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Three socialist city councilors up for reelection this November campaigned together over the weekend, boasting 200 volunteers who knocked doors in Districts 3 and 4 to rally support for Councilors Mitch Green, Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo.
Those three make up half of the progressive caucus on the Portland City Council. That bloc—which calls itself Peacock—is looking to secure one more seat on the 12-member council this fall to secure a seven-vote majority on the increasingly divided body. The moderate bloc is looking for one more seat, too, to shift the balance its way.
The three socialist councilors, in a joint statement about the weekend canvass alongside the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party, were blunt about their desire to unseat just one of the three moderates up for reelection.
“The Portland Metro Chamber is going to do everything in their power to prevent us from having seven votes on this City Council because they know if we do, we could do things like stop this corrupt Moda deal handing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to a billionaire,” Morillo said in a statement. Green said such canvassing energy meant voters have a “real chance to not only protect, but to expand the progressive bloc on this council.”
The councilors, of course, are stating the obvious: The council is often split on major decisions by a 6-6 vote on a dais that’s become increasingly divided, resorting to bitter jabs at each other’s character and motives. And which bloc holds the power in 2027—the moderate bloc, more a product of defensiveness than setting an agenda, or Peacock, a generally much more organized caucus that usually votes in lockstep—could hinge on just one seat this fall.
Adding fuel to the fire: the split on the council over whether and how the city ponies up $120 million to help fund a renovation of Moda Center that may well determine whether the Portland Trail Blazers remain in Portland or leave for another city. Ongoing tensions on the council boiled over last week after the moderate bloc—including Council President Jamie Dunphy, who normally votes with the progressive caucus—rejected 12 amendments brought forth mostly by Peacocks to change a term sheet that the city will use as a starting point for negotiations with the Blazers.
Peacock councilors said the term sheet as it now stands, which is the version the council will vote on this week, gives away all of the city’s leverage and kowtows to the Blazers’ new owner, Texas billionaire Tom Dundon. Peacock councilors showed mounting frustration and anger during Thursday’s meeting as the rest of the council, methodically and with little discussion, voted down every amendment the Peacocks presented.
“That’s unacceptable. That’s malpractice. That’s dereliction of duty on the part of this body,” Green said from the dais after the amendments were all shot down. “The idea that we don’t put up a challenge to that, to provide guidance to the mayor to do a better job for Portland, is frankly astonishing.”
For the most part, the barbs exchanged on the dais come from the progressive caucus and were aimed at the moderates. Dunphy, too, got plenty of flak from his fellow Peacocks over his vote against all amendments.
Councilors from the more moderate bloc said the term sheet should be seen as just a foot in the door to begin negotiations with the Blazers, not a binding document.
But seeing as the final decision on a new long-term lease and renovation funding likely won’t take place until December—that is, after the election—councilors’ stances on Moda Center are sure to factor in voters’ decisions at the ballot box.
“What I heard on the doors was that homeowners and renters alike are struggling to meet their basic needs despite working immensely hard,” Morillo told WW in a text. “The democratic socialists on Council have proven that fiscal stewardship and getting a good deal for Portland is a top priority for us.”
