Skip to main content
A new candidate is expected to enter the race for Portland mayor this week.
Sarah Iannarone, an assistant program director at Portland State University, will declare this week she's running for mayor, sources tell WW.
Iannarone, who has never before sought public office, would become the first woman to join the race to replace incumbent Mayor Charlie Hales. The race is currently headlined by Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Commissioner Jules Bailey. (Seven other candidates, all men, have filed in the race.)
Iannarone, 42, works as assistant director of the PSU program First Stop Portland, which hosts delegations of visitors from the U.S. and abroad to study Portland's sustainable infrastructure—from bike lanes to the Portland Streetcar. Her annual salary is $51,780.
At First Stop Portland, Iannarone serves as deputy to Nancy Hales—who has run the program since 2009, three years before her husband, Charlie Hales, was elected mayor.
Sources tell WW that Charlie Hales urged Iannarone to enter the race. He decided in October not to seek a second term.
Iannarone could not be reached for comment. But people who've worked with her say she's a promising candidate.
"She's high-energy," says Adam Davis, founder of the polling firm DHM Research. "She is smart. She is driven."
Davis serves on the First Stop Portland advisory board. He worked with Iannarone on a Metro research project around 2008.
"Her north star is livability and quality of life in our region," he says. "I think she'd make a great mayor."
In a town of foodies and environmentalists, Iannarone could draw voter interest.
She and her husband, Nick Iannarone, own the Arleta Library Bakery and Cafe in Southeast Portland's Mount Scott neighborhood.
She opened the cafe a year after graduating from PSU in 2006, and helped found First Stop Portland in 2008.
Iannarone is a doctoral candidate in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at PSU. She serves on several city committees—Hales recently named her to a committee advising the Portland Development Commission, the city's urban renewal agency.
"I think Portland should have a really smart conversation about its future," says Thomas Lauderdale, Pink Martini bandleader and a community activist who once considered running for mayor himself. "Her presence will force that conversation. It's too early to tell how it will all go down, but for the first time, I'm excited about the mayor's race in Portland."
She's the second woman to be encouraged to enter the mayor's race by Charlie Hales. Shortly before announcing in October that he would not seek a second term as mayor, Hales encouraged Multnomah County chief operating officer Marissa Madrigal to run for the job. She decided not to run.
Iannarone's candidacy would add an element of unpredictability to a race that was shaping up as a head-to-head contest between Wheeler and Bailey.
With her experience advocating bicycle transportation and greater urban density, Iannarone could siphon the votes of Portland's young liberals away from Bailey. Those votes are crucial in the May primary, where voters are usually older and more conservative.
But her candidacy also increases the likelihood of a runoff in the November general election. In a presidential election year, like this one, November voters are often younger and more liberal. That could be bad news for Wheeler, a Democrat seen as the more conservative candidate in the race.
"I think it complicates the race for Ted," says Davis, the pollster. "It would jeopardize the victory of 50 percent plus 1 in the primary if she comes across as a credible candidate."
Iannarone has kept her plans for a mayoral run closely guarded. The only previous public clue? A post on Twitter in November, responding to a WW story about architect Stuart Emmons mulling a run for the City Council.
"Because what's sorely needed in Portland politics is another middle-aged white guy," wrote Innarone.
Willamette Week
