Vera Katz, Tom Potter, and Sam Adams say they’ll vote for Ted Wheeler over the incumbent.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Vera Katz, Tom Potter, and Sam Adams say they’ll vote for Ted Wheeler over the incumbent.
That’s significant because Katz, a three-term mayor who overlapped with incumbent Mayor Charlie Hales when he was a city commissioner, endorsed Hales in 2012. Adams also knows Hales well, having served as Katz’s chief of staff for much of that time. Adams clashed with Wheeler at times when Wheeler served as Multnomah County chairman from 2006 to 2010 and so his endorsement of Wheeler was not an obvious choice. Finally, Potter, who won election in 2004, ran as an opponent of the city’s business elite, so his populist cred is helpful to the buttoned-down Wheeler’s cred with the keep-Portland-weird voters.
(SOURCE: Willamette Week)
Wheeler held a campaign kickoff event Wednesday.
Sitting Mayor Charlie Hales responded.
“I stand by my accomplishments as Mayor, including moving the city out of a $21 million financial hole and balancing the budget, taking historic action to address a homeless situation that has been creeping up on Portland for a decade, and making tangible inroads in increasing affordable housing such as the introduction of a demolition tax. We have had to address issues that were a long time in building,” Hales said.
“I appreciate that Mr. Wheeler has been hard at work on his campaign. I remain hard at work at City Hall and in the community tackling the very real issues facing Portlanders on a daily basis and making the kind of progressive change I was elected to do.”
(SOURCE: Portland Tribune)
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