‘Clean’ money never cost so much

By Phil Stanford

The Portland Tribune, Nov 23, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

When the new City Council gets down to business this January, one of its first acts probably will be to try to slip something past us called the Clean Money System.

Well, you didn’t expect them to call it the Dirty Money System, did you?

Clean Money is obviously good. And Dirty Money, I surely don’t have to tell you how bad that is.

As things stand now, politicians have to hustle about before elections to raise their ownmoney Ñ which, as any of the sponsors of the plan will tell you, is not only beneath their dignity but a lot of hard work besides.

Furthermore, they argue, when you hit up people who have that kind of money to give away to politicians, those people often want something in return.

And when politicians accept that kind of Dirty Money, they argue, they end up voting against their consciences and contrary to the best interests of their constituents. Right?

• • •

The records show, for example, that in his last serious race for the City Council, Clean Money System sponsor Erik Sten collected a total of $95,165 worth of Dirty Money for the primary and $111,728 of it in the general election.

Now that’s a pile of Dirty Money Ñ and I, for one, can only sympathize with everything that Sten had to go through to collect it. But did it ever corrupt him, causing him to falter along the way to progressive excellence?

I should think not.

And until Sten can prove that he ever voted contrary to the best interests of his constituents, just because of a few hundred thousand bucks of what he’s now calling Dirty Money, I’ll continue to keep a very open mind on this Clean Money business.

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