Margaret Carter's Senate Seat: Tina Kotek Is Not Interested

State Rep. Tina Kotek (D-North/Northeast Portland) said this afternoon she's not interested in making a bid to replace Sen. Margaret Carter, who's leaving the Legislature after 25 years for a job at the state Department of Human Services.

"I feel like I can do more good for my constituents if I stay where I am in the House instead of starting over in the Senate," Kotek says, noting her role as co-chair of the Human Services subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The announcement this week by Carter (D-North/Northeast Portland) that she's leaving the Legislature has thrown open the doors to her job.

State Rep. Chip Shields, the other Democratic rep from Carter's Senate district, has already announced his interest in getting appointed by the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to fill the remainder of Carter's term.

As for rumors about a bid by Karol Collymore, a staffer for Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen — Collymore is playing coy.

"It's an idea in the ether," Collymore tells WW.