On May 15, 2012, Portlanders will elect their next mayor and two city commissioners. While The Mother PAC typically focuses on state legislative races, this year we are also paying attention to city elections in Portland, the state’s largest city. Because smart policies for today’s families – which we like – get passed at the local level, too. Good reason to make sure people know who’s most likely to champion family-friendly policies – and who’s not – when they’re casting their ballots.
MAYOR OF PORTLAND
On March 10, 2012 we co-hosted a mayoral candidate forum with our sister organization, Family Forward Oregon, featuring the three front runners: Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales, and Jefferson Smith. You can watch the full video of that forum below to see for yourself who gave the strongest answers to our questions.
We asked questions about: public education funding, child care cost and location, clean air, workplace flexibility and paid leave policies, and more. Take a look at the actual questions we asked them here: Portland Mayoral Candidate Questionnaire. We developed them with input from Portlanders about what they think makes a city a great place to raise a family.
There aren’t just three mayoral candidates, of course. To provide the other 20 candidates an opportunity to share their views on the issues that matter to families with voters like you (there were simply too many to include them all in our forum), we invited each and every one of them – regardless of qualifications – to answer the same questions we asked our forum participants. You can peruse the answers of the four who replied here: Loren Charles Brown – Mayoral Candidate, Shonda Kelley – Mayoral Candidate, Scott Rose – Mayoral Candidate, and Howie Rubin – Mayoral Candidate.
Who we support for Mayor of Portland: We are giving a “green light” to Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith. Why? While they do differ on some issues, they all speak strongly about different policies that matter to Portland families.
What is a “green light”? It means we like a candidate enough to see them move ahead through the primary – so we can get to know them better before the general election in November. It also means that we don’t see any one single candidate in the race as significantly more (or less) likely to lead on all our priority issues than others.
PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL
Two of Portland’s four city council seats are up for grabs this year (Nick Fish and Dan Saltzman’s seats are up in 2014)). State Representative Mary Nolan is challenging incumbent Amanda Fritz, and Steve Novick and Jeri Williams are vying for the seat Commissioner Randy Leonard has held since 2002. Fritz, Nolan, and Novick participated in our March 10th city council candidate forum – check out what they have to say for yourself in the forum video, below:
Who we support for Portland City Council:
- Position 1: We give a “green light” to incumbent Amanda Fritz and challenger Mary Nolan.
- Position 4: We give a “green light” to Steve Novick and Jeri Williams.
Because Jeri Williams did not participate in our March candidate forum, we interviewed her in person and invited her to answer – in writing – the same questions we asked the three forum participants. You can read her answers here: Jeri Williams – City Council Candidate
Whatever you do, please vote. Ballots are due on Tuesday, May 15th by 8 PM. Mail yours in or drop it off. Just vote!