On Tuesday, as I processed the jaw-dropping revelations about Portland City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio’s numerous traffic violations and irresponsible motor vehicle use, another shocking item popped up on my timeline: A few days before The Oregonian story came out, Rubio was endorsed by The Street Trust.
Rubio shared the endorsement on Instagram over the weekend. In the caption Rubio wrote: “Through their dedication, we are making progress toward ending preventable deaths resulting from lax safety and inequality. With their support, I know that our city can lead the way on policy transformations and major investments to save lives… Together, we can end the public health emergency of traffic deaths and injuries.”
The endorsement was made by The Street Trust Action Fund a legally separate arm of the organization launched in 2018 that is allowed to lobby and endorse political candidates without the limitations of a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit.
“I closed the book on those times, but I haven’t forgotten the lessons I learned.”
– Carmen Rubio in a campaign email today
The timing of this endorsement by Portland’s most well-known active transportation advocacy group is notable because of the story published Monday that outlines Rubio’s driving history. According to The Oregonian, Rubio was written up for more than 150 parking and traffic violations over the past 20 years and didn’t pay them off for months and sometimes years. Rubio also had her license suspended on “at least six occasions” when she didn’t appear in court or provide payment.
In a statement to The Oregonian regarding the infractions, Rubio said, “I put my family financial and career obligations first… These are the experiences that have shaped who I am today and also make me a better leader because I have greater empathy for people who have gone through similar things.”
In an email to campaign supporters today, Rubio said said, “I want to apologize” and added, “I know that the best things to do when you make mistakes are to take responsibility, to clean up the mess and do better, and that’s what I’ve done when I paid my fines off many years ago*, I closed the book on those times, but I haven’t forgotten the lessons I learned.” (*The Oregonian reports that Rubio was cited for at least three violations since she took office as a city commissioner in 2021.)
Rubio will have another chance to explain her past at a live debate hosted by the Progreso Latino PAC. She’ll be on stage with fellow mayoral contenders Rene Gonzalez (who has serious traffic violation problems of his own) and Keith Wilson.
On Tuesday, LiUNA Local 737, a union that represents 3,000 Portland-area workers, withdrew their endorsement of Rubio, saying they were “shocked by the information” about the traffic violations.
BikePortland has reached out to The Street Trust Action Fund executive director for comment about their endorsement of Rubio but has not yet heard back.
On The TST Action Fund website, the organization shares the process they go through to choose candidates. BikePortland has also seen the questionnaire given to candidates. It’s all pretty standard fare about transportation policies and projects, except for the last question: “Is there anything we haven’t asked you that you believe we should know?”
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Regardless of if she ticks all the favorite candidate boxes of progressive values voters, it’s a terrible look when you thumb your nose at the law with a “rules for thee not for me” attitude. Maybe most damaging was this quote to OPB from her campaign:
“In a statement sent by her campaign, Rubio attributed the pattern of not paying for parking—or for tickets—to prioritizing her career over other responsibilities.” Ouch!
Well, that kind of checks out
Wow. I really hope The Street Trust rescinds their endorsement, or at least offers a clear explanation of why they would still keep their endorsement despite this disturbing history of parking and traffic violations (150 of them?!), failure to pay the citations, and having her license suspended multiple times. All this while she was a very successful, well-paid professional who could have easily paid the tickets, not to mention she could have changed her behavior well before racking up 150 infractions. This is the behavior of someone who doesn’t think the law applies to them.
Of course, her main rival in the Mayor’s race, Rene Gonzalez, is not really any better on this front. He got seven speeding tickets, had his license suspended twice, was cited for driving while suspended (and claimed to be unaware his license had been suspended…yeah, right), was cited four times for having expired registration, and was cited for not paying MAX fare (and again, made some kind of excuse about getting confused). https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/09/09/records-show-rene-gonzalez-frequently-ticketed-for-speeding-often-failed-to-show-up-in-court-and-twice-had-license-suspended/
Any one or two of these things for either of them could be chalked up to making mistakes and learning from them, but in both cases these are clear patterns of not caring about traffic laws, failing to be accountable when caught, thinking the law doesn’t apply to them, and all of this makes me feel they should not be trusted to be Mayor.
I would encourage people to consider Keith Wilson, who is very good on transportation and homelessness issues, among other things, and doesn’t seem to have this kind of scofflaw history, and do your research on other candidates as well. With ranked-choice voting, you can give your number 1 ranked vote to the person you truly support, voting your conscience, rather than holding your nose and voting for the person you think has more name recognition or “electability” or whatever. For me, I was leaning toward voting Keith Wilson number 1 and Carmen Rubio number 2, but with this news I might just vote for Keith Wilson and leave it at that, unless anyone else comes along who might be worth giving my lower rankings to.