge, telling the Mercury that a "fear that a lot of black men in Portland have, frankly, is the attack by the Oregonian on anybody who sticks his head out."
Was Frederick referring to the candidacies of other black politicians?
"I was speaking about the issues of race generally," he tells OMC. "There have been few Black men running credible political races during the last decade or more. Folks make it clear they will stay below the radar if possible because they become targets." Frederick did not respond when asked if he could point to an instance of The Oregonian making the type of attack he referred to.
Confusing the candidates?
Mercury news editor Matt Davis asked Caldwell why he didn't call Bowman or Frederick before endorsing Shields and Collymore.
Caldwell described Bowman as a "known quantity" who has a public record and whom they had met with "a number of times." Frederick, he said, "had already been eliminated by the party from the race."
But the only race that had existed at that point was for the Senate. Frederick did not run for the Senate. He is interested in the House.
Questioned on the point by Davis, Caldwell replied, "It says what is says ... It's an opinion." He said Frederick is also a "known quantity."
Frederick told Davis that Caldwell "sounds like somebody becoming defensive because they got caught on bad facts."
Davis tells OMC he agrees. "I know how that feels, because I do it all the time. But then, I'm not the editorial page editor of the state's biggest daily newspaper. Perhaps I'm more qualified for that job than I realized."
"It's comical when the Portland Mercury is the shining beacon of responsible journalism in this city," he adds. "But we'll be interviewing all the candidates in the race before making an endorsement, as I think most Portlanders would expect."
Caldwell did not respond to Oregon Media Central for this story.
UPDATE (9/25, 4:56pm): Lew Frederick responds:
I've watched folks I worked for and with succumb to drummed up attacks by reporters believing that they needed to score a takedown in order to advance their careers.
Look around. How many Black males do you see regularly interviewed on local news or in the paper? How many are out there? And they are not all in "Diversity" or Human Relations jobs. There is a robust Black Engineers group in Portland. Doubt many know that. If you paid attention to the media in this town you'd think there were no Black males in the upper or middle class strata. A gathering last Saturday night would easily put that myth to rest. But they know, and they've told me for decades, that the best way to remain in the middle class in this town is to avoid the media at all costs. So they do.
So. It would not take much to see which Black males have been the target of attacks in the Oregonian and who has been left out of the discussion.
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