(Source: Mapps Campaign)
Incumbent Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has lost her seat on City Council. Mingus Mapps, a self-described “daily bike commuter” since the 1980s has won 56% of the vote to Eudaly’s 43% with just over 78% of the votes recorded.
Eudaly, commissioner-in-charge of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, enjoyed broad support among transportation reform advocates. Her Rose Lane Project, which has already installed some bus-priority lanes around the city, was a signature accomplishment.
Eudaly was poised to do big things for cycling in February, but the pandemic put her plans on pause. Another opportunity for her to put cycling on the front-burner came last month when PBOT was scheduled to present several cycling initiatives at City Council, but that was put on hold because her office felt they needed to demonstrate more progress on racial equity issues before doing so.
Mapps, a 52-year-old father of two young boys is a newcomer to politics but is a former political science professor and graduate of Harvard and Cornell who has worked in City Hall on neighborhood association and violence prevention programs.
When I asked him about cycling during the primary back in May, Mapps said he considers himself an “enthused and confident” rider. “Riding on high-traffic, high-speed arterial streets is scary and dangerous,” he said. “That is why, when I am on City Council, I will focus on improving and completing Portland’s biking infrastructure so that every neighborhood in the city is safely accessible by bike.” Mapps also expressed an eagerness to turn Portland’s bicycling decline around. “Many of the people who have moved to Portland in the last decade are new to biking culture. Currently, a lot of Portland’s public discussion around cycling is inaccessible or off putting to people who are new to biking,” he said.
Eudaly is currently embroiled in a fight to cut the Portland Police Bureau budget by $18 million in support of a proposal from fellow Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. Her loss at the polls will likely loom over the vote on that proposal which is scheduled to take place this Thursday. Eudaly and Hardesty need one more vote for it to pass and it’s less likely council newcomer and swing vote Dan Ryan will side with Eudaly given tonight’s result.
In a statement issued tonight, Eudaly said, “I may not be your City Commissioner in 2021, but I will keep fighting for you. I’m in this for the long haul… I know the pressure points in City Hall, I know the codes we need to change, I know the bad actors as well as the good, and I am not going to stop fighting for the equity and justice every Portlander deserves.”
Mapps will take his seat alongside Jo Ann Hardesty and Carmen Rubio, creating a majority Black/Latina council for the first time in Portland history.
Read more about this race from the Portland Mercury.
Stay tuned for more election analysis as results are finalized.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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I’m puzzled why BP has portrayed Eudaly as the bike community’s choice. I agree she has recently done some positive things for human-powered streets, but I’ve never seen any reason to think Mapps would do less. He actually rides a bike. Maybe it is sort of a bird in the hand vs a bird in the bush thing.
Eudaly may be Jonathan’s choice, and in a sense BP’s choice only because BP is Jonathan’s. But that doesn’t mean much for the rest of the community that orbits BP. Eudaly’s drawn plenty of negative commentary here.
One thing I was interested in – a significant percentage of her detractors (in other forums) were female. She was universally disliked.
False.
I never say Eudaly is the “bike community’s choice”. Please read more carefully. I’m pointing out that she enjoyed a lot of support from many insider/establishment transportation reform advocates and activists.
Jonathan always only supports white candidates.
he enjoys his white privilege that’s for sure
lol.
Eudaly was a relief from Novick, but for the specific local issues I’m voting on this year I am very much looking forward to Mapps.
I’m not thrilled with more turnover but that’s just the way it is going to be so long as the city hangs on to its broken commissioner system like this country and its electoral college. I can’t wait to see what toxicity undermines which commissioners: will misogyny reign or will it pivot to racism? Love this city, but it’s a huge predictable problem here and it doesn’t stop so long as the positions are entirely at large.
I have to say that while I’m for City Council reform, especially of the Strong Mayor/Weak Mayor issue, that district-based council seats have their own drawbacks. I grew up in a city where elections were ward-based and policy and projects were often mired in petty issues to placate councilors’ constituents. Indeed, the council in that city was recently reformed to add some at-large seats. When I moved to Portland in the late 90s I liked the at-large system because it allowed for a real citywide vision to take shape. I don’t think many of the projects like several MAX lines, bike and other transportation projects could have been accomplished without an at-large council. Ideally there would be a mix of at large and district seats.
Also, I’m not sure the current council is responsible for the turnover. In past years, there was little turn over on the council (thinking the Erik Sten, Dan Salzman, Jum Francisconi, Vera Katz era of the late 90s early 2000s)
Do we actually have a city wide vision though? The city ignored east county for six decades until it became politically necessary to care about that neighborhood and just in time for it to be gentrified because Montavilla got too expensive. North Portland outside of the gentrified areas is still being ignored.
The city is run completely by the money in the west hills and central city.
You are right that citywide vision is probably not accurate. I think in its heyday of the late 90s/early 00s the at-large council was able to accomplish projects of citywide significance. They definitely ignored many areas and issues. Then again, it was very affordable to live here and buy a home on a nonprofit worker salary in those years.
I live in a city with an appointed city manager, an at-large mayor and 3 at-large city councilors, plus 5 city councilors elected by district or ward. The main problem with city managers is they tend to hide department budgets – or rather, without a city manager, amateur politicians tend to make department budgets relatively open and transparent (often due to political infighting.)
Given how Portland is actually run, I’d be in favor of electing at-large bureau directors: A transportation and planning commissioner, a water and sewer commissioner; a police and fire commissioner; a parks and tourism commissioner; plus an equal number of ward or district commissioners, plus an at-large mayor or elected city manager.
I’m not crying over this loss. Eudaly never really led PBOT. The Freight committee was a joke, the bike committees gutless and her staffers never returned phone calls. I’m not surprised she didn’t have a lot of campaign volunteers. Additionally having one of her staffers end up on the Albina Vision Trust crew was a bit too chummy for my taste. I’m sure Mapps has some new ideas to share, I’m open to supporting new directions.
Lets never forget who the spoiler queen for bikes: Teresa Raiford. Doesn’t matter how many BLM protesters corkers support, it will never be good enough for dontshoootpdx. I will never support that woman for any other election ever again. Sarah swung hard for black rights and they didn’t’ swing back for her.
It’s kind of amazing that about 10% of the Portland voters wrote-in a candidate who didn’t want to be mayor, thus spoiling the efforts to elect a leftist white woman. So now we get a timber heir for another 4 years. Great work, folks.
Everyone I talked to who planned to write her in didn’t even know why they were going to do it. They just shrugged their shoulders and said “I don’t know, all my friends are doing it.”
Easily could have been an op from Wheeler. And while Teresa could have easily—and should have—disavowed “her” “campaign,” it’s easy to imagine that her ego got in the way. Another chance at becoming mayor, handed to you on a silver platter? Who could resist? (Someone more selfless and principled, perhaps?).
She was never going to disavow it she wanted it, but her campaign appears to be a walking campaign finance violation which I believe is the reason she tried to create this I am not running a campaign narrative. I hope that she and those working on her campaign who refused to properly disclose contributions get slapped hard. Just because you lose big doesn’t mean you should get a pass.
Yes. My impression was clearly that she wanted the job. What is perplexing is that Sarah could not reach some kind of deal for her to make an equivocal statement that she was not running. I can only assume that Joanne was working in the background, but failed. I know I know This is a bike blog, but Oregonlive no longer allows comments.
I want to jump in and say that as a newer participant (but longtime Portlander) I really appreciate this forum for discussing local issues that I’m passionate about (biking but also much more than that).
Teresa seemed to have an extreme personal problem with Sarah’s campaign manager. I saw some pretty disgusting racist comments directed at him from her campaign. I don’t think there was any real chance of a deal between the two campaigns.
It was super late coming, but eudaly’s last second opposition to the Rose quarter project was a huge, positive step. I hope council will stick by that position, whoever takes on the helm of pbot.
Really? What actual good did her opposition do? I saw a campaign sign on a utility pole saying “Chloe stopped the I-5 expansion.” Tell that to ODOT – they are moving ahead with the project at warp speed.
Yes!!! Goodbye Chloe!
I know that personality should not be the driver behind who one votes for, but I think that Chloe would have been re-elected if she was not so nasty. I heard her debate on OPB and she was insufferable towards her opponent. He just played nice; that’s all he needed to do to win.
Good grief. Can we stop with calling women “nasty”?
What’s another word for nasty then? Churlish?
I’m a woman- I love nasty women and strong women. I really dislike Commish Eudaly as a commissioner. A lot of it is how she communicates.
Eudaly: Unprofessional, and a bully, caustic, vindictive, makes opposing sides personal, fails the golden rules of successful city public office. There you go, gender neutral. Eudaly failed tje golden rule – you need listen, respect, build & keep relationships with the people who can keep, or boot you, from office. This is true even & especially for voters, city staff, influencers you don’t agree with. People don’t always care or remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. It has nothing to do with Gender.
her attitude was terrible.
I was disappointed in Eudaly’s bitter scorched earth “concession” speech. Mapps took the high road. These statements reinforced my vote for Mapps. https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2020/11/03/newcomer-mingus-mapps-sweeps-commissioner-chloe-eudaly-from-office/
I read her concession statement as reiterating her “us vs them” mentality.
I took the concession to be, “you’re not as smart as me”. It was painful to read.
Compare Eudaly’s statement (taken from WWeek article):
“ “This is a sad day for Portland,” Eudaly said. “We were poised to have one of the most progressive City Councils in history but, with the wins by Ted Wheeler and Mingus Mapps, we’ve taken a step back.”
“It’s a win for big business, the landlord lobby and the police union,” she continued. “It’s unfortunate that voters couldn’t see more clearly.”
…
In closing, she returned to her disdain for Mapps. “I think Portland is in for a surprise when they realize who they’ve elected,” she said. “He’s good at saying lots of words without actually saying anything.”
To Iannarone’s statement (also from WWeek article):
“Ted Wheeler and I share a belief in democracy, in listening to the will of the voters. Despite the heated rhetoric of this campaign, I believe Ted Wheeler is a good human being, and I believe history will remember his many good works as mayor, even as he has admitted some failings. If Ted wins, we will continue to hold Mayor Wheeler accountable, because we are a city that demands forward progress on the issues of our time, no matter who is in power.”
There’s a real difference there.
Yep. I didn’t support Sarah (despite voting for her in the primary, but as a protest vote), but this is gracious, and goes a big step to improving my opinion of her – specifically her integrity and her willingness to work with others. Maybe she’ll stay engaged and win more trust from more voters with whatever she does next? A girl can dream.
Sarah needs to run for school board or soil-conservation district or water board or some other low-level gov’t entity where she can hone her political and governing skills. Same for Chloe. Running for mayor w/o ever having held political office seems like jumping to the front of the queue. Who does she think she is – President of the United States??!!
She needs to join her neighborhood association and run for board chair.
Her concession was unnecessarily churlish.
Don’t be so nasty.
Wow. Reading that “concession” really reinforces my vote for Mapps. Good riddance.
I still can’t understand why JM and other transpo advocates were so enamored of Chloe. I know it can be great to have the meanest dog in your corner when you’re in a dogfight, but Chloe’s accomplishments were so modest – she really didn’t seem to fight very hard for anything in her transportation portfolio. And she was so handicapped by her poor political skills: imagine getting an email from your colleague who threatens to kneecap you if you don’t support her positions.
How could you be so sure she was pro-bike when she never actually rode a bike?
No, the one thing Chloe fought for most passionately was to destroy Portland’s system of neighborhood associations. But they refused to be destroyed and made sure her political career in Portland was destroyed instead.
An example of her hubris and poor political judgment, or that of her advisors. What a silly windmill to tilt at. The neighborhood associations wanted the bureau to do a better job on its own responsibilities and in helping NAs be better at theirs. But Chloe’s people wouldn’t settle for anything less than eradicating the neighborhood association system and were Trumpian in their misleading doublespeak about it.
There was a talk between Chloe and Mingus on the opb radio. I thought it was pretty fun to listen to, and even while the election is decided i would urge people to listen to the last debate.