IT WAS A PRIMARY ELECTION season marked, from the Democratic
presidential contest on down, by excruciatingly close races—at
least according to the pre-election day polls and punditry.
According to poll numbers, Sho Dozono was holding Sam Adams under
the 50 percent mark in the race for Portland mayor, and Steve Novick
was consistently neck and neck (and usually just ahead) of Jeff Merkley
in the Democratic race for US Senate. Two candidates for secretary of
state, Kate Brown and Rick Metsger, had recently polled as a dead heat.
Nick Fish—a man who had never gotten more than 48 percent of the
vote in his previous three runs—was polling lower than that, and
a runoff with his nearest competitor, Jim Middaugh, looked likely.
In the end, though, the voters forged an entirely different
path.
By 8:20 pm, just minutes after the polls closed, Adams had already
taken the stage at the Jupiter Hotel on E Burnside—where his
supporters chomped on pulled pork sandwiches under a white tent in the
courtyard—to say “the numbers look good.” He had a solid lead on
Dozono, with roughly two-thirds of the ballots counted.
Less than an hour later, and less than a mile down the road, Dozono
conceded at Los Baez—even as Mayor Tom Potter worked the room,
saying, “There’s still hope,” and telling folks that “if Sho hadn’t
have run, it would have been more like 80 percent for Sam.” Telling his
supporters he didn’t have enough time to get his message out, Dozono
added he was looking forward to getting his life back.
At 9 pm, Adams claimed victory before a roaring crowd. “As mayor, I
will be working hard with all of you—and believe me, you’re going
to be working hard as well—to unite behind a common vision, and
to unite behind common actions that will move this city forward.
Together we can make Portland cleaner, greener, more sustainable…
we’ve done it before, and we can do it again!”
In the city council races, Fish landed nearly 62 percent of the
vote—putting him considerably ahead of Middaugh, at 22 percent.
At the Kennedy School, Fish’s fans snacked on Goldfish crackers (Get
it?) before Fish thanked the crowd. In a moment of adorableness, his
toddler son, Chapin, kept interrupting to tell Fish what to say. We see
political consultancy in the kid’s future.
In Southeast Portland at the Lucky Lab, Middaugh’s crowd still
celebrated: “We didn’t win. But it was a victory nonetheless,” Middaugh
told his supporters. “People were so positive, so thoughtful, and so
committed to the future of this place… the civic fabric here is so
strong.” (The other contenders in that race laid low on election night,
with Harold Williams Two watching basketball with a few friends at
Huddle sports bar on N Killingsworth, and Fred Stewart hanging out at
Café Emanon in Northwest Portland.)
The open race to fill the seat Adams vacated to run for mayor was
anybody’s guess going into election night. But as widely expected,
Amanda Fritz—the only woman in the race, and the only person
who’d run before—was leading with 43 percent of the vote. “That’s
kind of what I was hoping to see two years ago,” Fritz laughed, as her
supporters cheered and ate cake that had “sweet victory” written in
icing.
The race for second place—to determine who would face Fritz in
the November runoff—was close. As we went to press, Charles
Lewis—hanging out at his Northeast Killingsworth campaign
headquarters where volunteers watched Dancing with the Stars on
TV—had a comfortable 630 vote lead over competitor John Branam.
“We’re exactly where we knew we would be… in second place,” Lewis
told the Mercury.
Jeff Bissonnette followed, about 211 votes behind Branam, as he held
court over a small party at Carboni’s Pizza on NE MLK. In Northwest
Portland, at Café Reese, Chris Smith—trailing the pack
with less than 10 percent of the vote—laid low, sipping a Diet
Coke and playing with his iPhone and laptop. In St. Johns, Mike Fahey,
the only privately financed candidate in the race (he raised about
$20,000), was in fifth place—news that largely cleared the room.
“I won’t be throwing myself off the St. John’s Bridge,” he told the
Mercury. Phew.
Surprising no one, incumbent City Commissioner Randy
Leonard—who partied at Adams’ shindig instead of hosting his
own—took home 72 percent of the vote against his three low-key
challengers.
In local legislative races, Jackie Dingfelder had a solid lead over
Sean Cruz in the 23rd district senate race. In the 42nd district
representative race, Jules Kopel-Bailey was ahead with 40 percent of
the vote, and Michael Dembrow led the 45th district race with nearly 41
percent.
At the state level, Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley scrapped for the
right to take on incumbent Republican US Senator Gordon Smith. Novick,
who relied heavily on viral ads showcasing his no-holds-barred style
(and his steel hook hand), led early, much to the delight of his fans
partying at the Benson Hotel—but the returns quickly flipped in
Merkley’s favor. As we went to press, Merkley led 45-41 percent,
several thousand votes ahead of Novick.
At Madison’s in Southeast Portland, Merkley’s crowd kept a close eye
on the numbers, but celebrated nonetheless—and Merkley declared
victory shortly after 10 pm. The two Democrats vying for the attorney
general seat (no Republican filed for the office) broke apart early,
with Lewis & Clark College law professor John Kroger, taking the
lead. In a 14th floor penthouse suite at the Benson Hotel, Kroger sat
in an armchair to watch the results, while friends and campaign
staffers lounged, eating salami and chips and working on a cooler full
of Session lager. Across the river at Maiden in the Mist, State
Representative Greg Macpherson’s supporters were heading for the exits
by 8:15 pm.
In the race for secretary of state, Kate Brown, Vicki Walker, and
Rick Metsger—all three state senators—Brown quickly took
the lead with 52 percent, and appeared likely to face Republican Rick
Dancer in November. Also hosting a party at the Benson, Brown said she
was “cautiously optimistic” about those numbers.
Oh—and some guy named Senator Barack Obama totally creamed a
gal named Senator Hillary Clinton, by a 16-point margin. (And as we
went to press—and at the after party—Obama was pulling in
roughly 62,000 more votes than his potential November challenger,
Republican Senator John McCain.)
