Mayor Charlie Hales is calling it at one term.
In a stunning reversal, and in the face of difficult poll numbers and a strong challenger, Hales revealed earlier today he won’t run for re-election next year. In a statement laying out a litany of problems facing the city, Hales says his time’s better spent at work than squaring off with State Treasurer Ted Wheeler and whoever else pops into the race.
“When confronted with a choice between giving my full effort to the job of being mayor and spending that energy on a long and consuming re-election campaign, it’s an easy choice,” Hales writes. “Therefore, I have decided not to file for re-election.”
Of course, public opinion polling likely weighed in on that decision. Wheeler’s campaign has circulated poll results suggesting he’s got a legitimate shot of unseating the mayor. Wheeler also unveiled a trio of supporters earlier this month that boded poorly for Hales: The city’s past three mayors. Obviously, Wheeler’s likely got an easier path with today’s decision.
Update, 4:09 pm A chipper Hales, meeting with a steady stream of media this afternoon, says he thinks he can win a re-election race—he just doesn’t want to neglect his duties to do so.
“The assumption that I could just do a campaign in my spare time has become absurd,” Hales tells the Mercury. “I know how to campaign—I’ve done it nine times. If I poured myself into this one I could win it. I would win it. But that would be at the expense of devoting myself to these issues that I ran to work on.”
Hales has had an especially active several weeks—setting the city down a path toward declaring a housing emergency, floating a controversial demolition tax aimed at slowing Portland’s hyper-speed changes, and saying he’d support voluntarily recognizing some of the city’s lowest-paid workers as union members.
Today he highlighted the city’s growth, the housing crisis, and the rising tide of gun violence as issues that need urgent attention.
Hales also is using his decision to talk about a “generational change” he thinks is possible in city hall. He wouldn’t unveil who he’d like to see run for his seat, but suggested he’d like a fresh face.
“I hope and expect that this will open the door to some new leadership in this city,” Hales said. “There are some of us you might fairly categorize as status quo. I think this could be an opportunity for that to start to change.”
Original post:
City Commissioner Nick Fish says Hales stopped by his office earlier this afternoon, unannounced, to explain his decision not to run. The mayor told Fish many of the same things he wrote in his official announcement.
“He said he had spent the weekend talking to his wife about the campaign and about their plans,” Fish says. “They had decided that to be a full-time mayor and full-time candidate was a big reach and that he was going to discontinue his campaign. He seemed very confident in his decision.”
For Fish, who’s one of the foremost advocates for housing issues on City Council, the announcement was abrupt, but welcome in its way, he says. “I told him that we had a lot of momentum in addressing the housing crisis and, somewhat selfishly, I was pleased with him having more bandwidth.”
Today’s announcement makes Hales the third straight Portland mayor to decide against asking voters to re-hire them after one term, after former mayors Tom Potter and Sam Adams declined to run again (Potter didn’t particularly like the job, and Adams was beset by scandal).
Wheeler, in a statement, greeted the news of Hales’ decision relatively sedately. The mayor’s sudden departure from the race means Wheeler’s camp will have to pivot from a course of criticizing Hales on the issues, and begin bringing its own policy proposals to the table.
“Mayor Hales said today that he wants to continue to focus on the issues that matter to the people of Portland,” Wheeler said in the statement. “That’s what I’m going to do, too. This race is not about the personalities involved. It is about finding solutions for the real issues facing our city – like homelessness, fixing our roads, finding long-term affordable housing solutions and creating good, family-sustaining jobs.”
Here’s a statement Hales released earlier today. We’ll be updating.
Dear Friends:
Last spring, I let it be known that I was planning to seek another term as Portland’s Mayor. I’m very proud of what we have accomplished in less than three years. There is now tremendous momentum in this work:• We and our partners are taking historic action on homelessness and affordable housing – and backing it up with funding and the declaration of a housing emergency.
• We have seen strong results on police reform, significantly reducing the use of force, improving the ability to de-escalate a crisis, and repairing the relationship between police and the community.
• We have become national and international leaders on local action for climate change.
• We are making Portland more equitable, including raising the minimum wage for city workers and contractors, and more prosperous, creating new jobs and investment.
• At the same time, we righted city government’s severely listing financial ship, erasing a record budget gap and making important new investments in transportation and our kids.
Making this kind of progress for Portland is why I ran for mayor.
While I have been doing the work you elected me to do, I have also begun preparing to formally launch a re-election campaign. In the process, one thing has become crystal clear to me. I cannot do both of these tasks faithfully and well.I ran for office to do something, not to be something. For me, serving the city we love has never been a political stepping stone. Our city and the work are the motivation, and now, in addition to the initiatives I mentioned, there are other big challenges that need my full attention:
• The pressures of growth are upon us, and more is ahead. Over the next twelve months, we will draw the map for Portland’s next twenty years…and our next 200,000 neighbors.
• I am heartsick about the nightly toll of gang violence in our city. It doesn’t necessarily show up in political polls or even get full media attention, but it keeps me up at night. Over 850 shots have been fired in over 158 gang violence incidents this year, resulting in ten deaths and 45 people injured. This community crisis deserves everything I have.
So when confronted with a choice between giving my full effort to the job of being mayor and spending that energy on a long and consuming re-election campaign, it’s an easy choice. Therefore, I have decided not to file for re-election.
The filing deadline is still over four months away, and I hope and expect that several qualified candidates will seek the office of Mayor. There are some dynamic new leaders in our community, and I’m excited to see who steps up.
I thank you for your support and encouragement. Together, we have made great progress, and over the next 14 months, we will make more. I pledge to you that I will focus all of my time and energy on that responsibility.
Sincerely,
Charlie
one nemesis down, now please target this deusche tyrant mofo:
http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/278050-1…
…that would be the president of PSU- a deusche who speaks about improving retention yet does jack squat to actually do so. He involved no one but his equally sheltered upper middle class board members to make decisions, dodges student feedback and interaction, and completely fails to address or even acknowledge in any effective way the things that hold this school back from improving retention and gaining some credibility.
All this directionless IDIOT knows is that he makes a lot of money and he gets away with it.
It reminds me of when Ted Kennedy dropped out of the race for president against Carter in 1980. I saw a cartoon that said “What the hell am I gonna do with all of these Chappaquidick bumper sticker?”
Prepare to meet the new boss… Same as the old boss.
He’s a great man and this is a great loss for Portland. We’ll all be the worse for this loss. It will be very difficult to find a replacement with the skills and ability of this true leader. I think Portlanders seriously ought to consider quadrupling the salary of the Mayor, to be equal of that to the president of Portland State University. Then we could attract someone of the caliber of Wim Weiwel. Perhaps we could offer Hales half a million to stay on?
The Portland Trial Ballzers are spearheading a write in campaign to draft the mascot hippy fellow, Mike Scheckla, for Mayor of Portland as well as for Governor of Orygun. He will do for the city and state what he’s done for the team!
Was the North Portland Ice Cream shooter in a gang? No. Was the Jantzen Beach Red Lion shooting gang related? No. Most of these gun shootings are just lone wolf incidences and have NO gang affiliation. The media obviously has a clear motivation to expose the increase in gun shootings and THEY, THE MEDIA, are the ones that say many of the shootings ARE NOT gang related.
This last statement by Hales clearly displays where he is coming from. He is preying on the fear and ignorance of people instead of trying to look at the causes of increased shootings. It is truly the most uncaring statement of his career. It shows his true colors, motives and a lot about his philosophy for his political career. It’s all about Charlie and if he has to resort to ignorant, scare tactics he will. To not have the dignity to gracefully save face when you are facing low poll numbers and low public opinion / support is just cowardly. Really?? Did he really have to resort to the lowest tactics to try to cover his low opinion polls. Another way to look at the increase in gun shootings is that as Mayor Hales purposefully and intentionally ignored the overwhelming evidence that Portland Police are doing a terrible job and have purposefully drove a huge gap the size of the Grand Canyon between people of color and the police. Hales will forever be known as the worst Mayor Portland has ever had, and considering we’ve had two mayors who were ousted for molestation/involvement with a minor that says a lot.
The cause of gun violence is due to single parent families, not the fault of police or guns. Doubling the size of the police force won’t put a dent in the problem. There are too many police and not enough good parents.
I think History will show Hales to be a more than adequate Mayor for Portland, particularly after the disaster known as Adams.
He certainly has done a better job than commenters on this blog will give him credit for.
Clearly, this makes Wheeler the front runner, and I have liked his performance in other trusted positions. We’ll see if any other credible candidate steps forward.
Stop demolishing Portland Charlie. You have 14 months for you and your criminal pal Vic Remmers to make some more obscene money for both you, Charlie and Vic to cash in and wreck our neighborhoods. Affordable housing my ass. Charlie has turned out to be the Republican we was and still is. Gang violence yeah right. How about cop racist violence? Get outta here and stop wrecking this great city.
Maybe he wouldn’t have to spend so much time campaigning if he’d spent the last three years doing anything besides sitting on his hands. Here’s Hales’ legacy, in highlight form:
– Won on a smear campaign against Jefferson Smith. Anyone who had much faith in Hales’ character after that was delusional. Ain’t nothing “back to basics” about digging up your opponent’s driving record and old college squabbles.
– Oh and then there was that time someone noticed that he actually lives in Washington, not Portland. Pays to have good campaign consultants, doesn’t it?
– He completely failed to address the street maintenance issue while practically daring his critics to give him (and Novick) the boot. Let’s just consider this can kicked down the figurative road, once again. At this point it’s a proud Portland tradition.
– And he stood by, grinning, while his developer buddies slapped together a whole slew of luxury apartment skyscrapers on the East Bank that will do fuck all to ease pressure on the rental market while permanently marring the skyline and blocking downtown views. Nice work, Rubber Stamp Charlie!
– And let’s not forget that he bent over for AirBnB & Uber, costing hundreds of local jobs in the transportation and hospitality industries. Conveniently didn’t mention all the ethics violations that happened between him and his lobbyist pal Mark Wiener behind closed doors. That giant sucking sound is either your water bill, or Oregonians’ money flowing into the pockets of Silicon Valley venture capitalist scum (okay, it’s likely both)
– But it’s not all bad! In response to the mass displacement of multi-generational African-American families from N / NE and the rising, widespread epidemic of violence, Hales gathers his best advisors and comes up with: Hip-Hop Day. In an instant, all inequality is vanquished. All ills are cured. Portland is instantly transformed from America’s Whitest City® into a melting pot, a harmonious collaborative safe space for culture and diversity.
Yes, because all of us have tons of “old college” squabbles that involve assaulting a woman. And then showing up on her doorstep 20+ years later to “apologize”. I’m no fan of hales, but “come on” as it relates to that point.
Smith’s driving record – which only a lunatic could amass, along with having his license suspended 4 times – was also good to know and said a lot about him as a person.
Both of the above were more than fair to be public knowledge if someone is running for an office like the mayor of portland. And, I don’t think it was ever established that it was a smear campaign driven by hales.