Sam I’M Not

[January 2nd, 2008]

Christmas comes late for Portland’s political junkies. The new year could bring a real race for mayor, with the expected entry of businessman Sho Dozono into a contest that has been considered a shoo-in for Commissioner Sam Adams.

Dozono is expected to make his announcement Jan. 14 at Cleveland High School, where he wrestled in his youth.

“He was a stud. I was like a tackling dummy,” recalls former state Sen. Dick Springer, who was a freshman on the Cleveland squad when Dozono was a senior.

Dozono is 63 now, and slower. But he would still be the strongest among the current crop of nine challengers to Adams (see “Done Deal,” WW , Nov. 28, 2007) to succeed Tom Potter, who’s not seeking a second term. Yet even Dozono’s supporters—coming from business and minority groups, and the purple end of Portland’s political spectrum—say he’ll have a tough time pinning Adams, 44.

The first challenge, if Dozono plans to participate in the city’s public campaign finance system, will be to collect $5 contributions and signatures from 1,500 Portland voters by Jan. 31. Even if he meets that goal, he’ll have less than five months to introduce himself to voters before the May primary and to distinguish himself from Adams, who’s basically been running for higher office ever since he was elected to the City Council in 2004.

If no candidate gets a majority in the May primary, the top two finishers advance to the November general election. That’s what happened in 2004 when there was an open mayoral seat.

The policy differences between the two seem minimal—although Dozono, a stranger to elected office, has no track record to shoot at. (Adams’ City Hall history dates back to his decade as then-Mayor Vera Katz’s chief of staff. )Dozono has advocated for the rights of minorities and gays, and staged humanitarian events for victims of 9/11 and the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, none of which put him out on a limb.

More significant, according to people who’ve worked with both men, are their differences in style. Dozono is described as collaborative and inclusive, Adams as fast-paced and demanding.

Conversations with Dozono’s friends suggest he will position himself as the more moderate, business-friendly, minority-boosting City Hall outsider.

“Sam is a charismatic, hardworking, intelligent policy guy,” says lobbyist Len Bergstein, who is pulling for Dozono. “Sho presents a whole different set of skills.… He took a small family business and built it into a nationally recognized travel business at a time when the travel industry was going under.”

Dozono heads up Azumano Travel, Bush Gardens restaurant and a few other travel-related companies.

Five years ago, WW reported that Dozono improperly loaned money from the trust fund of a deceased friend’s son to bolster his own businesses (see “Sho Dozono’s Rules,” WW , Oct. 30, 2002). Dozono did not deny the loans, and the flap did not seem to inflict long-term damage to his standing, though it certainly will be fodder for Adams if the race tightens.

Dozono continues to serve on high- and low-profile boards, including the United Way, the Portland Art Museum and the Multnomah County Task Force on Aging. Some of his gigs have been more political, despite his “outsider” tag. Dozono has served as a Port of Portland commissioner, and he helped found the Portland Schools Foundation.

Springer says Dozono offered use of his company’s telephones to the Democratic Party in the 2000 election. Dozono has since cultivated Oregon Democrats with donations in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. His $500 contribution to the National Republican Congressional Committee in 2002 appears to be an aberration.

Bergstein says Paige Richardson, Oregon director for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, is likely to manage Dozono’s mayoral run.

Adams may have more heavy hitters in his camp—including political consultant Mark Wiener, Katz, City Commissioners Erik Sten and Randy Leonard, and downtown landowner Greg Goodman—but a number of somebodies are lining up with Dozono.

Lobbyist Danelle Romain will back Dozono (though not on behalf of the Romain Group, founded by her powerful lobbyist father, Paul). “I don’t think [Adams] necessarily has a balanced perspective on a lot of the issues,” says Romain, who worked for the Oregon Petroleum Association to dissuade Adams from pursuing a city gas tax.

Dozono will also draw support from Asian, Hispanic and black leaders. Many Latinos are fuming at Adams and the rest of the City Council for the disastrous effort to rename Interstate Avenue after labor hero César Chávez. Asian Reporter publisher Jaime Lim has already endorsed Adams, but says he’ll support Dozono if he jumps in. “I thought maybe [Adams] had it bagged already, but this is a new twist,” Lim says.

Gale Castillo, of the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, will serve on Dozono’s election committee. And North Portland businessman Harold Williams will also support Dozono, who “understands the struggle of those who’ve been disenfranchised,” says Williams.

Strained loyalties are inevitable in Portland’s small political pond.

Sarah Bott, who worked under Adams as Katz’s press secretary, says she plans to volunteer for Dozono. “He has a tremendous capacity to lead,” she says of Dozono, preferring to praise Dozono rather than criticize Adams.

Dozono’s daughter Elisa also worked under Adams, preceding Bott as Katz’s press spokeswoman. Elisa Dozono did not return WW ’s calls. She did say in a December email to the paper that “I’m refraining from knowing too much about my dad’s plans, since I’ve always been so close to Sam.”

Dozono did not respond to messages left at his office and at his home in Southwest Portland, which he purchased in March 2007 after living in Beaverton.