Independent Expenditure Campaign Backing Rene Gonzalez Raises $115,000 in Two Weeks

An independent expenditure campaign formed earlier this month to back City Council candidate Rene Gonzalez in his attempt to defeat sitting city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has raised $115,000 in two weeks.

The political action committee, formed by former City Council candidate Vadim Mozyrsky and political consultant Kevin Looper, is drawing some repeat flyers from another campaign that emerged in the spring to back Mozyrsky, who was running against Gonzalez and Hardesty in the primary. WW first reported the campaign.

The donors include scrap metal yard president Warren Rosenfeld, private equity magnate John von Schlegell, The Benson Hotel, Standard Insurance, commercial real estate agency Melvin Mark and real estate investor Mitchell Menashe, whose family owns properties in downtown Portland.

Also among the donors: Fred Jubitz, CEO and president of the famed Jubitz Truck Stop, who is also Gonzalez’s step-uncle. (Gonzalez’s mother is the stepsister of Al and Fred Jubitz.)

Looper was one of the primary crafters of People for Portland, an advocacy group that for over a year has been pressuring elected officials to more aggressively combat crime and homelessness. A ballot measure its associated PAC tried to get on the November ballot to reallocate hundreds of millions in tax money for homeless services was struck down by a circuit judge, who cited issues with the language of the measure.

Gonzalez has not welcomed the boost. In a statement to WW when it first reported the story on Oct. 6, Gonzalez’s campaign manager, Shah Smith, said the campaign “does not need help in promoting Rene Gonzalez for city commissioner—he is connecting with voters throughout the city, leads in small donor contributions, existing polling, and he made it to the runoff despite independent expenditures on behalf of his opponents.”

Gonzalez heavily criticized the big money push behind Mozyrsky in the spring, going so far as to characterize Mozyrsky in WW’s spring endorsement interview as a hand-picked Portland Business Alliance candidate.