(This article is by BikePortland subscriber and Portland City Council candidate Timur Ender. Timur was a guest on our podcast back in February and his last contribution was a dispatch from Izmir, Turkey. If you want to meet and talk with Timur, he’ll be at Bike Happy Hour this week (Weds, 6/5 from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at Gorges Beer Co on SE Ankeny at 27th.)
With the primary elections behind us attention will now shift to November’s historic city council elections. Most people are likely aware of the basics but I wanted to share a quick reminder on what is special about our city council election this time around.
In November 2022, Portland voters approved a change in our form of government, drastically altering how our city council is structured.
- 4 council districts instead of at-large (citywide) elections
- Multimember districts with 3 council members representing each district for a total of 12 city councilors
- Appointed professional city manager with city council focused on setting policy
- Ranked choice voting with voters ranking up to six candidates in their district
The city council election will take place Nov. 5, 2024 and council candidates will be on the same ballot as other state and federal races. Candidates for mayor and auditor will also be on the ballot and are running citywide.
While the entire city council will be elected in the Nov 5th election, the council members elected from districts 3 and 4 (SE and West) will only serve a 2-year term and will be up for election again in 2026 for a four-year term. Districts 1 and 2 (East and North) council members will serve an initial 4 year term and be up for election in 2028. This was done so that not all of the council would turnover at the same time and so that districts that historically have lower voter turnout are aligned with the presidential election years.
With a new form of government and no incumbents, this will be a historic election for Portland, reshaping our political landscape for years to come.
I want to take a minute to thank all those who worked on charter reform. These systemic changes are what have allowed so many grassroots, first-time candidates to have viable campaigns. I am appreciative to everyone who has worked tirelessly on building an inclusive democracy and developing charter reform, gaining voter approval, and continuing to protect these gains so that underrepresented parts of the city finally have seats at the table.
Get Involved!
This may seem counterintuitive, but given that there are three people representing your district and nine people on council representing other districts, the council members outside of your district will have a greater impact on city policy than the three people representing your district. One of the only ways you can have an impact on candidates in other districts is by voting with your dollar through the small donor election program.
With the small donor election program, donations from Portland residents are matched 9:1 which means a $5 contribution becomes $45 and a $20 donation becomes $200. (*Note: the 9:1 match was the original program intent but the amount of match is ultimately dependent on the extent to which city council funds this program; final decisions about this will be made by council soon).
Your donations to candidates are matched, even if you donate to multiple candidates and even if that candidate is not in your district. What this means is that even though you cannot vote for candidates outside of your district, you can vote with your dollar by donating to candidates in other districts and having those donations matched by the city. The minimum contribution amount to have your donation matched and be counted as a Portland donor is $5.
There is also the Oregon Political Tax Credit which allows Oregon residents who file taxes and have incomes less than $75,000 to donate up to $50 to a political candidate and recieve the full amount as a credit subtracted from your Oregon state taxes when you file.
There are over 70 candidates running for city council in this election and pretty much every candidate is trying to get to 250 Portland donors. The candidates who have reached this tier are trying to get to the second tier of 750 Portland donors (or, in some cases, the third tier of 1,250 Portland donors). What happens when a candidate reaches these tiers? These are the tiers when matching funds are dispersed from the city, often to the tune of approximately $40,000.
One of the most interesting realizations I have had since becoming a candidate is, in a city of over 600,000 people, it’s very challenging for campaigns to get to 250 Portland donors. Out of 6 mayoral candidates and 70 city council candidates, approximately 12 council candidates have reached the first tier of matching funds, meaning they have received donations from at least 250 Portlanders.
You can see which candidates have received public matching funds at the city’s small donor elections website and view how how many contributions each candidate raised at this site.
Now you know you can have an impact with strategic $5-$20 contributions to candidates that align with your views, but how do you know who these candidates are, what district they are in, and whether they align with your values? City council races are nonpartisan so it takes legwork to see who believes what. Thankfully, Maja Harris at Rose City Reform has done an incredible job keeping Portlanders updated about the candidates, endorsements, and other helpful info.
If you want to see who has signed various pledges, such as the one organized by Friends of Portland Street Response, it can be found at Rose City Reform. If you want to see which candidates have been endorsed by various organizations, it can be found there as well.
Hundreds of thousands of Portlanders will vote in this upcoming election, but only a fraction of them will donate to candidates. Take a minute to visualize what your ideal city council would look like and take the step of donating $5 to each of the 13 candidates you would like to see on that council.
Other ways to get involved include serving on an endorsement panel for an organization that will be endorsing candidates in the upcoming election, volunteering on a campaign, or attending/hosting a candidate forum.
In conclusion, don’t wait until November to have your voice heard in this historic election. Do some research, talk to your friends, be engaged, and vote with your dollar today to support candidates who align with your values in every council district.
Timur is a resident of the Hazelwood neighborhood of East Portland and a city council candidate in District 1.
Thanks for reading.
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So this whole article is a pitch for donations? Money equals votes these days in Portland? Time to hire that family member as a “staffer” and pay them all the left over campaign funds.
Thank you for writing this, Timur. My first donation was out-of-my-district (dist 4) to Steph Routh (dist 1). I consider these small $20 donations which turn into $200 to be “keep ‘um in the race” money. The first test all candidates face is whether they are organized enough to reach that first 250 donors. It’s work.
There is a lot going on right now, and your typical voter, I’m discovering, doesn’t care about politics as much as I do! Imagine that! (I’m throwing a house party for a candidate this weekend and, in my 35 years of turning people out for events, getting people to this party has been a bear.)
Here’s my advice to voters: anyone can run for council, these candidates have not been vetted–not by a party, not by a business association. You, the voter, need to do the vetting. Please, please, please, consider whether the candidate is qualified for office. Have they worked for government before, have they volunteered for a Advisory Committee, a neighborhood association, have they done anything at all that speaks to their qualifications.
Agreeing with you on a bingo card of issues, or being an upstanding member of your political “tribe” does not mean a candidate is going to be effective on council. Think of it this way, those three people elected from your district will be competing with 9 others from everybody else’s district for influence. I want the representatives coming out of D4 to be knowledgeable, experienced leaders who are respected by the other members of council, by the mayor, and by the bureaucracy. I want natural leaders with chops to represent my area of town. I don’t have a set list of specific issues they have to agree with. Elect good, qualified people and good things are more likely to happen.
Well said.
I could not disagree with Lisa more, even though we’d probably mostly vote for the same people (like Steph Routh). The belief that qualifications, knowledge, and experience matter more than political positions/affiliations disqualifies most people from non-elite backgrounds from ever holding office, when precisely what we need in this city is for regular working class people to have more of a voice in how we are governed. Conversely, there are plenty of highly qualified people whose views are repugnant and should not hold office. I would rather have a teacher or bus driver that has never been to a neighborhood association meeting be my councilmember than a lawyer or small business owner that goes to every one, because their life experience more closely reflects mine and likely what they’d implement in office. I think most of our current city council is probably pretty qualified to be there, but nevertheless they all suck.
Most people in this world have never sat on a hiring committee and do not view voting as though we’re sifting through job applications, we want someone on city council who will represent our interests and govern accordingly, that’s how democracy should work, although it rarely does. As Ross says below, it’s not that hard to be on city council, vote for who will represent you.
You know I love being disagreed with, JR. LOL.
No way that’s true.
Depends on who is doing the disagreeing and how. I also like being edited. For someone to take the time and attention to listen to you, read your writing, look at your painting and have an opinion — it’s generous of them and can be profound.
I disagree!
Mostly I’m just disagreeing because I’d just read that you loved being disagreed with.
If you elect people who think like you do, but are simply ineffective, you won’t get the results you want. While you obviously don’t want someone you find morally repugnant, the ability to get stuff done is probably more important than 100% agreement on all the issues.
On the other hand, if you elect someone who doesn’t align to your values, you also won’t get the results you want.
Obviously it is a balancing act. But I don’t understand where people are coming from if they say they would rather have someone more “qualified” whatever that means, than someone who aligns with their values. It’s like people would rather just get “stuff” done, regardless of what that “stuff” is.
I’m with Ross below, the job isn’t that hard. Vote for someone who will represent your values. Bonus points if they are skilled at getting it done. But if they don’t support your values, what is the point?
John, you always push things to extremes. No one said — no one — that “they would rather have someone more ‘qualified’ … than someone who aligns with their values.”
It’s a caricature. Both you and Watts made a caricature of some imagined person who has a purity test that candidates must match 100%. Nobody actually does that.
Yes, it’s obviously a balancing act. I’ll bet there are plenty of people you have general, but imperfect alignment with. If they can get stuff done, they’re probably better than someone with perfect alignment who’s not effective. That’s all I’m saying.
There’s an awful lot that’s going to need to get done doesn’t have any particular political valence (sorting out the mechanics of new city government, for example). We’re going to need people who can move that forward smoothly.
People will all get the same number of votes and that vote will only influence the outcome for 3 of the 12 council members and you will at most have your vote counted for 1 of those 12. But if you have extra money you can give to candidates, you can influence the outcome for all 12 council members. And if money is not object, there is really no limit to how much influence you can have.
Frankly, there is no one who is not qualified to be a city council member. The job just isn’t that difficult. The most important qualification for voting is choosing someone who supports your values and has demonstrated that not only in words but by the way they have chosen to live their lives. It doesn’t really matter if they are dumb as a stump and inarticulate. They will do just fine by reflecting what is important to you when decisions are made. Of course being bright, articulate, friendly and good looking are all positive additions.
I’m going to offer a different narrative. The Charter Commission was comprised of a unelected, non-representative, non-diverse group of Portlanders. The vast majority were nonprofit and goverment workers and ideologically aligned. There was signficant “groupthink” and this negatively impacted their work product. Except for the removal of City Council members no longer heading the Bureau the rest is going to lead us into a lot more dysfuction. Unfortunately Portland voters were so upset with the decline of livability in Portland, they voted for change without a full understanding what the change was. I’m predicting it’s not going to be pretty.
This is the correct take. The unstated yet overarching goal of the Charter Reform Committee was to help get fringe candidates elected, and the expected result was to get more extreme-left activists in positions of power.
Are these extreme leftists in the room right now?
More seriously, Portland has never had someone from the hard-left in any elected position. It’s absurd how ignorant opponents of Portland-style progressive politics are of left-wing politics.
And I would say “thank goodness for that”. We’ve already seen how almost hard-left candidates have mucked things up.
Being on Portland city council is not an easy job. The council is besieged by NIMBYs and other goons who are afraid of change, who don’t want prioritization of walking, bicycling and transit over driving; who don’t want public housing, affordable housing, traffic calming, fluoride in water, etc. But they do want to see parking enforcement, economic development, speed reduction, road crash & fatality reduction, leaf pick up, potholes filled, paving completed, unregistered vehicles towed, etc. Meanwhile, giant, ridiculously expensive projects like CRC/IBR and Rose Quarter are active and the city is paying for design review and other issues specific to Portland sidewalks, bikeways, streets and probably utilities.
Portland city staff and council are rarely complimented for their dedication and professional work.
Certainly we residents need better outcomes than those we currently see. The public should continue to be engaged, continue to place demands, and continue to hold elected leaders accountable. I am excited for the new form of government and truly hope it is not a quagmire. I love Portland. 🙂
I found this to be helpful. what I personally need (and probably other voters I would imagine) is a strategy for how to discover which of the candidates I should financially support? I can’t keep track of 70 people and it seems like many of them say they support what I want but how do I really know they’re not just lip talking? So far I have only donated to one candidate (Steph Roth) but I would love to financially back more that stand for what I want AND (KEY HERE) actually have the knowledge/background to institute it. I listened to a great KBOO interview a couple months ago where they talked about how a lot of the candidates sound great on paper but have actually zero experience implementing laws… we need less talk and more action!
I find the site at bottom to be most helpful. I’ve taken a screen shot for the top D4 candidates to give you an idea of what information can be found and how to interpret it.
For example, look at candidate Mitch Green. He has qualified for matching funds (meaning he has reached 250 donors) but the amount the city matched him is only $34K, less money than the candidates below him who have fewer donors. Why? He’s receiving smaller donations than the other candidates. Nearly 300 of his 400 donation are under $25, look at the Micro column to the right.
The man is pedaling hard.
From there I go to their individual web sites. And it is really nice to hear them in person, or meet them if you can (and a lot of organizations are inviting candidates to events where they often speak).
https://openelectionsportland.org/?startDate=Fri+Sep+01+2023+00%3A00%3A00+GMT-0700+%28Pacific+Daylight+Time%29&endDate=Wed+Jun+05+2024+00%3A00%3A00+GMT-0700+%28Pacific+Daylight+Time%29&financing=all&offices=+Councilor+District+4