News Multnomah County Commissioner Judy Shiprack has made two endorsements for the May primary that observers may find surprising. In the Democratic primary race for state treasurer between former county Chair Ted Wheeler and state Sen. Rick Metsger (D-Welches), Shiprack tells WW she's endorsing Metsger. Shiprack is backing Metsger despite the fact she worked with Wheeler for more than a year ...   More

News The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners has reached a unanimous decision to make Commissioner Jeff Cogen the new interim county chairman. He will take over early next month. The decision, finalized among the four commissioners and their staffers late last week, seeks to fill a leadership void after Gov. Ted Kulongoski tapped now-former County Chair Ted Wheeler to take over as state treasurer ...   More

News Two of the candidates in the suddenly interesting Multnomah County commission District 2 race are racking up endorsements almost as quickly as former county Chair Ted Wheeler accepted the job of state treasurer this week. The District 2 race to represent North and Northeast Portland was set off after Wheeler's decision prompted Commissioner Jeff Cogen to abandon his re-election bid in that district. ...   More

News While the Multnomah County board of commissioners this morning wades through Ted Wheeler's last meeting as county chair, the commissioners' staff members are scrambling behind the scenes to figure out how to fill the void after Wheeler is sworn in at noon as Oregon's state treasurer. All this comes in the aftermath of Tuesday's political pile-on of candidates filing to fill Wheeler's seat and ...   More

News Roberta Phillip, a newly hired staffer in County Chair Ted Wheeler's office, has filed to run for Commissioner Jeff Cogen's seat in District 2. Cogen today announced he's running to replace Wheeler, who has been appointed state treasurer. Phillip, who had no idea her boss would become treasurer when she started work Monday as a policy advisor to Wheeler, plans to stay with her job at the ...   More

News Add another name to the race: former Multnomah County Commissioner Gary Hansen says he'll run to replace Commissioner Jeff Cogen. "The county is a basic supplier of services to the most needy people in the state," Hansen says, when asked why he's running. "We're talking about the mentally ill, the disabled, seniors. The county is really where the action is." Hansen was a two-term Metro councilor ...   More

News Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen confirms he will run to replace Ted Wheeler as head honcho at at the county. "I've been working here at Multnomah County for three years," Cogen says. "I feel we've made a lot of progress addressing our needs. I want to step up and help continue to make Multnomah County a great government." It will be an interesting race — former Democratic U.S. ...   More

News Rev. Chuck Currie, a United Church of Christ minister, is the second new candidate to say he'll run for Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen's seat. Cogen aide Karol Collymore's move to file to run for her boss's seat has set off strong speculation that Cogen will run to replace county Chair Ted Wheeler, who has been tapped to replace Ben Westlund as state treasurer. "Multnomah County ...   More

News The political dominoes are falling fast this morning. Karol Collymore, an aide to Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen, this morning filed (PDF) to run for her boss's seat. Cogen will switch his filing to run for County Chair Ted Wheeler's spot. "I just think it's the natural next step for me in my political career," Collymore says. "I've worked at the county for three years with Jeff ...   More

News Multnomah County Commissioner Deborah Kafoury praises Ted Wheeler for ending the dysfunction on the county board in 2007 after he took the chairman's job by beating Diane Linn. But Kafoury tells WW her colleague, Commissioner Jeff Cogen, will offer a new brand of leadership. As we reported today, Cogen has unanimous backing of the county commissioners to take over as county chairman early next ...   More