If you didn’t know any better, you might think downtown’s City Council district is down to four candidates vying for three seats. “Final four square off,” reads a headline announcing a downtown candidate forum set for next week.
Bruce Studer, the president of the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, and Allan Classen, the editor of the neighborhood newspaper the NW Examiner, were scheduled to moderate the October 5 event the Armory. Now, the event is in flux after the Pearl District was forced to abandon the forum due to legal requirements for neighborhood associations and nonprofits.
Only four candidates were initially invited, leaving out eight of the dozen District 4 candidates who the Pearl District is legally required to invite due to its nonprofit status. Excluding the candidates may run afoul of local, state, and federal laws, as well as the Pearl District’s own bylaws.
The hosts invited all three incumbent candidates, Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman, but added Eli Arnold, a challenger who has worked as a Portland police officer in the Pearl District.
The Pearl District covers West Burnside Street on its southern border, to the I-405 freeway to the west. It runs north to the Willamette River and its eastern edge is at NW Broadway Street before the Broadway Bridge.
Studer told the Mercury the original intent was to provide the residents an opportunity to hear from the candidates and issues in the neighborhood. He said the Pearl District has since learned it is not even legally allowed to provide the facility without “being lumped in with the entire process.” Studer said the Pearl District was responsible for reserving at the Armory for the forum. Now, it is no longer associated with the event, and it’s unclear if the forum will continue there as scheduled.
“We’re just not going to be involved because of the risk and the new information that we found out,” Studer said.
Neighborhood associations are overseen by district coalitions that receive funding from the city’s Office of Community and Civic Life. As with all 501c3 nonprofits, any neighborhood group recognized by Civic Life is supposed to invite all candidates if the group hosts a forum. The City Attorney’s office said in a statement to the Mercury on Tuesday that the issue was brought to its attention yesterday afternoon, and the office immediately reached out to the District 4 Coalition.
“Recognized Portland neighborhood associations are explicitly prohibited from taking positions in support of or in opposition to any political candidate or party in accordance with the Office of Neighborhood Involvement Standards (ONI Standards),” the statement said.
The original invite list was short, and some candidates say it looked like an effort to engineer an outcome. Jamey Evenstar, a District 4 candidate who was not invited, told the Mercury that including one challenger appears unfair.
“Choosing a ‘final four’ makes sense in a race that is choosing one seat,” Evenstar said. “In a system with three representatives, giving a platform to a single challenger to all three incumbents appears to give that challenger an advantage.”
Classen, the NW Examiner editor, told Green in a September 28 email that the metric the hosts used was based on who had raised the largest amount in donations.
“All four raised more than twice as much as the next highest candidate,” Classen wrote.
Still, elections law does not allow neighborhood groups to narrow which candidates are invited to participate.
“If nonprofits and neighborhood associations have candidate events, they need to be impartial, all candidates need to be invited, and everyone has an equal time to speak,” the City Attorney’s office said.
With Classen’s metric applied, the four invited candidates are those who have raised the most money through the city’s Small Donor Elections program. Zimmerman has raised nearly $86,000 through the program, coming from 826 contributions. Large donations make up half the cash. He’s reported $171,000 in total contributions according to state records.
Arnold has raised over $86,000 with 1,596 Small Donor program contributions, totaling nearly $266,000, according to state records. Olivia Clark has raised over $86,000 from 1,048 individual donations, totaling $142,000 in contributions reported to the state. And Green brought in nearly $81,000 from 2,122 donors in the small donor program, carrying nearly $233,000 in state-reported contributions.
But not far behind, and fourth in terms of individual contributions, is Jeremy Beausoleil Smith, a Democratic Socialist vying for one of the seats. He’s collected nearly $24,000 from 929 donors—nearly all of them under $25—nearly $122,000 in contributions reported to the state.
Beausoleil Smith told the Mercury he would gladly accept an invite to the debate.
“We should be included because we’ve received more individual donations than one of the incumbents has,” Beausoleil Smith said. “Our grassroots campaign is resonating with Portlanders and we believe that Portlanders deserve to hear from us in every forum and debate before Election Day.”
Jayne Cronlund, another District 4 candidate, said she was not invited to the event, but should have been.
“Voters in District 4 deserve to hear my seasoned, research-based, and thoughtful approach to our City’s myriad challenges,” Cronlund said in a text message to the Mercury. She’s reported nearly $58,000 in contributions, with over $16,000 from 406 Small Donor contributions.
Similarly, Evenstar’s coffers are made up of almost entirely microdonations, totalling nearly $22,000 from 556 donors in the city’s program—that’s nearly $78,000 reported to the state.
The exclusion of some candidates could rub up against federal violations for nonprofits as well. The NW Examiner is not technically a nonprofit. However, it receives sustaining support through the Northwest Local Journalism Project—a registered 501c3. Classen is the sole registered agent and president of the nonprofit, and one other person, Kevin Cosgrove, is registered as the secretary in state records. Its tax records are not publicly available via the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
While there’s no evidence that the Pearl District has made contributions to any candidate, or made explicit endorsements, federal law has strict guidelines, including barring verbal or written statements made on behalf of an organization about a candidate for office. Federal law allows for nonpartisan activity like voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote efforts, or anything encouraging people to participate in democracy. But not all activity is protected.
“On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention,” the IRS website says.
The Pearl District has a history of tense political meetings. In July 2025, Mayor Keith Wilson faced a hostile meeting after he proposed opening an overnight homeless shelter on Northwest Northrup street, as reported by OPB. That shelter has since closed due in part to its high costs, as well as the intense pushback it faced from Pearl District residents.
The Pearl District also prompted civil rights attorneys to raise discrimination concerns in 2022 when it joined nine other neighborhood associations demanding that the city perform background checks for homeless residents staying at the city’s Safe Rest Villages.
Classen did not meaningfully respond to the Mercury’s questions prior to publishing, but said he would reply later. This story will be updated.
Clarification, September 29, 2026 3:29 pm 3:29 pm: A previous version referred to the venue as it was advertised in the NW Examiner. The correct venue is simply the Armory, and the event is unrelated to Portland Center Stage programming.
