City Council + County Commissioners
These are the folks who help decide what Portland looks like in 5 years. Choose wisely.
Full disclosure. The entire reason this substack exists was as an exercise in analyzing and ultimately endorsing the somewhat radical charter reform to our city government.
And now here we are. It’s pretty exhausting!
There are a lot of candidates across four districts, the vast majority of whom do not have governmental experience. Things could get weird.
How to separate the wheat from the chaff? Ultimately these are the folks who set policy for the city. So first and foremost, I care about their policy positions! I’m interested in enduring changes that will decrease (or at least stabilize) rents on the supply side. Otherwise I’m interested in practical, creative, and evidence-based approaches to solving as many of Portland’s enduring problems as they can muster.
Beyond that, I just care that they look like serious candidates. Generally this means they have submitted to the voter’s guide, they have a real website, and they haven’t said anything too weird. I’ll admit: it’s 50% art, 40% science. 10% vibes.
For the sake of my sanity, I’ll go deepest on District 2 (my district), but I’ll touch on the others.
Be warned, outside of District 2 I only gave these a more passing glance. If you are in one of these districts I would recommend spending a bit more time.
I kept things alphabetized, rather trying to do 1-N ranking for each district.
City Council District 1 (East Portland)
Folks I’m most inclined toward
Candace Alvalos - Progressive advocate with lots of policy experience, particularly around climate and policing.
Jamie Dunphy1 — Worked as Nick Fish’s policy advisor for 5+ years and is an advocate against the LiveNation venue.
David Linn - I appreciate his budgeting-heavy and significant school board experience.
Steph Routh — My Top Choice? — Transit advocate and urban planning wonk.
Other folks I would seriously consider
Timur Ender
Terrence Hayes
Cayle Tern
Folks I would not consider
Noah Ernst — Perhaps it resonates in East Portland, but I would have trouble voting for anyone who wants to replace bike lanes with car lanes.
Loretta Smith — Multnomah County Commissioner, 2011-2018, among other things. To say her track record of accomplishments as a Commissioner during that period is lacking is an understatement. I would much rather new blood.
City Council District 2 (N/NE Portland)
Folks I’m most inclined toward
Mariah Hudson — Mariah is the one candidate I know personally. Back in ~2017, we spent about a year together on the NECN board. She went on to chair that board after I left it. I always found her pragmatic, thoughtful, and action-oriented. Her platform seems similarly sensible.
Elana Pirtle-Guiney — Former legislative director/poliocy advisor for Kate Brown. Many of the problems we have to solve will require changes to County policy or state law. Honestly, I kind of hate her voter’s guide statement but she sounds reasonable in interviews, the platform on her website is fine (if a bit vague) and the WW gave her their top billing. Having someone with her legislative experience will be incredibly valuable on Council and she’s the only one who has that.
Dan Ryan - The only sitting Councilperson who is again running for Council. It took quite a bit to get off the ground, but he was the one who spearheaded the safe rest villages. They have had their issues but ultimately I have found them to be a meaningful step in the right direction.
Nat West — The owner of Reverend Nat’s cider. His practicality, coupled with his background as a small business owner plus a Trimet bus driver is unique.
Other folks I seriously considered
James Armstrong - Accountant who owns three eye care clinics, on the board of Alberta Main Street.
Michelle DePass — City of Portland employee since the 90s, former school board member. Failed to submit to the voter’s guide in time.
Debbie Kitchin — small business owner, generally says sane things about affordability, 9-1-1 response times, etc.
Mike Marshall — Pro-detox centers, was against Measure 110 before it was cool
Tiffani Penson — PCC board of director, passionate about safety being a prerequisite for development and growth.
Bob Simral — Business guy, wants to expand PSR and turn school buses into mobile care units.
Laura Streib — Arts non-profit leader, all about collaboration.
Folks I did not seriously consider
Reuben Berlin — Finance guy whgo is all about local (banking, endowments, businesses). This is perhaps uncharitable but his voter’s guide submission gives me vague “ad for his small business” vibes.
Marnie Glickman — Progressive with green new deal bona fides. I like her! But..
I’m going to need to do a quick aside here because it’s about to come up a lot.
Glickman (and many others) explicitly supports “A Renter’s Bill of Rights.”
I recommend you read through it. If you do, you might think a lot of it sounds great. And, to be clear, articles in the renter’s bill of rights are good. Personally, I especially like articles 1, 4, and 5. Article 3, seems OK. Article 6 intrigues me — I’d love to understand how that might work in practice. However: article 8 (rent control) has significant, empirically demonstrated negative impacts on housing stock. Long term, rent control dramatically raises housing costs for anyone not in a rent controlled apartment (see: SF, NYC). Article 2—mandatory relocation assistance—raises rental prices too, but it’s less impactful especially since Portland already haa a form of this. I would also expect there are significant negative repercussions of article 9 (linking minimum wage to 1 bedroom apartment costs), though I’m not exactly certain what form they’d take (inflation vs. fewer units)
To me, anyone who signs on to this bill of rights fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the housing and rental price crisis. This set of policies would only exacerbate the housing crisis.Sameer Kanal — See Marnie Glickman, re: “renter’s bill of rights”
Will Mespelt — Focused on homelessness and clean streets but doesn’t really have any new policy positions or much of a track record that struck me as interesting compared to other law and order candidates.
Chris Olson — See Marnie Glickman, re: “renter’s bill of rights”
Jennifer Park — Progressive, worked in several non-profits. But again, “renter’s bill of rights”.
Jonathan Tasini — Non-profit director. “Renter’s bill of rights” supporter.
Nabil Zaghoul — It’s one thing to be endorsed by Deborah Kafourey, it’s another to use her quote in your voter’s guide submission. It strikes me as tone-deaf when there are plenty of other interesting, and equally progressive, options available.
My final ranking
Elana Pirtle-Guiney
Mariah Hudson
Dan Ryan
Nat West
James Armstrong
Tiffani Penson
City Council District 3 (SE Portland)
Folks I’m most inclined toward
Phillipe Knab — Built and funded “right to council” program for low-income tenants (which is probably bad for housing prices, but morally right), who also endorses expanded street response.
Steve Novick - Former councilman, with a long paper trail (and a hook for a hand!) Probably better suited for a pure policy role (this council) than the policy + managerial role of the old council.
Cristal Azul Otero — Thoughtful insider critic of the JOHS who wants to streamline permitting and cleaner business tax structure.
Jon Walker — My top choice? — The most boring nerd in Portland! His focus on zoning, permitting, and rapidly expanded shelter space tips it for me.
Other folks I would seriously consider
Rex Burkholder
Jesse Cornett
Daniel DeMelo
Chris Flanary
Clifford Higgins
Kezia Wanner
Folks I would not consider
Harrison Kass — Policy advisor to Gonzalez. That alone isn’t disqualifying but I see nothing in his platform that shows daylight between him and Gonzalez.
Tiffany Koyama Lane — Renter’s Bill of rights supporter.
Angelita Morillo — I actually find a ton of what she says super compelling! Her push for a centralized sanitation is interesting, for example. But again, she’s a Renter’s Bill of Rights supporter.
City Council District 4 (NW/SW Portland + Sellwood)
Folks I’m most inclined toward
Olivia Clark — Experienced insider (under Kitzhaber) and transport lobbyist, who helped secure funding for Trimet. Has helped run an affordable housing nonprofit.
Sarah Silkie — Civil engineer who knows the system. Making Portland Street Response 24/7 across the city, but then evaluating them is a hard yes for me. (Plus the WW claims she’s funny.)
Eric Zimmerman — My top choice? — Army vet and consistent critic of the lack of urgency around homelessness and safety. Honestly he’s too conservative for my tastes but he’d also be representing the west side so that tracks. I love his call for building Single-Room Occupancy apartments, which I see as single best solution for addressing homelessness long term.
Other folks I would seriously consider
Eli Arnold
Lisa Freeman
Chad Lykins
Bob Weinstein
Folks I would not consider
Ciatta Thompson — Limited experience but a common sense progressive with a compelling mix of policy positions. Unfortunately, supports a Renter’s Bill of Rights.
Mitch Green — Civil servant, progressive who supports a Renter’s Bill of Rights.
Finally, there’s Multnomah County Commissioner. We already had primaries here, so mostly I’m just repeating myself.
Multnomah County Commissioner, District 1
Back in May I said:
That leaves Meghan Moyer and Vadim Mozyrsky. Neither excite but both strike me as likely capable. How you vote should probably be based on your opinion on homeless camping bans.
If you are pro-aggressive camping bans, vote Mozyrsky, if you are anti, vote Moyer.
I think the logic still holds. Based on the couple of interviews I’ve seen in the intervening months, I would personally choose Moyer.
Multnomah County Commissioner, District 2
Again, from May:
There are a lot of credible candidates here. Ultimately it mostly depends on your opinion of former mayor Sam Adams, who was effective but has a … checkered past.
…
But I’m going to diverge from all the papers in the city and recommend Nick Hara…but expect Adams or Singleton to win.
I stand by it.2 Nick Hara was the most compelling! But the choice before us is between Adams3 and Singleton.
I liked Singleton in her primary interviews, since she seemed petty clear-eyed about the challenges with the the JOHS.
Still, it comes down to risk. With Singleton, the risk is that she’ll be a rubber stamp for existing policy. With her past, I trust that she’d treat homeless folks with humanity. But she hasn’t done quite enough, between the primary and now, to convince me that she’ll tackle the problem with urgency.
Meanwhile, knives will be out for Adams if he does anything stupid, or if he’s too combative. And since the position was vacated by Jayapal, it’s a two year term, not the usual four. If we don’t like what we see, we’ll have the ample opportunity soon enough to vote him out. We can at least trust he’ll be active on the Commission.
It could be a tumultuous time with a new mayor and very new council. Having someone on the County Commission with Adams’ experience may prove invaluable.
I’m voting for Sam Adams
Thus concludes my four part election primer.
Mail your ballot this week or drop it off by 8pm on Tuesday.
Jamie Dunphy, David Linn, and Cayle Tern all support a “Renter’s Bill of Rights”, which in District 2, 3, and 4 I found disqualifying. In District 1, there are simply fewer great candidates. I’m also more sympathetic to folks supporting it there, as East Portland has, comparatively, yet to gentrify quite as much so there are many more low income folks at risk of displacement.
Even if Nick isn’t (yet) a Mortlandia subscriber.
Adams didn’t get his info in the voter’s guide in time, which may ultimately be his downfall. (Normally I consider that disqualifying but I figure an ex-mayor can be judged more on their track record than a new entrant to the political field.)