Late last year, this race looked like a sleepy, run-of-the-mill contest between two white, Ivy League, Lincoln High grads trying (largely in vain) to pinpoint a difference between themselves. But then the race got messy, turning into an old-school populist scrum.
Mayoral forums were interrupted—repeatedly, by Sara Long, a candidate for another office—when only state Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Commissioner Jules Bailey were invited to speak.
One candidate, Jessie Sponberg, got kicked out of an event on housing for having sharp elbows on the issue of rent control. Another, Sean Davis, left in solidarity.
The Oregonian actually had to pull the plug on a mayoral event over vague "threats," after some folks (including Bailey and Wheeler) thought it was stupid only Bailey and Wheeler would get the platform.
This city was better for all of it.
When the Mercury Endorsement Strike Force reached out to most of the 15 mayoral candidates—the vast majority of who have no reasonable shot at gaining office—for a joint interview, we could have found ourselves mired in a time-wasting slog. Instead, we found a table of well-informed, thoughtful, and often inventive candidates.
Bim Ditson, jeweler and drummer for And And And, makes an impassioned, well-reasoned case for retaining this city's artsy grit in the face of change. David Schor, an attorney with the Oregon Department of Justice, is the only candidate offering concrete specifics on how to find new money for housing—his tax-the-rich proposal would probably play very well with most Portlanders. No one speaks with more empathy about this city's escalating homelessness crisis (or drops better rap tracks touting their candidacy) than activist Sponberg.
And, of course, we have candidates Wheeler and Bailey—so similar in their accomplishments, qualifications, and policy positions that they were often forced to lean on campaign finance pledges to set themselves apart. Early in the race, Bailey vowed to accept no more than $250 per contributor. Wheeler, raking in thousands at a time from Portland developers, made lots of noise about reporting those donations within two days and not taking money from "independent organizations."
Of the two, we prefer Wheeler, who came off as the more genuine candidate on the campaign trail. He's smart and affable, and—if the scant polling we've seen is any indication—might well be the city's next mayor. Wheeler's also the candidate favored by the big-money crowd—including the often-awful PBA. That's never a particularly positive sign. (Side note: The Mercury Endorsement Strike Force was deeply divided as to whether Wheeler most resembles present-day George McFly from Back to the Future, an "old Owen Wilson," or Editor-in-Chief Wm. Steven Humphrey's father-in-law. It's created a pretty big rift, actually.)
Bailey's got plenty of fine attributes, but often struggles to get beyond a hokey script, and has waffled on a key aim of Portland police reform: doing away with a rule that gives police 48 hours after they shoot someone before they have to speak with internal affairs investigators.
Don't worry about voting for either of them. Instead, our pick is relative unknown and progressive urbanist Sarah Iannarone.
Iannarone's a Southeast Portland café owner whose day job is working for a Portland State University (PSU) program called First Stop Portland (with Mayor Charlie Hales' wife, Nancy). Basically, she shows visiting dignitaries around town, explaining the city's finer points. She's also a PSU doctoral candidate studying sustainable cities.
Iannarone's most unique strength is her progressive transportation bent—something that earned her a nod from political action committee Bike Walk Vote. She makes a lot of good points about reducing our obsession with automobiles (which, like it or not, contributes to Portland's affordability crisis)—including potentially making downtown car-free in coming decades. No one else in the race is saying that, let alone studying how it might be accomplished.
On other pressing issues, Iannarone offers more compelling answers than other candidates. She's calling loudly for a rent freeze, and makes the case that the possible failure of said freeze, at the hands of a state preemption, is no reason not to explore it.
"I hate the it's-not-legal argument," she told us. "Gay marriage wasn't legal. True leaders do what's right."
She's not alone in that feeling, of course, but Iannarone strikes us as the best candidate to put it forward. She readily tangles with more-seasoned opponents Bailey and Wheeler, is a fixture at notable city council hearings and housing protests alike, and knows her way around planning policy.
Iannarone's also a density booster who gets that Portland needs to be smarter about how it grows, even as NIMBYs lose their minds. She's not afraid of organized homeless camps that have been proven to help people in crisis. And holy shit, you guys—she actually lives east of 60th!
Sure, there are things that give us pause. Iannarone failed to pay some of her income taxes from 2010 to 2013, and only recently had a $4,500 state-issued lien lifted. She told the Oregonian the issue was due to an "accounting error." It's not a great look.
Iannarone's also had one pie-in-the-sky prediction publicly shot down during this campaign. When she announced her candidacy in January, she assured reporters that she could raise $100,000 in short order, saying that's the amount she'd need to run a credible campaign. As we write this—three months later, to the day—she's still trying to crack $33,500.
Could Iannarone's current rosy plans suffer a similar fate? Sure. But pretty much any campaign pledge from any candidate could, and it's not exactly a bad sign that this town's largest bank accounts aren't ready to get behind her.
As for the tax situation, be concerned if you want. Fiscal smarts are important in Portland City Hall—one reason there's an entire budget office to help the mayor make prudent choices.
The bottom line is this: We on the Endorsement Strike Force have an inkling of where we'd like this city to be, and Iannarone is the most likely choice to push it in that direction.