Our election endorsements are out today and, really, I’ll be glad when this election is over. Like the 30 percent of Portland voters who are still undecided in the mayoral race, I’m not that excited about either candidate.
But! On the other hand, neither Charlie Hales nor Jefferson Smith will be that bad. Portland has survived through way worse mayors. I asked history nerds Doug Kenck-Crispin, Joe Streckert, and Dan Haneckow for their worst mayor ever nominations.
1. William Farrar (1862): “I have a soft spot for him,” says local historian Dan Haneckow. At the beginning of Farrar’s term, he told council he had to take a three-month leave for his business. Then he was never seen in Portland again. “No known photograph of him exists.”
2. George Luis Baker (1917-1932): Mr. Baker proudly posed for a photo shoot with hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan and felt his greatest accomplishment as mayor was “removal of subversives” from the city by busting up the International Workers of the World.
Read about the other worst Portland mayors here.
*Industrial* Workers of the World
True; I suppose “International Workers of the World” would be a tad redundant, huh?
And I feel like Frank Ivancie belongs on there somewhere. Maybe number seven or so…
I think it’s pretty clear that William Farrar was The Doctor.