Anyone asked for your signature yet? If not, it’ll probably happen sooner rather than later.

A passel of Portlanders – enough to field two baseball teams at last count – vying for the new mayor’s seat are out in force right now, each trying to gather at least 300 signatures by Aug. 29 to qualify for the ballot.

While they’re busy getting John Hancocks, this column will appear weekly to fill readers in on what’s happening in the race.

As candidates knock on doors, several have reported that they’re being questioned, not so much about who to vote for and why, but about how this whole ranked-choice voting thing will work.

“A lot of people are saying, ‘Gee, how do I rank all 18 people when I don’t know them all?’ ” said Jed Rathband, a candidate who also happened to lead the campaign to approve a charter change calling for a popularly elected mayor and the ranked-choice system.

(OK, one more time: With ranked-choice, you vote not only for your top candidate, but also for second-, third-, fourth-place choices – and so on right down to dogcatcher. If no one gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the last-place finisher is dropped and his or her voters’ second choices are allocated. That process continues until one candidate gains a majority. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.)

Rathband thinks that about a half-dozen candidates will emerge from the pack as favorites, so voters won’t necessarily have to keep a list of 18 or 19 names in their head and can instead rank their top five or six.

Candidate Michael Brennan said he’s getting the same questions from voters when he asks them to sign his petition to get on the ballot.

“I do a little better job explaining that (ranked-choice) than trying to explain the latest tally of candidates,” the veteran pol joked. “Ranked-choice voting at least stays the same.”

 

SIGNS OF STRIMLING CANDIDACY

The number of candidates is likely to grow a bit soon.

Democratic former state Sen. Ethan Strimling seems to be doing more than just thinking about running for mayor. Last weekend, he was out going door to door and looking a whole lot like a candidate.

“I’m considering running (for mayor) and I stopped by to hear your ideas about Portland’s future and whether you think we need new leadership,” reads the postcard Strimling dropped off at the door of some residents who weren’t at home to share their ideas.

When politicians want to know whether people want new leadership, they usually envision themselves providing it.

Strimling, currently the CEO of LearningWorks, a nonprofit that helps at-risk youth, would be one of the bigger names in the field that already includes three sitting city councilors, including the current mayor, Nicholas Mavodones.

 

MAKING THE GRADE

Whoever wins in November is going to have to give up his or her day job, since the mayor’s position is considered a full-time position, with the pay – about $65,000 – to match.

For Markos Miller, that will mean teaching Spanish at Deering High School for a couple of months this fall while also running for mayor and, if he wins, leaving the classroom for City Hall.

Miller said he talked to his principal and the school superintendent about the choice he may face in November and said he hopes the door to the classroom won’t close completely if he’s elected.

“It will be a juggling act for a couple of months,” said Miller, who plans to squeeze his campaigning in somewhere between the bell at the end of the day and late-night test and paper grading.

Miller said he loves teaching, but sees the opportunity to have some influence as mayor as worth what he’d give up.

 

‘MISINFORMATION’ SPURS EMAIL IRE

Some people just have a knack for explaining why people should vote for them.

Jay York, an artist who’s running for mayor, recently gave voters a sense of the importance of the post he’s seeking.

York noticed an error in the nomination papers, which said the mayor will have a three-year term in office instead of the correct number, four years.

He sent out a mass email saying the City Clerk’s Office admitted a mistake and then went on to say, “now with all the other misinformation about what the new mayor will do, how it will get done, and how much it will cost, the citizens of Portland have to wonder how long the new mayor will serve. Portlanders have been bamboozled into thinking they are electing a mayor when in fact they are getting a city councilor with a title, longer term and a salary but none of the responsibilities usually associated with a city mayor.”

That should get the supporters fired up.

 

Got a news tip related to the mayor’s race? Contact me at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com