The Fate of Jim
Defeated Mayoral candidate Jim Francesconi has accepted a position with private law firm Haglund, Kelley, Horngren & Jones, the Oregonian reported today.
The article also discusses the public policy issues he intends to stay involved in — namely, schools and workforce diversity.
Francesconi isn’t a bad or dishonest person. In fact, he is on the right side of more issues than not.
The reason he is entering the private sector rather than the Mayor’s chair, though, is the fact that he ran too much of a traditional campaign drawing succor at the teat of big money. Tom Potter didn’t.
Although “big money” is more evil in many other cities, there is a patina that Portland big money has, that is distasteful to the majority of us. The patina involves a preference for expensive private development, to the partial exclusion of those who cannot afford it; rising utility rates, and in terms of some social issues benign, passive tolerance rather than passionate inclusion.
So when we Portlanders see politicians such as Francesconi dependent on donations from the profit-minded, we become that much more open minded to the alternatives. And our new mayor represents just that.