MHCC bond campaign approaching the wire

The Mt. Hood bond measure effort is about to enter the eleventh hour, which is what Paige Richardson, hired as campaign manager, calls the “critical period” in the bond process.

A big question riding supporters’ minds of late is whether or not the college’s PAC (political action committee) has raised enough money to make a strong enough media showing to help win over voters.

According to Richardson, so far the campaign fundraising is going well. “We have another month, and we are on track,” she said.

Many companies and individuals have been donating to the bond efforts recently. Jenzabar Inc., a technology conglomerate heavily integrated with higher education institutions (including Mt. Hood) donated $25,000 to the campaign. Other notable donations include $6,000 from the MHCC Faculty Association and $10,000 from the MHCC Foundation.

“A major vote of confidence,” as Richardson called it, came from Nike, Inc., which chipped in $5,000 that she said represents the first-ever donation Nike has made to an East-Multnomah County cause.

To date (Thursday), the PAC has raised $151,167.55, and currently has $79,028.52 to spend on the paid media scheduled to go out to voters three weeks before the May 17 election.

(Full campaign finance information for the “Friends of Mt. Hood Community College” account is available at oregon.gov, under the committee
database hosted on the Elections Division web page.)

So far, the largest bulk of the money spent by this campaign has been utilized for public opinion research – going out to the community and seeing what citizens’ priorities for the bond are.

Richardson said the campaign has 90 active volunteers, whose efforts include sending out literature to households and “walking and calling” to get the word out about the bond. The campaign has about 350 more volunteers who are less active, and is still hoping to get at least 500 additional volunteers before May, she said.

Richardson said the campaign has held back from spending a lot of the money received yet because it is not close enough to voting time. She said that “close to three weeks before the May election” is when a major effort to promote the bond is planned. That would come in the last week of April.

Campaign staff are gathering their resources and preparing for the big advertising push coming in those three weeks, she said. Plans include communicating a large amount of bond information to unregistered voters in the community. “Some people think that (traditional) mail is a little ‘old school,’ and maybe it is, but it is the only way to get information directly into the hands of the voters,” she said.

Prominent social media exposure is also a key strategy, Richardson said. These include a presence on Facebook, and both digital video and audio of a few past MHCC alumni, discussing their time at the college.

One such alumnus, “Portlandia” television producer David Criss, studied at Mt. Hood under current Integrated Media director J.D. Kiggins. Richardson said Criss he really enjoyed his time here and is an avid supporter of the college.

Any support for the bond is appreciated, Richardson added.

“Please volunteer your time, give a cash donation if you can. Tell your friends and neighbors to vote ‘yes,’ ” she said. “Anything that people can do to help … we will be grateful for.”