"For the Fourth Time Since 1956, Portland Voters Reject Fluoridation"

"For the fourth time since 1956, Portlanders on Tuesday night rejected a plan to fluoridate city water, 60 percent to 40 percent."

"'There's a libertarian component to Oregon politics ... a kind of opposition to what the establishment might want,' said Bill Lunch, a political science professor at Oregon State University. 'Those who have more money, despite the kind of popular presumptions in this regard, don't always win elections.' ...

In Portland, where a largely Democratic electorate often finds liberal candidates struggling to differentiate themselves, the fluoride debate created stark, and heated, divisions."

Ryan Kost reports for the Portland Oregonian May 21, 2013.