(Photo: ShoForMayor.com)
By now, you’ve probably heard that City Commissioner Sam Adams’ previously smooth road to the mayor’s office has taken a major turn.
Sho Dozono, a well-known and successful businessman, former head of the Portland Business Alliance, and community leader, officially filed his candidacy yesterday.
Many say he poses the first real threat to an Adams victory.
Dozono is already positioning himself as the “citizen’s candidate” and his campaign will likely attempt to paint Adams as a City Hall insider who is beholden to special interests (one of which is of course the all-powerful “bike lobby”).
What does all this mean to Adams’ campaign and the ever-growing momentum for Portland’s bike-friendly future?
Adams has become such a vigorous supporter of a bikes that pundits and the local media have already started giving him the “bike guy” label. Adams has also been in the news a lot lately for his support of bike and transportation-related issues. He recently got Council to approve his $200,000 emergency funding package to improve bike safety at 14 intersections and on January 16th Council will vote on his Safe, Sound, and Green Streets funding initiative, which includes over $24 million for bike-related projects.
Given Adams reputation on bike issues, will Dozono become the candidate of choice for all those Portlanders who aren’t ready to forge ahead in building a more balanced and bike-friendly transportation system?
Will the not-so-bike-friendly Portlanders (yes, they do exist) line up behind Dozono simply because he’s not Adams?
As of right now, I don’t know much about Dozono’s perspective on transportation and he doesn’t have any positions or issue statements on his campaign website. Hopefully sometime soon he’ll reveal his perspectives on the role of bikes in our city.
Dozono also has a monumental task ahead just to keep his campaign alive; he must get 1,500 people to donate $5 by January 31st in order to qualify for public funding.