Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Candidates Jefferson Smith, Eileen Brady, and Charlie Hales

Fact-checking the Portland mayor's race

Will it be Eileen Brady and Charlie Hales in November’s runoff for Portland mayor? Or Jefferson Smith and Brady? Or Hales versus Smith? Polls show that the three leading candidates are virtually tied with no one candidate likely to score the 50 percent plus one needed to win outright on Tuesday.

With that in mind, here is a roundup of our fact checks on the candidates.

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Rulings from PolitiFact National

The Latest from PolitiFact Oregon

A scorecard separating fact from fiction

John Ludlow

It's more plausible than the $120,000 originally claimed

Says "I am happy to decline PERS so that the County can save over $68,000 over a four year term that would have been paid on my behalf."

Mike Schaufler

Not just "his" cuts

Says Jeff Reardon cut elementary school music classes, art instruction, teaching positions, basketball and volleyball programs, and he voted to raise school lunch prices.

Jennifer Williamson

That's not quite the case in Oregon

Says "One-third of our healthcare dollars go to wasteful insurance billing and bureaucracy."

Oregon League of Conservation Voters

He later voted in favor of health care reform

Says "Schaufler was the only Democrat who voted to stop" the state’s health care reform plan.

John Ludlow

As a never-been member, he can

Says he "is the only candidate in the race for Clackamas County Chair who will refuse to join the Public Employees Retirement System."

Charlie Hales

It wasn't for lack of trying

Says "I never billed a single hour of my time to the City of Portland in the last 10 years -- so, no revolving door."

Jefferson Smith

The EPA told us to

Says the mayor’s job "is to make sure that if somebody is trying to build a set of water treatment plants to cure us from cryptosporidium we don’t have, we don't say yes even if CH2M Hill wants us to."

Eileen Brady

Not with a 2009 deadline

Says we could have saved ourselves the cost of building the Powell Butte water reservoir.

Jefferson Smith

Sweeping breaks for developers and retailers

Says "I don’t agree with Mr. Hales that we should give a sweeping break to the developers to allow them to build that infill housing without paying for those very basics."

Charlie Hales

The law is clear

Say that under state law, "systems development charges can only be spent on capital investment."

Eileen Brady

And she is board chairwoman

Says she is co-owner of Celilo Group Media.

Amanda Fritz

On a hypothetical balance sheet

Says she is "saving ratepayers $6 million/year."

Mary Nolan

Mary Nolan is the only candidate endorsed by NARAL in the race

Says "Amanda Fritz publicly claimed to be endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, both on her website and in the voter’s guide."

Charlie Hales

He's helped schools, just not in 2003

Says "I worked with our Mayor and other commissioners to help save the school year when a budget crisis in Salem threatened to cut four weeks of the school year," including negotiating with teachers to work for free.

Amanda Fritz

Can't nail down cause and effect

Says "my advocacy questioning contracting out in Parks … delayed and altered the renewal of the Brooks contract, and reduced the number of contracted employees in Parks from over 100 to fewer than 40."

Mary Nolan

Winner takes all with labor endorsements?

Says more than 8,000 people have supported her campaign as volunteers, donors and advisors and endorsers.

Ellen Rosenblum

Federal courts are in Oregon; Holton is no newcomer

Says Dwight Holton has never set foot in an Oregon courtroom.

Dwight Holton

She said it; she said other things too.

Says Ellen Rosenblum "has said over and over again that this is a job where 80 percent of the job is being the government’s lawyer."

Peter DeFazio

Audit? What audit?

Says the Pentagon has never passed a financial audit. In fact, the Pentagon is exempt from a federal law that requires all federal agencies to complete annual audits.

Ted Wheeler

How do you define money "saved"?

Says the treasurer’s office has "saved $37 million in management costs for the oversight of public investments."

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TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing.

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HALF TRUE – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.

MOSTLY FALSE – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.

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Tracking the promises of John Kitzhaber