Sam Adams: Not Just "Business As Usual"
Despite Adams' having been Mayor Vera Katz' Chief of Staff for over a decade, he was an unknown quantity to Portland voters, having neither name identification nor any accomplishments that were associated with him. In addition, he was very vulnerable to being tagged as the insider, and Nick Fish was working very hard to link Adams with every dissatisfaction of a very cranky electorate. The goal was to quickly go from a blank slate to a three dimensional view of Adams. While this piece did not mention Fish, it was a stark contrast to Fish's very generic ad campaign, and it received a 2004 "Pollie Award" for exceptional political campaign media, from the American Association of Political Consultants.
Sam's opponent Nick Fish had been running pretty much non-stop for two years, if one includes his unsuccessful but very well-regarded run for a different City Council seat immediately preceding this race. Fish's head start was bolstered by strong support from the business community, labor, popular elected officials and public figures. Fish also had the advantage of being able to run as an outsider in a seriously wrong-track environment. (Among other things, Oregon had the nation's highest unemployment)
Adams, on the other hand, was the 12 year Chief of Staff of Mayor Vera Katz, whose polling numbers were very poor during this race. And Fish was working very hard to link Adams to the Mayor, making the claim that Sam was the "business as usual" candidate. Sam is also openly gay, and would be the first gay person to be elected to Portland's city government.
July 25, 2006 | Filed Under: Candidates | Permalink
