NOTE: All candidates endorsed in Gorky's official PDX-Music Voter Guide are invited to the Candidate Appreciation Mixer at THE OLD PORTLAND WINE BAR in Portland from 4pm to 7pm on October 23, 2024!
DISCLAIMER: The following represents the views of JESSE VALENCIA on behalf of GORKY RECORDS, FILM, and PUBLISHING and does not reflect the views of MusicPortland or of the Jamie Dunphy for District One campaign.
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Hi friends! Lot to update around here, but for the past year I have been knee-deep in Portland politics…namely music politics. I moved here a little over one year ago, and my friend Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols invited me to a music policy forum a couple months later. The rest, as they say, is history…or soon will be!
I have been particularly involved with MusicPortland as a guest volunteer member of MusicPortland's Music Policy Council, which then led to me being hired by MPC's chair Jamie Dunphy as his campaign for East Portland's District 1 ramped up. Jamie has been leading the fight against Live Nation, and there is a whole bunch of that to read up on, but in the interests of time, with two weeks before the election, let's get to the brass tax of this voter's guide.
MusicPortland does not endorse candidates, but voters still deserve a strong metric to go by when it comes to music policy. I have had a front row seat to this issue every day for the past year, and being a working musician and small business owner myself, I feel it is my responsibility as such to communicate my own informed observations to Portland's music community, for whom music policy is at the very center, so that they too can make informed decisions with their votes.
For this guide, I used a very specific calculus. The ones who made it met some combination of the following criteria:
1. They co-signed a letter disagreeing with Prosper Portland's decision to change Live Nation's land lease to an outright land sale to the developers,
2. They testified at City Hall against the Live Nation venue in MusicPortland's land use hearing.
3. They answered MusicPortland's City Council Candidate Questionnaire in a manner that shows they are aware of the needs of Portland's music sector.
4. They've taken an extra step beyond the above three things doing their part to put music policy front and center in this election. Whether that's giving a public speech, attending an important event (such as MusicPortland's controversial Sep. 3 townhall at Lollipop Shoppe), or championing music policy in their own platforms.
These were the only criteria I used. Once again, I want to reiterate that this voter's guide does not represent the views of MusicPortland or of the Jamie Dunphy campaign, and is intended to inform Portland's music community as to who are the most engaged candidates in music policy this election cycle.
That being said, if you'd like to support me and my work fighting for Portland music policy, please consider buying a LIVE NATION SUCKS Gorky T-Shirt today at GORKSTORE.com!
Thanks and happy voting! Let's elect a pro-music city council for the first time in Portland's history!
