Portland Politics

“The city of Portland is governed by the Portland City Council, which includes the Mayor and four Commissioners—and an auditor. Each is elected citywide to serve a four year term.” -Wikipedia

Current Elected Officials (7/2/09)

Mayor Sam Adams
- Beat out-of-touch local businessman Sho Dozono in May 2008 with 58.64% in a 13 person race. (Sho received 33.31%, and the others are all loony.)
Commissioner No. 3 Dan Saltzman
- In May 2006 Saltzman beat Amanda Fritz 57.49% (she got 24.61%).
Commissioner No. 1 Amanda Fritz
- Beat Charles Lewis in the Nov 4, 2008 Primary with 70.87%. It was pretty clear that Charles Lewis didn't try hard enough.
Commissioner No. 4 Randy Leonard
- No one beats Randy. It's like a rule. He won with 71.69% in May 2008.
Commissioner No. 2 Nick Fish
- Nick killed it in May 2008 with 61.40%. He took over Erik Sten's seat, who quit his job. Nick ran for Commish No. 1 against Sam Adams back in 2004, but Adams beat him.
Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade
- LaVonne ran in a special election on May 19, 2009. She won 98.28% of the vote.

Elections

All City Council seats carry a four year term. Upcoming elections are:
- May 2010
  - Commissioner No. 2 - Nick Fish
    - Will run again, and will win.
  - Commissioner No. 3 - Dan Saltzman
    - Will likely run again, and will win if he does. But he'll have been a commish for 12 years in 2010. Does he dream of being Mayor?
  - City Auditor - LaVonne Griffin-Valade
    - No one wants this job. She'll run un-opposed.
- May 2012
  - Commissioner No. 1 - Amanda Fritz
    - Fritz will stay, but I could see someone viable running against her. Depends on her performance over the next 4 years.
  - Commissioner No. 4 - Randy Leonard
    - 2012 will be 10 years for Randy. Does he have his eye on the Mayor's chair?
  - Mayor - Sam Adams
    - With all the scandal so far, Adams is going to have to squeaky clean and make some big wins to be able to run again. There is a lot of ammo against him.

How To Get Elected

Incumbents Never Lose - Wait for someone to quit, or run for a higher office.
Candidates Generally Come From The Staff - Go work for someone in City Hall.

Historical Look At Elected Officials

	1994 General (May)	1996 Primary (May)	1996 Special (Sep)	1996 General (Nov)	1998 Primary (May)	1998 General
Mayor		Vera Katz v the field		Vera Katz
C.1		Jim Francesconi v Gail Shelby		Jim Francesconi v Gail Shilbley
C.2	Earl Blumenauer		Erik Sten v Chuck Duffy	Erik Sten v Chuck Duffy	Erik Sten v Ed Lindsey	Erik Sten
C.3	Gretchen Kafoury				Dan Saltzman v Tanya Collier	Dan Saltzman
C.4		Charlie Hales v Paul McCoy		Charlie Hales
Auditor	Barbara Clark				Gary Blackmer	Gary Blackmer

	2000 Primary (May)	2000 General (Nov)	2002 Primary (May)	2002 General (Nov)	2004 Primary (May)	2004 General (Nov)
Mayor	Vera Katz (55) v Jake Oken-Berg (26)	Vera Katz			Tom Potter (42) v Jim Francesconi (34)	Tom Potter (61) v Jim Francesconi (38)
C.1	Jim Francesconi (67) v Gloria Harris (21)	Jim Francesconi			Sam Adams (37) v Nick Fish (47)	Sam Adams (51) v Nick Fish (47)
C.2			Erik Sten v Liz Callison	Erik Sten
C.3			Dan Saltzman v Peter Alexander	Dan Saltzman
C.4	Charlie Hales (63) v Ted Piccolo (35)	Charlie Hales		Randy Leonard v Serena Cruz	Randy Leonard (52)	Randy Leonard
Auditor			Gary Blackmer	Gary Blackmer

	2006 Primary (May)	2006 General (Nov)	2008 Primary (May)	2008 General (Nov)	2009 Special (May)	2010 Primary
Mayor			Sam Adams (58) v Sho Dozono (33)	Sam Adams
C.1			Amanda Fritz (42) v Charles Lewis (12)	Amanda Fritz (70) v C Lewis (28)
C.2	Erik Sten (50) v Ginny Burdick (13)	Erik Sten	Nick Fish (61) v. Jim Middaugh (21)	Nick Fish
C.3	Dan Saltzman (57) v Amanda Fritz (24)	Dan Saltzman
C.4			Randy Leonard v Field	Randy Leonard
Auditor	Gary Blackmer	Gary Blackmer			LaVonne Griffin-Valade (98)

Potential Candidates

Mayor Adams Staff

Carol Duong - Mayor’s Policy Fellow
Warren Jimenez - Deputy Chief of Staff
Tom Miller - Chief of Staff
Public Advocates
- Dan Anderson - Bureau of Transportation
- Emerald Bogue - Bureau of Planning and Sustainability
- Amy Stephens - Mayor’s Public Advocate
Jennifer Yocom - Arts and Culture Director
More Staff

Oregon Politics

Kitzhaber is running for Gov in 2010 (announced Sep, 09)
Bill Bradbury is also running (?) Willy Week