Election open thread: Sarah Iannarone or Ted Wheeler for Portland Mayor?

To start, I am not a Portland resident. As such, I have not been following the local election there very closely.

While I thus do not have any opinion of the challenger in this race, I honestly cannot see how, after Wheeler’s performance the past months, anyone could see their way clear to vote for him in good conscience. His repeated refusals to condemn federal actions, or make even the slightest attempt to reign in PPB alone, should frankly disqualify him from reelection in the mind of any sane voter.

Or the write-in candidate, Teresa Raiford. https://writeinteressaraiford.com/

(ABD) = All But [PhD] Dissertation. All your classes are completed but you still have to write your dissertation (thesis) and get it approved and signed-off by your 5+ readers. As my late dad said, the most bitter person in the world is an ABD – he was ABD for 7 years, but he did finish it in the end.

Going with Sarah. Ted hasn’t made a dent on the homelessness front and completely bungled everything with protests.

Boy howdy do I wish that we had a third option; a bud Clark tape figure perhaps. Someone with a vision of the city as laid back, openminded, safe fun and quirky. Alas; we have only Ted and Sarah. Ted the feckless “moderate”, Forever trapped by his constituencies far left flank, or Sarah “I am antifa” Iannarone. Come on Portland you can do better than that.

This was an especially difficult choice for a variety of reasons. I can’t honestly recommend one over the other. I would suggest you identify the issue or issues you care most about and pick the one who seems most promising for it. For me it was police reform. I just hope whoever wins sticks to changing the format of council and city government to be more reflective of and responsive to the community in the upcoming city charter review.

Wheeler. Even though in my opinion he sucks, at least he is able to work with others, has done good with Covid. Iannarone on the other hand is incrediblky radical, believes in zero sum ideas, she has serious anger management issues, and has no experience.

One cannot condemn Trump for idelogically driven zero sum policies and then go for Iannarone. She is no different. Sure, she sounds like a bike advocate, but just like Eudaly, her plans will hurt bicyclists, will cause more traffic, deaths and anti-bike sentiment.

She is NOT fit to be a Mayor.

If you care about it being safer to get around Portland without a car, Sarah is the better candidate by *miles*. You really couldn’t ask for someone better, other than maybe Janette Sadik-Khan herself 🙂

She’s personally car-free (might be the only American mayor who doesn’t drive a car!) and rides her e-bike and takes transit everywhere, so she understands this stuff on a personal level: https://pamplinmedia.com/scc/103-news/484310-390412-sarah-iannarone-tells-sw-portlanders-why-she-should-be-mayor

She’s a HUGE advocate for protected bike lanes and reclaiming space from cars: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1177807522742206464

…in fact, she’s been tweeting about protected bike lanes for YEARS: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Asarahforpdx%20%22protected%20bike%20lanes%22&src=typed_query

She’s even wonky enough to champion protected intersections: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1137759467276083200

She wants cycle superhighways and fareless transit: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/1193272474286215169

She understands the deep need for car-free zones in downtown Portland and beyond: https://twitter.com/sarahforpdx/status/913776438465011712

Just look at what Anne Hidalgo has managed to accomplish in the last few months in Paris—and imagine how much progress we could make with someone *visionary* in charge of PBOT: https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1306369401361293312

Maybe instead of an election this time we can just draft an unwilling but farsighted and competent municipal manager from somewhere in the state. Can anyone think of someone who has risen to the occasion and done especially well in the adverse circumstances of the last few months we can recruit to be mayor? I am working on it but coming up short so far.

Sarah is a modern day Jane Jacobs! Her platforms are well thought out and articulate. She is equipped to lead and set the vision. 178,000 votes needed to win. Every vote matters!

Plus, Ted Wheeler has failed to give Hardesty the p ill ice bureau. Never again will I be tear gassed by my tax dollars in my driveway with my two kids in the house.

I am a lifelong Oregonian and have lived in Portland since 1998. The numbers of homeless people, the disparity between low-income and high-income earners, and the cost of homes has increased at an unrelenting speed. Over the past few decades, none of our city leaders seem capable of managing the challenges that we face. Add to that hard truth the destruction wrought by the pandemic, civil unrest in response to George Floyd’s murder, and the fires that came within miles of the Portland area last month, and the lack of effective leadership is deeply concerning. What we need right now is a bold, innovative mayor, and neither Wheeler nor Iannarone bring the necessary dynamic thinking to the table.

That being said, after watching the mayoral debate between Wheeler and Iannarone,I was struck by the fact that Iannarone didn’t seem at all to be a champion of the middle class. She never mentioned the importance of preserving and expanding the middle class and fighting to ensure that low-income people have access to it. The message I took from Iannarone during the debate is that she is an advocate for underserved groups, and while I appreciate and respect that, Iannarone represents what I call “the pitchfork mentality”: She seems fully prepared to throw the “baby out with the bathwater”. Instead of trying to appeal to Portland’s middle class residents and making the case to that constituency – which is shrinking and endangered – how she will strengthen our economy, support local businesses, build relationships across all socioeconomic groups and strengthen our ties as one another as residents who love Portland and want to make it as healthy and vibrant as possible, she lobbed insults and accusations and gave no indication that she is interested in bringing all parties – including the middle class – to the table.

Wheeler’s performance at the debate was “business as usual”. I am beyond disappointed that he doesn’t have a clear plan for ending the protests and restoring peace and prosperity to the commercial heart of our city. I also think that if Biden wins the presidential election, there will be federal leadership that comes out strongly against white supremacy, is actively anti-racist, and mobilizes the country around social justice and the importance of recognizing that Black Lives Matter and instituting initiatives to bring justice to BIPOC. That will help quell the unrest we are seeing on our city streets. Wheeler is a uniter. He also seems to recognize that he must build bridges with a variety of local interests, from BLM organizers to the police to business owners, in order to effectively achieve his objectives. I am hopeful that, if re-elected, we will see progress made on his agenda, particularly with regard to restoring the economy.

My vote is for Wheeler. I believe he alone has the best interest of all Portlanders – including those of us fighting for the middle class – at heart.

I’m to the left of both candidates but it comes down to qualifications and integrity to me.

One has experience and education. Worked his way through govt positions with actual budget responsibilities and has a world class set of credentials.

The other is a liar who has fabricated every aspect of her resume.
She didn’t own a coffee shop for 12 years as she claims. Her husband of three years did but her name isn’t on any of the associated paperwork.

Her job at PSU was as a tour guide. Total budget of $200k, $50k of which was her salary.

Her last paying job was as faculty at a “college” who’s only degree offering is an Associates of Self, whatever that is.

She lists a PhD on her resume. She doesn’t have a PhD and she is nowhere near completing it.

Sarah doesn’t pay her taxes. 2011, 12, 13 and 14 all years in which she didn’t contribute to a single public program in Portland. She didn’t pay income tax for those years, didn’t own a house so she didn’t pay property taxes and there is no Oregon sales tax.

It’s lose and lose. This city is so broken it goes way beyond mayor anyway.

I live just outside Portland. Recent events have caused me to reflect on the wisdom of telling the broker “no city of Portland addresses”. I don’t wish the city ill but I will give gratitude for my foresight if the fake PhD is elected. I’m sure she will keep the news lively.

Sarah will be a fantastic Mayor. Ted has so much government experience but has accomplished very little during his first term. In my opinion he treats his job as a consolation prize, he really wants to be Governor and I think much of the animosity between him and Kate Brown stems from his resentment that she “stepped in front of him” by becoming Governor after Kitz resigned. I know he can be a leader, he lead the county as Chair quite well, in fact. His heart just isn’t in it and it shows. I’ll never forget the hot mic moment a couple of years ago where he said “I can’t wait for the next 24 months to be up.”

Sarah may lack experience but at least she wants to be Mayor. In any case, I think her lack of experience is overblown. It takes leadership skills to organize a community, it takes leadership to start a small business. She’s been a huge advocate for the biking community, I’m surprised more people aren’t supporting her.

Ted is a classic bureaucrat, great with numbers, and all for the mediocrity of the status quo. I voted for Iannarone, but I am well aware of why others are reluctant to do so. Every Portland Mayor has been a disappointment since we moved here 18 years ago. It is hard to believe that our commissioner/mayor system is not the common denominator that has determined our poor leadership, no matter who is elected. It is past time for that to end.

It seems that our progressive leaders everywhere, from Bernie Saunders on down to Jo Ann Hardesty, have been negligent in condemning protester violence while only focusing on the police and right wing violence. All violence needs to be condemned and sadly our progressive leaders have let us down. I feel that had there been a coordinated effort by our nation’s progressive leaders to condemn all the protest related violence then BLM message would have not been hijacked by violent protesters to the extent it has and BLM would still have the amount of sympathy of the nation it initially had.

I seem to recall this summer Ted Wheeler attempted to get local leaders to sign on to a proclamation to condemn all violence. I think Hardesty and Eudaly didn’t sign. I wrote to each concerning this and heard only from Hardesty’s office. A staff person there wrote, “When we focus on what the protesters are doing instead of focus on accountability and change within the systems they’re protesting in the first place, we are helping Trump with his narrative.”  I think the opposite is true – if we condemn the violence on all sides then we don’t look like hypocrites when we say we want peace and justice and that we are indeed anti-war. Imagine if we had pushed to stop the protester violence, then Trump and his followers might not have had those nightly violent Portland news videos to use for his re-election campaign and right wing groups/militias probably would have had less to enlist new recruits with.

So here is what this all leads to: I see a lack of wisdom with Iannarone’s candidacy in that she has stated she wants Hardesty to be in charge of the police. Note Hardesty has claimed there has only been one riot so far this year here in Portland. She also made remarks concerning the police as being the arsonists behind protest fires – only to backtrack those statements the following day. How wise could Iannarone possibly be to put Hardesty in charge of the police? Other than Iannarone stating she wanted to defund the police by $50 million, I agree with her progressive ideas and side with her ambition to combat climate change and find the best ways to help the homeless, but am I the only progressive who can’t get past her support for Hardesty to be in charge of the police? Is there not some grave lack of wisdom in this? I’m feeling it would be a mistake for Iannarone be our next mayor of Portland.

Folks, It’s hard to swallow the prospect of another Ted Wheeler term, given his equivocation, weak leadership, and poor handling of the downtown situation, BUT…The complexity of the city budget and administrative bureaucracy is significant. Say what you will about Wheeler, but Iannarone is quite simply over her head here. Also, Iannaronne’s ‘Rainbow and Unicorn’ pie in the sky attitude of, “We’ll just figure it out”, is so far from any reasonable proposal to address some of the biggest hurdles and issues for this city as there are serious issues facing Portland for the next several years. Further, at the end of the day, the divisive politics of race and gender that she seems so consumed with are just not a substitute for fiscal and procedural competent management of such a complex system. Here’s hoping that Wheeler shows a capacity to learn from lessons, and grow into a leader. I hold my nose and vote for Wheeler.

I worked on a ‘community’ project with her for 2 yrs, and she poorly managed it. Heavy on theory and ideas, light on follow-through and leadership experience. Not a Ted fan, but she’d be a disaster as mayor. If you’re prepared to write her in, be sure to spell her name correctly: Teressa Raiford.

Iannarone: She has good policy proposals and the guts to drive a better police contract when it comes up next year. Wheeler seems to have a good heart, but hasn’t been willing enough to drive controversial changes. Raiford only seems to care about fixing the police, which is needed but not enough of a platform to be mayor.

Sarah failed, pre-covid, to run a bakery cafe across the street from a popular rec center. What do rec swimmers do after their workouts…coffee and pastry. And she thinks she can be CEO of the 25th largest US city. Nope, nope, and nope.

The City of Portland (using Multnomah County as a proxy) has one of the lowest per capita COVID-19 rates of the 30 largest cities in the United States.

https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/10/06/portland-has-the-nations-second-lowest-rate-of-covid-19-infection-study-says/

While there are lots of people and organizations responsible for this result, I think Ted Wheeler is an important part of that success. Despite other failures, that is enough to merit a second term.

The issue is not how bad a job Wheeler has done or even if he failed. Instead it is whether Iannarone is likely to be better or worse. In my opinion, the clear answer is that she would be worse, perhaps much worse. We are in the midst of multiple crises. Even if her plans were fleshed out and solid, which they are not, and even if she had experience managing an extremely large and complex organization, which she doesn’t, and even if she had a clear grasp on the limits and opportunities of mayoral power in Portland, which she doesn’t, the time it would take for her to learn how to implement her ideas would be disastrous on many fronts.

Imagine the hit to Portland’s already tarnished reputation if we elected “Antifa mayor”, which you know would be the meme.

I’m voting for Sarah Iannarone and here’s why.
A Portland mayor should be willing to use their voice to build coalitions and champion actions and Portland values that may be out of step with main stream US cities. Ted Wheeler has consistently remained silent or argued for the status quo when the city is faced with difficult issues. He condescended to opposition to the I-5 rose quarter project and showed that he misunderstood some of the key details of the project. But when the tide turned, and his personal risk was minimized, he joined others on city council in opposing it. He has remained silent on traffic deaths in Portland and initially sided with the PBA against permanent better Naito. Now that activists have put in a tremendous amount of work and the stars are aligned on city council, he pretends he was for it all along. He has sided with the PBA and allowed the downtown CCIM project to be gutted. And, now when he has no organized grass roots support he is essentially turning to the PBA and affiliates to save him.
He was complacent when white supremacist groups came to Portland to hold rallies and actually made it easier for these groups with police escorts and welcoming private communications with Portland police. These rallies attracted and inspired Jeremy Christiansen before he murdered people on the MAX, making the danger of such events obvious. This has evolved to armed caravans of hate groups routinely coming to Portland and threatening and assaulting people without consequence. Of course this is not all his fault, but it shows the failure of his silent hands off approach where he avoids political risk.
His approach to BLM protests has also been the approach of simply hoping that protests will die out or go away while he remains silent. He simultaneously takes credit nationally on TV for Portland standing up to Trump, but then comes back to Portland and pursues a media campaign to shame BLM protesters and turn people against them, hoping that public pressure will finally stop the protests. He has remained silent on police brutality and has missed the opportunity to take the position of BLM seriously, draw from the coalition of community support and finally reign in the racism and militarization of the Portland police.
He has ignored campaign finance regulations in opposition to Portlanders desires to remove the huge influence of a minority of stakeholders.
As a supposed Timbers fan, he was silent while the Timbers Army fought the MLS to be able to stand up against fascism at matches. When the Timbers Army and other supporter groups across the US won their struggle, along with players also taking professional risks, Ted nodded as if he had been in support the entire time. But now, he has weaponized Sarah’s use of “everyday antifascism” against her, using the language and willful ignorance of Trump and Fox news to characterize her and every one else in Portland who outwardly stands against fascism as a violent extremists.
He takes credit for Portland’s “green” and progressive reputation, but the risk and the weight of the initiatives that substantially advance these positions have fallen to others while he does very little. In the end he might sign off and take credit.
His approach to homelessness has been the same; passive bureaucracy that has not mobilized the resources necessary for the task.
I wish Ted was better. One cannot help but look at him and think that he has potential and everything he needs to do better. But, there comes a point where you have to stop hoping that someone with potential will actually stand up and do the right thing. Like Charlie Hales, Ted has consistently taken the approach of telling activists that they are “too loud” or not “loud enough” while taking credit for their work and standing on the backs of people who have put in the work before him. He has taken everything that Portland has to give but contributed very little.
Sarah has shown up. She has been showing up for years and she takes a proactive stance on issues that are key to moving Portland forward. She is willing to take personal risk to make important changes. She has laid out policy objectives that are bold and will face opposition, but they move the conversation to a place that reflects core Portland values. I understand that her campaign may be off-putting to older voters, but challenging a monied corporate-backed incumbent with a publicly financed small donor campaign takes energy, and she has pulled off an impressive campaign. Portland needs a strong vocal mayor to say the loud parts out loud and build coalitions, and Sarah has shown that she understands this and can pull it off.

The level of people’s self-preservation when talking about candidates is palpable. The people with power fighting to stay in power, while the people who are sick of the way things are, keep telling you that change is slow and that you have to play by the rules as they lose time and time again. It’s times like this I wish the whole thing burnt down. Fuck the lies, fuck the complacency, fuck voting in a classist system, and fuck all the naive people who think it has ever helped. At the end of the day it’s about resources and who gets to consume said resources and who gets left out. Fuck the whole system.

If I was voting it would be for Sarah, only because when I decided I needed to stand at the location of fallen smarts murder, I needed to be there for that child for and her family. I needed to be there to calm my enraged consciousness. I needed to be there to scream enough! So I went down to Hawthorn. When I got there it was Sarah who came to that location with that same pit in her stomach and that same anger in her eyes.

Don’t vote for Sarah because you think she will get the things done, because frankly, the system is too broken for change, it was not built for change. At least if you vote at all, vote for someone who hates the system’s complacency as much as you. After that, go launder all the hope you have been bottled up for 2021 because the shit show is just starting.

Iannarone all the way for me. Wheeler seem more concerned with broken windows downtown and criminalizing houselessness than our out-of-control racist police force.

There can be no “weird” or “livable” Portland if the PPD has free reign to terrorize and attack people asking for accountability.

Wheeler himself doesn’t seem to respect the judgement of the over 80% of the PDX electorate who voted to cap campaign contributions.

Iannarone may be “unproven” but I believe that she, at a minimum, has the right priorities. Wheeler’s vision for our city is about a placid population and a good brand. When it comes to actual policy, Wheeler seems to sincerely and demonstrably believe that what we need is: policing Black residents, conducting cruel sweeps of houseless Portlanders, and razing small businesses to make way for luxury hotels. These actions make sense for Portland only if you have an exclusive and basically racist concept of “livability”. At best, it might be what Portland needs to get back on Condé Nast Traveller magazine’s “best cities” list. I kind of think that’s what Ted wants more than anything.

I respect Raiford, and I agree with her decision to not run a write-in campaign for mayor. She is choosing to prioritize her work with Don’t Shoot PDX, and I think currently the best way to support her is to support that organization.

I’m skeptical of anyone that puts “mom” as the number one item on their resume. It shows they are compensating for a lack of relevant experience.

I would really like to have Sarah on the Council, especially an expanded 9-member council with a city manager form of government rather than the existing commission form of government. I think she has lots of good ideas that would be really good for policy discussions.

I don’t think she has the administrative experience to be mayor. It’s a really hard job and Wheeler’s performance has been a real disappointment, but I think that’s a demonstration of how hard it is to govern this city. I’m voting for Wheeler for mayor.

It’s clear that Sarah lacks experience, even though Ted is not my top choice:/

Just a reminder that you can write in Teressa Raiford if you don’t want either one.

Just read this…

https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/09/16/portland-voters-are-fed-up-with-ted-wheeler-but-are-they-ready-for-sarah-iannarone/

Given the absolutely deplorable choices for Portland mayor, perhaps the best option would be to vote for whichever person looks like they may not be able to finish their term in office – thus at least giving a third choice at some future time! And that option would probably be our present disaster – Mayor Wheeler.

Update: I voted for Sarah.
At one time, I also was enamored by progressive sounding, middle-management mayors; people who could be a steady hand and guide Portland in the right direction fueled by a deep bench of Portland’s progressive community leaders and activists. I imagined a city where an engaged community pushes the envelope to elevate Portland above the morass of most US cities while a mild-mannered wonk makes it work out on paper. But, I didn’t account for the political self-interest of those mayors and their lack of a moral compass.

Ted Wheeler is being lauded for his budgeting skills, but at a moment when he has an enormous amount of political capital to reform the city’s largest expense, the Portland police, he has embraced the Portland police union talking points and has given up on making substantial changes. Besides the expense of unnecessary police militarization, a poorly managed response to BLM protests, using jails to control homelessness and multiple law suits for police misconduct, the Portland police union has strong-armed the city into paying police overtime to do things that could be done at much lower cost and more effectively by people who aren’t police. This is very similar to when Ted was echoing ODOT talking points on a wasteful 700 million dollar freeway-widening in the heart of the city that could be dealt with by much less expensive and more effective congestion pricing.

Ted supposedly is a whiz with budgets, but he is whizzing with the wrong budget; a budget that is deeply flawed in ways that he refuses to address, because it may hurt his corporate-backed political ambitions.

A vote for Ted is a vote for an eventual back-stab when a common sense progressive policy faces up against status quo monied interests.

I voted for Sarah because I know she will try and I know where she stands. I have witnessed her engaging crucial elements of the community that have been overlooked and her endorsement by groups that need to be at the table to move Portland in the right direction.

If anyone is still undecided, I would encourage them to reach out to Sarah’s undecided voter hotline. Regardless of who people vote for, directly connecting with a campaign to discuss issues is a great opportunity for civic engagement.
https://sarah2020.com/en/hotline/

I voted for Wheeler. Like most people, I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the options, but as the options at this point are truly down to Wheeler or Iannarone, as I am too pragmatic for write ins, I went with what I believe to be the lesser of two evils. I was really turned off by Iannarone talking like a leftist version of Trump in her Tweets (another weird parallel…) and her bio sounds too much like him too – inexperienced but seeking the highest (local) office, extremist, divisive. After reading through her proposals I felt even more turned off. I consider myself left leaning but Trump has made me realize I like my politicians more moderate, I guess – activists can be extreme but governing officials should try to govern EVERYONE, not just their base. And like many Portlanders, I support BLM but not a lot of these protests, and I support getting homeless people help but recognize it is a BEAR of a problem that would already be solved if it was that easy. She advocates decriminalizing poverty by decriminalizing “victimless” crimes but does not define what these crimes are – is keying someone’s car victimless? Petty theft? If so I don’t agree. Maybe Wheeler hasn’t accomplished much but I feel like what she would try to accomplish would be actually harmful?

Also, kinda petty, but she cited getting the 72nd and Woodstock triangle built as proof that she can negotiate to complete projects…I’ve seen that cute little triangle. It is a nice neighborhood project. It is not evidence someone can run a city.