You might have missed it on Friday afternoon, but the extremely close race for president of Metro has officially been won by Tom Hughes.
Hughes, a former mayor of Hillsboro, won a close contest (less than 1,000 votes in over 400,000 cast) over Bob Stacey, the former director of the land-use non-profit 1000 Friends of Oregon.
Both men are Democrats, but Hughes was the more conservative candidate. While Bob Stacey was outspoken in his opposition to the Columbia River Crossing, Hughes supports the controversial project. Hughes also got into a bit of hot water earlier this month when we found out he spoke in support of a bike registration fee as a way to counter the perception that bikes don’t pay their fair share.
I’ve yet to meet Hughes, but look forward to doing so. While he’s clearly not in the same boat as Stacey (who used to work for Earl Blumenauer), or former Metro leader David Bragdon when it comes to transportation, he might be more of a unifying force for our region. He’s perceived as a job creator and someone with a lot of respect from the surburbs — both areas where Metro’s reputation could use help.
Here’s what he said about his victory on his campaign website:
“… despite our divisions, we are united by our common enemy–a bad economy–that keeps us unemployed, allows our infrastructure to crumble and prevents us from having a world-class education system for the economy of tomorrow. My campaign gathered support from a wide variety of Metro residents because, when it comes down it, we are all in this together.”
You can learn more about Hughes via Wikipedia or on his campaign website. We’d love to hear your thoughts on what Tom Hughes’ leadership might mean for active transportation in our region.