Light-rail supporters are trying to get on the fast track to catch up in the Clackamas County battle for votes in the September special election.

Supporters of the new 7.4-mile, $1.49 billion Orange Line from Portland to Milwaukie are pressing their case as county voters face Measure 3-401, which would require a public vote on county funding of rail projects.

Positively Clackamas, a political action committee that hopes to gather around $100,000 to fight the measure on the Sept. 18 special election ballot, is just starting to raise money.

The group just formed in the spring, according to light-rail supporter Peter Toll, a financial adviser and longtime Democratic activist, when “some people in Oak Grove who were concerned that the negative forces in the county were getting out of hand.” The Oak Grove residents called a meeting that attracted a diverse crowd from every corner of the region.

“We want this to be a grassroots campaign including a wide swath of people from all walks of life,” Toll said.

The measure has been supported by Clackamas Rail Vote, a PAC that was part of the original group collected about 10,000 valid signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. It has so far raised more than $7,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, including a nearly $6,000 cash contribution from the original committee.

Supporters of the Portland-to-Milwaukie light-rail project call it good for the economy and the environment. Oak Grove neighborhood activists Fred Nelligan and Eleanore Hunter are among the leaders of the new PAC. Joining that fight from Lake Oswego are retired attorney David Jorling and Judie Hammerstad, a former mayor.

Also opposing an extra barrier to rail construction, Oregon City Mayor Doug Neeley supports a trolley to town from Park Avenue.

“That kind of historical perspective would be attractive for us since we had the state’s first trolley,” Neeley said.

Positively Clackamas isn’t likely to see active campaigning from county commissioners, however. Jim Bernard joined an unsuccessful campaign against the Sellwood Bridge fee repeal. Ann Lininger also campaigned unsuccessfully against the urban-renewal vote measure.

But the Democratic Party of Clackamas County has come out against the anti-light rail measure and is planning a grassroots campaign to defeat it. And an informal group called Clackamas Communities is mounting a social media campaign against it while deciding whether to form its own PAC.

Tilt away from urban areas

Backers of Measure 3-401 call the project an unaffordable boondoggle that will bring increased crime and traffic headaches to Milwaukie neighborhoods.

Anti-light rail county commission chair candidate John Ludlow is calling himself the frontrunner in the November election because he received more votes in the May primary than three other candidates, but he’s still having to runoff with incumbent Chairwoman Charlotte Lehan.

“When road funding is stolen from the people of Clackamas County and diverted to pay for light rail (at $205 million per mile) it not only affects how you get ‘from here to there,’ it negatively affects businesses and the flow of commerce,” Ludlow said.

Positively Clackamas strongly disagrees with the analysis by Ludlow and Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts, who endorsed Measure 3-401. Hunter refers to the opinion of Clackamas County’s legal counsel that commissioners could be forced to go to a vote every time they wanted to invest in new transit police officers or safety lights along the line. She accuses the sheriff of confusing people when he talks about the line in the context of Clackamas County budget.

“The sheriff’s concerned about public safety, and so are we, because of the unintended consequences,” Hunter said. “The measure goes too far and is dangerous to the citizens of this county.”

A Clackamas County survey in February asked 400 people about the light-rail project, and the only sub-group of people who overwhelmingly said they felt positively were residents who have lived in the county for fewer than 10 years. With 37 percent of residents saying they felt positively about light rail in the survey, they were almost evenly matched with the 34 percent who felt negatively about the project.

Clackamas County residents who live in urban areas are much more likely to feel positively about the project than those in rural areas. Residents of Lake Oswego, Milwaukie, Oak Grove and Gladstone were positive about light rail coming 48 percent of the time. West Linn, Oregon City, Wilsonville, Canby and Molalla came in at 42 percent positive. At 41 percent, Happy Valley, Damascus and Sandy were just below the other cities.

In the rest of the county, 28 percent of residents had positive feelings about the light-rail project, according to the survey.

“Clearly, Measure 3-401 is an effort to tilt the voter sway to the unincorporated areas that would not be affected by the light rail that’s next coming to Clackamas County by way of Gladstone to Oregon City,” Toll said.