Primary Election Date: 05/15/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I was born in Portland, Oregon. After my mother passed away from breast cancer in my senior year, I finished High School, worked briefly as a cattle hand, did a year of charitable service during college, and ultimately graduated from the University of Oregon.

I graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, and clerked for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals before returning home to Oregon, where I worked as a lawyer and political activist.

In 2001, along with a group of friends I started the The Bus Project. We bought a 1978 touring coach, filled it with mostly young volunteers, and drove to swing districts across Oregon in support of the “Six E’s”: Education, Environment, Economy, Equal Rights, Election Reform, and ‘Ealth Care (with no “h”). From 2002-2004, Bus PAC volunteers knocked on over 150,000 doors, supported 10 State Senate candidates helping to win nine of those races. In 2006, the Bus PAC supported 10 State House candidates, and nine of those won as well. 50 Simple Things author Jon Javna called me “a progressive hero,” and former Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts called the Bus “the most exciting thing in Oregon politics in the last 20 years.”

In the years since, the Bus has registered over 70,000 thousand voters. Their PolitiCorps program has graduated 154 Fellows from its groundbreaking, ten-week leadership boot camp. The Trick-or-Vote Halloween get-out-the-vote canvass has spread to over 90 locations. The success of the Bus has spurred affiliated headquarters in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Montana, and inspired work as far away as Africa. White House speechwriter and Next Deal author Andrei Cherny dubbed the Bus “one of the most innovative political organizations in the country.”

In 2008, I succeeded U.S. Senator (and then-Speaker) Jeff Merkley in the Oregon House. As a member of the House, I co-led the effort pass online voter registration, as well as Oregon’s Transparency Act to openly share Oregon’s budget with the world. I worked as half of the legislative political “Odd Couple,” with Rep. Bob Jenson (R-Pendleton), that passed the landmark statewide water investment program. I championed the “Cool Schools” jobs plan to retrofit public school buildings for energy savings and higher performance. I kick-started the “economic gardening” plan to help homegrown Oregon businesses find new customers and new markets (for which I was named “2011 Small Business Champion” by the Oregon Microenterprise Network), and I championed one of Oregon’s first human trafficking bills. I was also elected and re-elected Assistant Leader by my colleagues in the House.

My wife, Katy, and I live in East Portland.

Why Am I Running?

I’m giving up a safe legislative seat to run for mayor; it was not a decision I took lightly. As valuable as my time in the legislature has felt, as a State Representative from East Portland, I’ve seen a different set of problems that I can’t address from Salem. I’ve met neighbors struggling to find work or make ends meet, who want safe homes in healthy neighborhoods, and don’t have either. I’ve seen a wonderful city in need of a boost for this century. I’ve seen my friends from high school struggle to raise their families and worry that their kids won’t have the same experiences they had. I want to be Portland's mayor because I believe that, together, we can make Portland the city it aspires to be—and a city that works for all of us.

Hold Me Accountable!

(A quick note - these are issues and ideas that a Mayor can have a meaningful role in addressing. Education is definitely in these top issues for Portland residents, and education is mentioned below, but it is primarily a state and school board issue in our city.)

a. A Sustainable, Fair Economy: Too many politicians overstate our impact on the economy; nonetheless jobs and the economy should be critical filters through which we make decisions. Portland will compete by focusing on our distinctive strengths. By being a smarter, harder working, fairer, and better place to live. By having a strong middle class, by getting jobs for people who work with their hands and their minds.

We need to improve our focus on homegrown economic development. Most of our job growth comes not from recruiting out-of-state businesses, but from homegrown economic development—not just economic hunting, but economic gardening. I led the development of the statewide launch program, aimed to help early stage businesses get better access to market research and business intelligence and find new markets and new customers. This concept was recently named by the Harvard Kennedy School as one of the Top 25 Recent Government Innovations. We can do this work more robustly at the City level.

As part of a homegrown economic plan, we can commit to responsible banking that puts money into local credit unions and keeps circulating our dollars more locally. We can have an investment approach to foreclosures, helping families stay in their homes. And we can do smart public works, not just expensive capital projects, but completing projects like energy efficiency investments that can save us money over time.

b. Equity: This is a top priority. We need an unflinching focus on fairness. We need to honestly face where Portland is failing Portlanders. It is an economic and moral imperative that we invest in equity across city government. We have to manage our spending and strive for economic diversity in our neighborhoods as we build a city that is prosperous, fair and sustainable—for everybody.

We won’t always get it right, and we won’t change things overnight, but we have to commit ourselves. Here are some elements of necessary efforts: Smart investments in equity and achievement. This means curbing youth violence—including violence against LGBTQ youth, which, according to Outside In, comprise 40% of our homeless youth. I will put additional focus on communities that too often feel left out or left behind.

My DFA values:

Prior to running for Mayor, I worked with friends to reinvigorate the progressive movement and the Democratic Party. An organization that I founded in 2001, the Bus Project, has become a national model for hands-on democracy - bringing new and young people especially into the political process through voter registration and volunteerism, and as part of a nationally renowned leadership development program, Politicorps.

With this campaign, I want to build on that experience. A primary goal is to engage more people in city government - and to engage them in meaningful and tangible ways. That starts with our volunteer-leaders, almost like board members, who help me to make choices and hold our campaign accountable to more than just dollars raised.

I am also running, in part, because I worry that Portland will lose its iconic progressive status without careful attention as we come out of the economic downturn. It is easy, now, to make changes in the names of jobs - changes that are not progressive, not sustainable. I will campaign and govern with four values at the forefront always: prosperity, equity, sustainability, democracy. Those are my values, and they are the values of the grassroots progressives in our nation.

I have been inspired by the Occupy movement, and I am the only candidate among the front-runners in my race that refused to arbitrarily set a deadline for removal of Occupy Portland's camp after just one week. During and after the campaign, I will continue to be an outspoken advocate for changes to our campaign finance laws in Oregon and nation-wide. I will also continue to speak out against corporate personhood.

Responsible banking practices are one of the too-few levers that local governments have to promote financial fairness. I have already publicly proposed moving a meaningful portion of public deposits into local credit unions and community banks.

Here is a recent article on the topic that I submitted that was published on a major national blog: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jefferson-smith/cities-can-move-our-money_b_1065436.html
It was also covered here: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/17/1037293/-Cities-need-to-move-their-money?detail=hide

We can change the city's banking/investment policies to give it the flexibility to make decisions about meeting it's banking and investment needs to include new factors and criteria. As for those criteria, I would work with stakeholders to develop a fuller list. In addition to maintaining the highest level of prudence (track record, assets, FDIC status, etc.), there are two sets of factors that I would submit to that table:

1. Local circulation -- more local investment spurs more local investment. The public sector can help lead the way. Do top decision makers live and work in Oregon? Are the headquarters in the region? Do they prioritize local lending with assets in small, local business lending?
2. Fair practices -- with apologies to Teddy Roosevelt, we want our people to get a square deal. How is the track record of working to avoid unnecessary foreclosures? Does the institution raise and impose questionable fees merely to boost profits without increasing service? How can we better evaluate financial institutions we work with?

As mayor, I will help Portland lead the way nationally and set the example that we can be responsible with our public deposits. I will work passionately on this issue, and not only when it’s time to fill out political questionnaires.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

1. Volunteers are our greatest asset. Over 700 people have already pledged to help us along the way - and we have volunteers in the office every day and every night, 4 months prior to the election. We’ve given our volunteers significant decision-making roles, including setting our fundraising goals, and developing policy plans.

2. We have pledged not to take donations from out-of-state businesses and out-of-state organizations, and we raised our first $100,000 in donations of $1000 or less. We have now raised over $200,000. Our fundraising goal, in a state that sadly has no campaign donation limits, emphasizes the combination of number of donors and amount raised in order to remember that success comes in engaging the most people in the process. 70% of our over 1,100 donors have given $100 or less.