After revelations in the media about a long record of parking tickets and an incident in a parking lot Friday where City Commissioner Carmen Rubio hit another car and then walked away from the scene, The Street Trust Action Fund has decided to rescind their mayoral endorsement.
After the first story about Rubio’s parking infractions hit the news last week, TST Action Fund expressed disappointment about the news, but stood firm in their support, saying, “We believe Carmen Rubio remains the best candidate to deliver on the transportation safety issues that matter most to our community.” But now they have changed their tune.
Here’s the statement just released by The Street Trust:
As The Street Trust Action Fund expressed earlier this week, we were disappointed to learn of Carmen Rubio’s traffic infractions and upset that she failed to disclose those past infractions to us during the endorsement process. However, we were willing to forgive past mistakes in service of a candidate seeking to make change in how the city approaches traffic safety and investments in a complete, multimodal system that serves all street users.
As Oregon’s only complete streets and transportation safety Action Fund, we cannot say that we will endorse candidates to hold them accountable and then not do so; for this reason, in light of allegations that last week Rubio damaged a parked car and walked away, we are withholding further support of her campaign until we see real change. We still believe her positions are the best in the race, but her driving has become a distraction – one which flies in the face of our values.
We hope that Carmen Rubio – and everyone running for Portland mayor this November – remains committed to prioritizing full funding for street safety and implementing critical active transportation and safety measures. Moving forward this election cycle, The Street Trust Action Fund’s focus will be on our statewide, regional, and city council champions for our mission.
This decision will likely dampen spirits at The Street Trust’s annual Alice Awards fundraising event set for Saturday evening, where Rubio was set to be celebrated along with the Action Fund’s other endorsees. And it leaves our largest transportation advocacy group without a horse in the mayor’s race.
I’ve heard from many folks that they’d like to see mayoral candidate and trucking company CEO Keith Wilson considered. However, according to Wilson, he was never notified about TST Action Fund’s endorsement process. Wilson tells BikePortland he was very interested in receiving their endorsement and regrets not being part of it. In response to this claim, The Street Trust (and TST Action Fund) Executive Director Sarah Iannarone sent BikePortland a screenshot of an email sent to Wilson inviting him to participate. I’m still working to gain clarity on this and will share more when I can.
Focusing back on Rubio, this is just another part of a very challenging two weeks where she’s seen her campaign for Portland’s highest office crumble just as the race heats up.