Campaign of Cringe: Rene’s Top 5 PDX Election Fumbles
Rene Gonzalez’ terrible, horrible, no good, very bad campaign for Portland mayor is both mean and clumsy.
“She came from behind, sort of surprised me,” Gonzalez said.”
In early February, Gonzalez claimed he was “assaulted” by a fellow MAX passenger, but video footage released later by Trimet showed “incidental contact” — a fancy way of saying that he completely fabricated the incident.
Rene has been cheerleader #1 for the police union’s ‘Portland-so-dangerous’ campaign (they are best buds). But that not must be hitting like it used to, so Rene took matters into his own hands.
Even fact-checkers with the website X (formerly Twitter) hit Gonzalez’ claim with a Community Note:
Petty Corruption and Wikipedia
Just last month, it was revealed Gonzalez used over $6,000 of city money to pay an outside PR firm, WhiteHat Wiki, to manipulate the mayoral-hopeful’s Wikipedia article.
WhiteHat Wiki claims to be the “the leading ‘white hat’ ethical provider for Wikipedia strategy and problem solving, including crisis management.”
No doubt Gonzalez is keen to suppress public awareness of his various scandals — many of which are described in this article!
The City Elections Office is now investigating.
Any Ngo Fanboy
Rene was caught liking a repugnant post by far-right street provocateur Andy Ngo. If only he’d waited a few months until X (formerly Twitter) owner — and fellow weirdo — Elon Musk turned off the ‘View Likes’ feature across the website. D’oh!
Comic Book Corruption Greases Downtown Real Estate Deal
Usually, Portland politicians are smart enough to break bread with their major corporates backers in the privacy of the Multnomah Athletic Club or at dinner parties in their West Hills mansions.
But a 2022 “gift” from mega-Downtown property inheritor Jordan Schnitzer caught the ire of the public — and the City’s election office.
Per OPB, “Portland City Council hopeful Rene Gonzalez was slapped with a hefty fine Tuesday for accepting — and failing to report — a steep discount on rent on his campaign office from real estate company Schnitzer Properties Management.”
Schnitzer waived rent and charged the Gonzalez campaign only for parking (also at a steep discount). According to data from Portland real estate firm Norris & Stevens, the rent should have been about $7600/month.
That’s substantially more than FREE.
A few months later, Gonzalez announced a cruel ban prohibiting his favorite punching bag — Portland Street Response — from handing out live-saving tents and tarps. Downtown property owners rallied around Gonzalez’ tent distribution ban and recently secured another Gonzalez-led victory when the City enacted an all-out ban on camping.
Unsheltered Portlanders are dying on the street, but some of Portland’s biggest property owners are cashing in.
Rene Will Trip You On The Soccer Pitch
The man is bush league!
P.S. An honorable mention that didn’t make this Top 5 list. Per the Portland Mercury:
“The city commissioner and candidate for mayor insists the city should no longer ‘platform abolitionists’ by allowing comments about police brutality during council votes on legal matters.”
Big business and their puppets like Rene are contemptible — but we can beat them — if regular people get organized.
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