Commissioner Amanda Fritz has been the only person running for her City Council seat for months. Now suddenly everyone wants a shot at her.
In the last two days, Fritz has quickly amassed four opponents in the May primary. As we noted this morning (while linking to a story by Willamette Week), salon owners and street fee foe Ann Sanderson filed to run against Fritz yesterday. So did a guy named David Morrison.
The deluge continued today, the last possible day to file for office. Sara Long, a homeless advocate active in neighborhood politics, filed to run for Fritz’s seat, according to City Elections Officer Deborah Scroggin. Long was one of four people who recently took exception to a two-candidate mayoral debate being organized by the Oregonian. Plans to disrupt the event caused the paper to call it off. An improvised eight-candidate debate promptly took its place.
Also running against Fritz: Lanita Duke, who describes herself as owner of Grassroots News NW, a “multi-media, community focused business.” Duke popped up in this Mercury story in 2000.
Neither Duke nor Long plans to spend more than $750 on their bid.
The last minute filings don’t stop there, though. The already crowded mayoral field got two more candidates: Perennial candidate Bruce Broussard, a restauranteur who most-recently ran against Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith in 2014, and Eric Alexander Calhoun, who decribes himself as a home care worker. Neither plans to spend more than $750.
That’s not even it, either. Three more candidates filed today, but two aren’t qualified. Scroggin is checking the third’s eligibility. As things stand now, though: Fritz’s position 1 seat has five candidates, Commissioner Steve Novick’s position has 10 candidates (including Novick), and 15 people are signed up to run for mayor.