Rene Gonzalez, a first-term Portland commissioner, said he will run for mayor next year, staking his political fortunes on a restive electorate that was drawn to his moderate appeal last year amid a prolonged period of crises that continues to afflict Oregon’s largest city.
Since taking office in January, Gonzalez has remained laser-focused on the public safety and livability issues that fueled his victory over incumbent Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty just 13 months ago. Those priorities continue to inflame detractors who bristle at his business-friendly air and support for cracking down on unsanctioned encampments.
“We are seeing the excesses of ideologically driven policy 10 years in the making and every day Portlanders are experiencing the negative effects of that,” Gonzalez told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “That’s why I think a centrist can win.”
In an interview, the 49-year-old credited his aggressive stances on crime, homelessness and public drug use with helping to push other elected leaders toward his preferred positions, but said that the progress he envisions remains far from complete.
“I think we’re at a different point than we were two years ago. The political consensus has shifted dramatically in that time,” said Gonzalez, a registered Democrat.
“But crime is still way too high,” he continued. “Our overdose rates are way too high. Our first responder system is still overwhelmed. Nor do we have a long-term solution to behavioral health in the state, much less the region.”
Gonzalez plans to formally launch his campaign Thursday at an event in downtown Portland near the blighted Washington Center. Earlier this year, the former retail and office complex became the site of what police and officials described as Portland’s largest open air drug market in memory — and a symbol of the city’s ongoing struggles.
He will become the second declared candidate in the race after Commissioner Mingus Mapps, also a moderate by the standards of Portland city’s politics, announced his candidacy in July. Carmen Rubio, another member of the Portland City Council, is also mulling a run and is expected to decide by January.
Gonzalez’s entrance into the race, first reported by Willamette Week, marks a rapid rise in local politics for the lawyer, businessman and Eastmoreland resident.
In 2020, Gonzalez co-founded a statewide effort to reopen public schools and resume student activities amid the pandemic. Soon after, as Portland grappled with a surge in fatal shootings and homeless encampments and property crimes, he set his sights on the City Council seat then held by Hardesty, a progressive champion and police reform advocate.
Campaigning as a law-and-order centrist, a parent and a fifth-generation Portlander who wanted to restore the city’s battered parks, neighborhoods and downtown, Gonzalez bested fellow challenger Vadim Mozyrsky to finish second in a three-way primary in May 2022.
That November, the first-time office seeker went on to defeat Hardesty, 53% to 47%, bolstered by an outside political group bankrolled by business and downtown property owners that spent six figures on his behalf in the final weeks of the race.
During his brief City Hall tenure, Gonzalez said he’s worked to bring down the time it takes for dispatchers to answer 911 calls and pour more money and resources into the city’s beleaguered fire bureau, which remains understaffed despite some recent hires.
“We need to make sure we are not taking for granted our first responders, the people who keep us safe every day,” he said.
Gonzalez played a role this winter and spring in the creation of a revamped effort to crack down on vehicle and retail theft in Multnomah County. And he successfully led the City Council to pass a ban on public drug use previously abandoned by Mayor Ted Wheeler, though the measure will require a change in state law to go into effect.
Gonzalez has also faced his fair share of criticism. His decision to suspend the distribution of tents and tarps by employees of the public safety bureaus he manages, which includes Portland Street Response, drew the ire of homeless advocates and progressive activists.
At the time, Gonzalez said he wanted to see those living on the streets seek shelter in public warming centers during cold weather events instead of starting fires, which have injured people sleeping outside or in tents and posed safety risks to firefighters.
Months later, he remains steadfast in his decision, which he said is emblematic of his leadership style.
“I think I’ve demonstrated that I have the backbone to follow through on things, even if some people are going to scream and howl about it,” he said.
While he previously floated potential changes to Portland’s massive, voter-approved overhaul of city government — much to the chagrin of the broad coalition of groups that promoted them — Gonzalez said he’s now committed to the new system.
“The city needs leadership, regardless of whether we have the ideal form of government or not,” he said.
In his first run for public office, Gonzalez proved to be a prodigious fundraiser, racking up thousands of individual donations from Portland residents that qualify for matching dollars under the city’s public finance system.
He also won the backing of powerful constituencies, including the city’s police and fire unions as well as business leaders, property owners and developers. While his campaign faced a $77,000 fine by a city elections official for receiving a deeply discounted office space from a supporter — real estate mogul and philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer — a state administrative law judge ultimately revoked the entire penalty.
Gonzalez’s full-throated support for more police and a tougher approach to street camping resonated with affluent west siders as well as the middle- and working-class residents of east Portland, who tend to be more conservative.
At the same time, he remained competitive in Portland’s reliably liberal enclaves of inner Northeast and Southeast Portland that are often most important to winning election citywide because of their volume of like-minded voters.
Whoever is elected to serve the next four years as Portland’s mayor will play a pioneering role in helping bring to life a new version of that office.
Currently, the mayor decides which bureaus each member of the City Council gets to control, proposes the city’s budget, presides at City Council meetings and can issue executive orders.
In the next iteration of city government, approved by voters last fall, administrative duties of running bureaus will be vested in a city manager chosen by the mayor and approved by the City Council.
The mayor will only vote on issues before the City Council if needed to break a tie vote and will not hold veto power.
Portland’s 2024 mayoral contest will also be the first held under a new city elections system also approved by voters.
Voters next year will only cast ballots in a November general election, forgoing a May primary, and use two different types of ranked-choice voting — one form for mayor and city auditor and another for an expanded 12-person City Council that will have three representatives selected in each of four geographic districts.
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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