Nostalgia, Campaign Secrets, and Two Requests

This is the time of year when we remember the days of auld lang syne (whatever the heck that means), and today is an especially auld-lang-syny day for me. Sixteen years ago, I flew from Washington, DC to Buffalo, New York to ask a Federal Judge to approve our $129 million settlement of the Love Canal case. It was all pretty cool. A few days earlier, I got to meet Janet Reno, to prepare her for a press conference on the settlement that she held with EPA Administrator Carol Browner. And apparently (although I didn't see this myself), after the Buffalo news stations interviewed me about the settlement, CNN picked it up. My seven seconds of fame.
 
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich was busy shutting down the government, and Bill Clinton was smart enough to make sure the American people knew that Gingrich was to blame. I kinda think our current President should have studied that episode more closely; maybe he should be willing to let the Tea Party shut down the government for a bit, instead of agreeing to some of the ridiculous demands they've made as the price of keeping it running - like the one about not enforcing rules against energy-inefficient light bulbs, or the one about prohibiting Federal health officials from advocating gun control. (Or maybe those were part of the Senate payroll tax deal? Whichever, our side shouldn't be agreeing to such silliness.) 
 
At some point during the shutdown, I saw Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt at a gym. I went up to him and said "Good week, isn't it, Mr. Secretary?" He smiled and said "At last! At last!" He had no idea who I was, but he immediately knew what I was referring to - the fact that the polls showed the American people were mad at Newt Gingrich and his pals for shutting the government down.
 
OK - that's enough nostalgia. Now for the campaign secrets! We have a poll. Or, rather, the Portland Business Alliance did a poll on all the city candidates, and someone leaked it to me. It showed that among the 30% of Portlanders who had an opinion of me, 26% had a positive opinion, and 4% a negative one. But 70% had no opinion, positive or negative.
 
Given that I've only run for office once before, and that in a primary three and a half years ago, I was actually pretty pleased with those numbers. (Just to give you some perspective, as of the day of the poll – October 1 – none of the the mayoral candidates were as well known as I was. That’s why they’re all furiously raising money to buy TV ads.) But the poll made it quite clear that we need to run a strong campaign to ensure that at least 25 of those 70% who have no opinion of me develop a positive opinion before May. So, alas, I need to keep asking you generous folks for money. Since this is the anniversary of that $129 million Love Canal settlement, I ask that 31 of you give $129. If you do, then we will reach our target of raising a total of $185,000 by year's end. (We'll also get there if 16 give $129 and 31 give $64.50.) If you can do that, I'd be grateful.
 
One more request: A couple of months ago I visited Dignity Village, the clean, self-reliant, no-drugs, no-smoking village of small wooden structures inhabited and managed by about fifty homeless Portlanders. I asked my resident tour guides what they needed and they said "jobs." I asked if they could use anything short of that, and they said "flashlights - WITH BATTERIES! - and propane." (They heat the little wood structures with propane.) So if you have a flashlight (with batteries!) or some propane to donate, let me know, and we'll figure out how to collect it and get it to Dignity Village.
 
All my best,

-- Steve