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When Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson is sworn in as county chair in January, her ascension will create a vacancy because she’s in the middle of her second term.
Under county rules, commissioners get to designate their own successors should they leave office prior to the end of their elected terms. Vega Pederson selected former Oregon Senate Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland).
So when Vega Pederson, who defeated fellow Commissioner Sharon Meieran on Nov. 8 to succeed Chair Deborah Kafoury, assumes office in 2023, Rosenbaum will move temporarily onto the five-member commission, as the Portland Tribune first reported. (Kafoury was term-limited from running again.)
It’s not something Rosenbaum, 73, had on her calendar.
“Jessica asked me to be her replacement when she was first elected [in 2016],” says Rosenbaum, who retired from the Senate in 2017. “At the time, it seemed unlikely ever to come to pass.”
She won’t stay long, however. County elections director Tim Scott says procedure calls for the board to declare Vega Pederson’s seat vacant, then place it on the ballot for the next scheduled election, in May 2023.
One person who won’t be on the ballot: Rosenbaum. “I have no plans to run for the seat,” she says.