Last night was Candidates Gone Wild, the campaign event where style openly trumps substance. Here are three phtographs, taken by my older son, Luke, illustrating why - on balance - I am glad I participated:

All six candidates for Position 1 were invited and played along gamely. Public Campaign Financing has changed the way political campaigns are handled by the media and civic engagement groups. More movement is needed, but this photograph portrays a good start.

The extra "candidate" pictured next to me, without the orange sash denoting those running for Position 1, is Adrian Chen, added as humor by the organizers. I didn't follow the logic in including someone who is not running in the cast, when in Position 2 and the Mayoral race many real candidates were not invited. As I've said often, more movement is needed, but having all six Position 1 candidates on stage, with equal opportunity to look foolish, was a step forward in democracy in Portland.

This image, alone, made the evening worthwhile for me. One of my goals was to make people smile. This shot was taken while my husband and I were performing our "talent". Those are happy, friendly smiles.

Job done.

We had fun. I saw more of my husband Steve in the past two weeks, as we practiced our song, than in the previous two months. Our older son Luke and daughter Ali helped out with logistics for the event, and younger son Maxwell (away at college in New Jersey) is keeping us updated with web links to kind feedback today. Sabbath as family bonding - what a concept.

Storm Large, rocking out in the right of the photograph, is awesome. She's beautiful, grounded, and kind. She took the time before the show to help me be less nervous backstage. And she sang her song with perfection, heart, and passion. Count me as a major Storm Large fan for ever.

The show had perhaps one minute for each candidate to give one answer on one real policy issue. So here are the words to our rendition of Iron Man, which I used to try to get my core message out:

* Note: this line was not actually sung at CGW. I had a brain-freeze, despite having sung it approximately 150 times while driving to and from events the past two weeks. Thank you to everyone who applauded when I picked up on the next line. I greatly appreciated your encouragement.

My apologies to everyone who previously enjoyed Ozzy's classic. It will probably never be the same, for those present at the Roseland last night.