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Two leaders at the powerhouse addiction treatment advocacy group Oregon Recovers will run for Portland City Council next year.
Jesse Cornett, a longtime progressive political staffer, is a board member at Oregon Recovers. As WW reported last week, Cornett recently filed to run in District 3, which includes most of Southeast Portland west of Interstate 205 and south of Interstate 84, and is one of four geographic voting districts that will elect three members each to the 12-member council next fall.
Cornett will be running alongside a familiar face: Tony Morse, the policy and advocacy director at Oregon Recovers. Both Cornett and Morse have lobbied for Oregon Recovers at the Oregon Legislature in recent years.
Morse just last week registered a political action committee with the state, listing District 3 as the one he’s running in.
However, Morse told WW on Wednesday afternoon that he’d since learned that his home is actually situated in District 4, which covers all of Portland’s westside and a chunk of Southeast Portland—including a sliver of the Woodstock neighborhood in which Morse lives. (It was one of the last boundaries a volunteer commission settled this month.) Morse tells WW that he confirmed with city officials that his house, which sits on the border between the two districts, is technically in District 4. Morse says he will run for a spot on City Council in District 4 and is working to update his political action committee filing with the correct district.
Prior to joining Oregon Recovers, Morse worked for many years on various Democratic campaigns and as a field organizer with the Democratic Party of Oregon.
Morse tells WW he’s running because Portland “needs a champion for recovery.” (Both Morse and Cornett have long been open about their history of addiction and their paths to recovery.)
“We have an addiction crisis that impacts every part of daily life, from homelessness and community livability, to public safety and the reputation of our city,” Morse says. “Portland needs someone with lived experience and policy expertise necessary to help center and elevate recovery as we work to solve our city’s interconnected challenges.”
Prior to learning that he lives in District 4, not District 3, Morse told WW that he and Cornett spoke about running in the same district: “I’m happy to see multiple candidates connected to recovery in this race.”
Cornett says having multiple candidates from the recovery world running for City Council is “a wonderful thing for Portlanders,” and adds that he and Morse’s “partnership there will maintain during the campaign and beyond.”
So far, District 3 has drawn six candidates that WW is aware of. They include Robin Ye, chief of staff to state Rep. Khanh Pham; Portland housing bureau employee Chris Flanary; pharmacist Sandeep Bali; Angelita Morillo, policymaker at Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon; Cornett; and Daniel DeMelo, who chairs two advisory committees at Multnomah COunty.
Below is a map of the four geographic voting districts in which candidates will run for office on the 12-member City Council.
This post was updated Wednesday, Aug. 30, because Morse is filing to run in District 4 rather than 3.
