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It seems Portlanders are exiting the honeymoon phase with their new form of city government.
The latest regional survey by the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center found that just 31% of Portlanders felt a member of City Council represented them and advocated for their interests, while 36% said none did and another 33% didn’t know.
That’s a slight improvement from 2024 polling ahead of the overhaul of the city charter, which expanded the council to 12 members in large part to better reflect Portland’s diversity and afford more effective representation. But it’s much gloomier than figures from 2025. Last year, in the first year of post-charter reform, 40% of Portlanders surveyed in May and June felt someone on the council represented them. Just 27% felt no one did.
Why the whiplash? The survey questions were open-ended, but Amaury Vogel, OBVC’s director, has a couple of ideas.
“It had only been a couple months by the time we [surveyed] the first year after the changes took place,” Vogel says. “People are definitely frustrated with how some things in particular have gone on council, like the ties and the public bickering…and the public airing of grievances with one another that don’t feel like they’re based on policy necessarily.”
That the charter reforms also limited the City Council’s power, eliminating the body’s direct management of city bureaus, will also take some getting used to. Vogel says limited council power has in some cases contributed to a perception of councilors as weaker representatives.
Six of the 12 members on the City Council who hail from Districts 3 and 4 vie for reelection in November. It’s the first chance under the new form of city government that some Portlanders will have to shake up the new government model.
Yet Vogel remains skeptical that dissatisfaction with city government will result in sweeping changes this November.
For starters, a higher proportion of District 3 and 4 voters feel represented by at least one member of City Council. In District 3, 34% of respondents said they felt represented, in contrast to 24% who said they did not. In District 4, those percentages were 35% and 36%, respectively (see chart).
That’s starkly different from respondents in District 1, where just 25% of respondents felt represented, and 37% did not. (District 1 councilors don’t come up for reelection until 2028.)
More importantly, Vogel says overcoming incumbency is a big lift, especially in a crowded field in which challengers struggle to stand out.
“It only takes 25% for these people to get elected, and name familiarity and incumbency go a long way,” Vogel says. “The strength of [challenger] campaigns has not been what I would expect would be needed in order to turn a lot of those seats over. I would only expect probably one seat to change in District 3 or District 4.”
