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The City Club of Portland announced over the weekend that board elections held last week resulted in victory for the five-member slate the club's existing 17-member board nominated—and the defeat of two former club presidents who argued the club has lost its way.
Related: Former Leaders Say the City Club of Portland is Pushing Diversity at the Expense of Debate.
The former club presidents, architect Paddy Tillett and patent lawyer Peter Heuser, decided to run after a long debate between a group of more than a dozen former City Club presidents and current club leaders over whether the club had, in the pursuit of greater diversity, sacrificed the intellectual rigor that characterized its research reports and Friday Forums. Jim Zehren, another former club president and self-described "Hubert Humphrey liberal from Minnesota," told WW that City Club had become a "liberal echo-chamber."
But club members rejected that argument and cast their votes for a slate that included Julie Davis, Stephen Green, Marissa Madrigal, Frank Reppenhagen, and Rebecca Tweed.
Here are the results (top five win):
"I'd like to thank Peter Heuser and Paddy Tillett for volunteering to run for the board," City Club Executive Director Julia Meier said in a statement. "This week has inspired a lot of conversations and debate at City Club and throughout the community. I believe firmly that forward momentum is only possible when we engage with each other and challenge ourselves and our community to be our best."
Although the dissidents did not achieve their aim, at least one new board member is likely to push back against the "liberal echo-chamber."
Tweed, a longtime GOP political strategist, helped engineer the defeat of Measure 97, the proposed 2016 gross receipts tax that had deep support in Portland and is now running state Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Bend)'s campaign for governor.