Let’s keep it positive, people
Filed under: Articles by Ralph Carmona, Campaign Trail, Portland Issues
The sudden negative campaigning among established insiders in the Mayoral election, is as bad as the negative insider governance going on in City Hall.
It only confirms the credibility of my mayoral candidacy. I know the media loves this stuff – negative campaigning plays to Richard Nixon’s view that all good news is bad news. This is why my positive approach of experience, accomplishment and being the “outsider” is resonating with voters who do not have a score to settle or any skin in Portland’s insider game of politics. It is why Portlanders will elect me as their next mayor on November 8.
A month ago, we witnessed political gang-bang attack on the then perceived front-runner – a member of the city council. The past week, we have witnessed a former Democrat state legislator questioned about his civility, conviction, and sense of inclusion by another former Democrat state legislator and a Portland Chamber of Commerce PAC-supported Democrat political consultant.
I can tell you the voters hate seeing an establishment insider fragmented election just as much as they hate establishment insider fragmented governance.
A long time ago, I have learned that getting personal and dirty in campaigns is like wrestling with pigs. If you wrestle with pigs, you get dirty, smelly, and begin to look like a pig.
My intent, as I indicated when this negative campaigning started, is to conduct a nonpartisan positive campaign in the public interest. And my experience has long taught me not to wrestle with the pigs. This is why voters will look beyond the insider supporters and vote for an outsider with experience and accomplishment.
All 15 of us will have to work together once a mayor is elected. I look forward to being that mayor, but if the voters decide otherwise, I plan to work respectfully and positively with the person who is elected.
Remarks from Portland Tomorrow candidates event
Filed under: Articles by Ralph Carmona, Campaign Trail, Portland Issues
Ralph Carmona talks with voters after the Portland Tomorrow forum. (Portland Press Herald photo by Jill Brady)
At the Portland Tomorrow candidates’ forum this week, I shared two fundamental reasons why the voters I talk with are supporting me: lifelong accomplishments and independent leadership change.
When I talk about my over 40 years of lifelong accomplishments — in the public and private sectors, civil rights and public education – they respond positively because experience and lifelong achievements matter.
Independent leadership change involves:
1) Being outside and independent of the city hall power structure
2) Going beyond the Portland Democratic Party power establishment
3) Instead of positioning for higher office, taking on the hard issues as in the areas I mentioned; and
4) With the sole ambition of being Portland’s mayor.
Voters like my mayoral desire to embrace others outside of Portland to diminish this two-Maine mindset.
One of the first things I will do as your mayor is have a one-on-one meeting with Governor LePage, to get a sense of where he sees Portland in the Maine economy.
Now about 10 percent of the voters do express support for another candidate. And I respect that. I ask them to make me their second choice and about 90 percent of them do.
I ask you to make me your first choice and for two distinguished and positive reasons: lifelong achievements and independent leadership change.
In my afterthoughts, I stressed, “all the candidates have the right to run their campaign as they see fit. I intend to run a positive campaign about why I should be mayor and what makes me different from the others.”
I mentioned that one of “some of the Portland Tomorrow folk mentioned that ‘my hill to climb is that I have not been in Portland very long’. But when I talk with voters, they do not care if I have been here one year or 100 years, they want to know what I am going to do for Portland.”
I talked about how “almost all the candidates are on the same page in addressing what Portland needs and the issue is, not what needs to be done, but how we do it. And that is not easy to explain. What the great writer David Brooks calls prudence and temperament – the ability to see what issues are key and the emotional intelligence to bring people together – are rooted in experience and study. This is when I share with voters my Earl Warren Story. Here was a Governor of California who cut a deal with President Eisenhower to become chief justice of the US Supreme Court. Warren had never been a judge, but he had temperament and prudence. He faced nine justices, like our nine councilors, who were fragmented on the biggest decision facing the Supreme Court in the 20th Century – Brown v. Board of Education – apartheid in the South. Warren had two pencil jars in his office; one had nine pencils, the other had none. He put one in the empty one (which was his vote) and proceeded to work on the other eight justices until he got a unanimous decision. That is prudence and temperament and it is where I am different from the other candidates.
I am also different in that I do not intend to be a local, but state and national voice for Portland. I will work to appear on CNN and Fox News because we need to be part of that national urban conversation to position ourselves for the shift in federal spending. With my national experience, I will also reach out to mayors throughout this nation – some of whom I know.
If you make me your mayor, this country will talk a lot more about Portland, Maine than Portland, Oregon.”
Yard signs are here!
Filed under: Articles about Ralph Carmona, Campaign Trail
Candidates got to ask each other questions at last week's League of Young Voters event. (Photo by Gordon Chibroski, Portland Press Herald)
Look for my yard signs springing up around town this week! If you’d like one, e-mail ralph@carmonamayor.com and I’ll bring it to your house myself.
Maine Points interview
Filed under: Articles about Ralph Carmona, Audio, Campaign Trail
WGAN’s Mike Violette interviewed me July 17 about my campaign, and he did a great job guiding a fun and informative conversation. Some of the things we talked about:
- The importance of people coming together from different perspectives to make progress
- The influence of the old Lloyd Bridges series “Sea Hunt” on my life
- Sustainable economic growth and business
- My journey to Portland (thanks to my wonderful wife Vana)
- Public safety and the choice of a new police chief
- My highest political ambition (which is to be mayor of Portland!)
- Growth and revenue from the talented people of Portland
- My support for the Thompson’s Point project as a growth engine for locally-owned businesses (not “trinkets and trash” culture)
- Portland’s graffiti ordinance
Notes from the campaign trail
Filed under: Articles by Ralph Carmona, Campaign Trail
In talking with elderly Republican and Democratic voters, I am finding surprising support for my desire “to get things done.” One started our conversations by telling me that “all your guys are clowns” and ended by saying, “I like what you say and you are not a clown.”
Another older Republican voter was impressed by my sense of the nation and how I was able to come from a poor environment to where I am today. “I do not care where you came from, I am amazed at what you have been able to do with your life.”
A moderate Democrat said those people are wasting money money hiring this new mayor and picking a city manager from out of town. I explained that sometimes we have to go outside, like our departing police chief and and now is the time to go inside. And savings can be made up with someone on the outside with 40 years of experience, who knows how to find them. “That is just what we need!” he said. “Good luck to you!”
One former Portland city executive, a Republican, asked how I have been able to do what I have done in the relatively short time I have been in Portland. I explained that I chose to come to Portland. It is my life, I have no higher ambition, and my accomplishment comes from 40 years of experience. After hearing the details on that, she said, “you are just the kind of person we need. Thanks for stopping by.”
A Green party member and his Democratic partner were both impressed by my desire to change our car culture and create a sustainable green economy, as well as my involvement in civil rights and support for gay marriage. “You look like the right kind of guy.”
A staunch Republican talked with me for 20 minutes. He described himself as anti-government, anti-George Bush (father and son), libertarian, and said “greed is good.” He added: “I have nothing against gay marriage, but we are giving them tax benefits, and we should leave it to religion.” I said: “We are simply allowing them to get the same benefits straight folk have, and that when you get married you need a city — not a church — license.” I added that “greedy people in politics, business and life can be destructive. The bottom line is, as a leading Founding Father reminds us, none of us are angels and we need a government to govern us and then govern itself. That’s why our government is inherently inefficient. But, you know what? It is the best government in the world!”
He agreed and said “I like you because you listened to me. Some people do not like to hear what I have to say.” I emphasized that “I will always be there to listen, not always agree, but listen.” “It is a long ways away,” he concluded. “But I like what I hear from you.” I told him: “You might even endorse me,” and gave him my business card.
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Carmona for Mayor
P.O. Box 15111
Portland, ME 04112-
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