We made up our minds this week on which flawed candidate ought to be mayor next year. Sometimes it’s a stinky job, but it’s what we do.

But it’s pretty clear that an awful lot of you have yet to do the same. And who could blame you? You start leaning toward Jefferson Smith, but then you learn he didn’t ‘fess up, right away, to visiting the woman he hit mere hours before the story about the 20-year-old incident broke. Or you start leaning toward Charlie Hales, and you find out that he’s undercutting his own campaign finance rules for unions and outsourcing fundraising calls to some of the wealthiest and most entrenched fat cats in Portland.

It’s no surprise, then, with ballots about to drop in mailboxes and time ticking away before November 6, that we’ve suddenly been hearing more and more about a third way: the quixotic, semi-pointless write-in. Ex-city council candidate Ed Garren is among a low-but-steady hum of voices (as demonstrated, at least, by my Twitter feed) calling for a reconsideration of our current mayor, Sam Adams.

Garren emailed the following about the mayor, whose negatives last summer were simply too high mount a serious run while still also governing the city:

There is an old Asian saying, “Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know.” Sam made one big mistake. He apologized for it, he’s worked very hard, he’d demonstrated courage with the Police department, stood up to the Police Union on behalf of previously ignored communities.

Blogger Jack Bogdanski has pushed, for months, a write-in campaign for the city’s independently elected auditor, LaVonne Griffin-Valade. And three names from the primary also keep popping up, sporadically: big-money, third-place finisher Eileen Brady; water-issues-advocate Scott Fernandez; and hunger striker, housing advocate, occupier, and Amanda Fritz volunteer Cameron Whitten. Shit, someone commenting on one of our endorsement doodads even threw in Bud Clark’s ancient name.

So what about it—are you thinking about going rogue? More importantly, if you are, on whom will bestow that (probably wasted) vote? Explain yourself in the comments. As always.

Denis C. Theriault is the Portland Mercury's News Editor. He writes stories about City Hall and the Portland Police Bureau, focusing on issues like homelessness, police oversight, insider politics, and...

45 replies on “This Is a Serious Question: Who Are You Writing in for Mayor?”

  5. I said Steve, because I think that’s funny, but really my write-in is Sam Adams. Although I’d vote for The Scone in a hot minute if it was him against either Hales or Smith, and that’s saying a lot.

    I think the write-in campaign for Brady is hysterical. She’s the one person we know that voters like LESS than Smith or Hales.

  10. I’m writing in Max Brumm into your stupid, stupid online poll. He’s not only a people, he’s OF THE PEOPLE. WE THE PEOPLE, as Ted Nugent would say. MAX 4 LIFE!

  14. I told Chris O’Connor that if his team beat mine at trivia I’d write him in. His team did indeed beat mine, so I guess I’m honor bound to throw my vote away.

  22. I think that The Mercury missed an amazing opportunity to make a statement against the massive headwound vs sucking chestwound decision that our mayoral race is and FORMALLY endorsed Cameron Whitten. No, he wouldn’t have won. But it would have been an amazing statement that no one running is worth voting for.

    Or endorse Sam Adams.

  24. The thing with a write-in campaign for Eileen Brady is she told me back in August that she has “to respect the will of the voters last May.”

  26. Yeah it’s Chris O’Connor. I’m tempted to write in Brandon Roy because I think NBA point guards are an under-rated political resource for the nation.

  31. @smfxxy – hahaha! Now go away.

    Amy Frey has the best micro-campaign strategy I’ve ever seen. Do it to scale next time, Mrs Frey.

  36. I’m writing in Eileen. She is an impressive systems thinker, showed poise when under attack, has integrity, is committed to sustainability and strategic economic growth. She built an a solid coalition of diverse voices and that is where I want to spend my vote. Never any doubt about it.

  40. Scott Fernandez seems like a great choice: a pragmatic scientist with ethics, business experience and a willingness to stand up to back-room corporate deals. I want to remind folks that Cameron Whitten is already running for State Treasurer and definitely has my vote there. I think he’ll push for a state bank, if elected. After City Hall’s attempted fast-track to fluoride without voter input, and Cameron’s seeming support of this, I am much more interested in Scott Fernandez. He has already had the guts to very vocally and publicly stand up to Randy Leonard about the unnecessary covering of the Bull Run reservoir, using his professional assessment of the project and knowledge about how the Water Bureau $ has been used otherwise. Fernandez wants to put basic services first and improve the way funds at City Hall are allocated

  43. Remember Tres Shannon’s bumper stickers? “I wanna be mayor!” Wish I had one of those now. But I’m writing in Eileen Brady. She was robbed in the primary and she’d be the obvious front runner now except for our stupid primary system that only allows two contenders to progress to the general election, even if several candidates pretty much split the vote as happened in this case. Eileen is incredibly smart, competent and compassionate. She understands that we need the kind of prosperity that goes hand in hand with social equity. She believes in transparency and public process, which our current mayor and city council apparently have no respect for (with the partial exception of Amanda Fritz whom we all should be voting for too).

  45. Correction to my earlier comment and apology to Cameron Whitten:
    Cameron did tell me that, were he a member of City Council, he would have pushed for a public vote on fluoride, even though he does support fluoridation. I do know that he has previously been an avid voice for equity and democratic process, so I thank him for reassuring me so in regard to this issue.

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