City Hall Janet Wojcik grew up in the shadow of Rocky Butte, the Northeast Portland bluff once known for its jail but that now features a park with a commanding view of the city. This year...   More

News Charlie Hales has a commanding lead in the mayor's race, according to new polls released by The Oregonian and Fox 12 and Oregon Public Broadcasting.The Oregonian's poll of 408 likely Portland voters shows 43 percent say they have voted for Hales or intend to do so, compared to 23 percent who say they support Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-East Portland).The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.The ...   More

News Well, that didn't take long. On Oct. 15, former City Commissioner Charlie Hales wrote to Jefferson Smith, his rival in the Nov. 6 mayoral race, to say he wanted to break his pledge not to accept contributions above the $600 limit he'd unilaterally set in June.That was a major flip-flop for the frontrunner, although he's tried to describe the move (including in last night's KGW/Oregonian mayoral debate) ...   More

Murmurs Self-imposed campaign spending limits are often little more than a publicity stunt for candidates, but they can turn out to be a headache. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz raised her contribution    More

Elections Portland voters will decide Nov. 6 whether to impose an annual $35-per-adult tax on city residents (with exemptions for those living in poverty) to help fund more arts teachers in Portland Publi   More

News Charlie Hales says he’s crossed paths with the Portland police during his campaign for mayor—and he hasn’t always liked what he’s seen. He talks of a recent weapons stop he witnessed a   More

News Mayoral candidate Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-Portland) took an unusual step on Monday—he amended his campaign committee filings with the Secretary of State's elections division to reflect that his staff will now shift some of their time and energy to helping support the campaign for Portland Public Schools $482 million capital bond measure. Smith is also giving $5,000 of his scarce campaign cash to ...   More

News Remember two weeks ago when I said we'd have an interactive map of the full mayoral election results up in "the next day or two?" Here's that map now. If you're interested: Hales' strongest wins were precints 3605 up in the Southewest Hills and 4103 in Eastmoreland. Smith's strongest was precinct 4707 in Hazelwood. Technically, Brady's strongest was precinct 4902 in Wilkes, though only 11 people ...   More

News The final election results by precinct are out, so we've compiled them into a handy map. This is a pretty rough version—we'll have an interactive one with all the candidates and other fancy features in the next day or two—but this one shows which of the top three candidates won which precincts.Things to note: Charlie Hales won all of west Portland as well as the battle for the Kremlin—the ...   More

News Most of the Portland media didn't pay special attention to the Oct. 19 mayoral debate at Catlin Gabel School between Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-East Portland) and former City Commissioner Charlie Hales. But the student journalists at the school newspaper, CatlinSpeak, the debate's host, have done an impressive job in their coverage of the debate, now available on the paper's web site. The 20-person ...   More