Skip to main contentCommissioner Amanda Fritz announced this morning she will seek a second term next year on Portland's City Council even though Portlanders voted last November to kill public-campaign finance, a cornerstone of Fritz's previous bids to win a council seat.
Fritz, a former psychiatric nurse, will make her formal declaration at a lunchtime panel at the Oregon Nurses Association's statewide convention today.
"I am proud of my successes so far, and there is more to accomplish now I'm no longer a rookie," Fritz wrote this morning in a prepared statement.
Fritz, who has said before she dreads "dialing for dollars," will begin fund-raising later in the year. She cited "the level of public and media speculation about whether my seat might be vacant in 2012" as her reason for announcing today.
Fritz, of course, is referring to the increasing number of potential candidates who have said they might run for Portland City Council. That list currently includes: Eileen Brady, co-founder of New Seasons; Shelli Romero, a public policy specialist with Oregon Department of Transportation; Annette Mattson, chairwoman of the David Douglas School Board; and Steve Novick, one-time candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; and others.
In a cover story about Fritz last year, WW wrote of the rookie commissioner's stellar attendance and frequent dissenting votes. The story also noted Fritz hadn't managed to craft, as of August 2010 anyway, a singular achievement.
Earlier this year, Mayor Sam Adams announced a new Office of Equity and named Fritz as that office's leader. That appointment appears to be one of the main reasons Fritz has decided to seek a second term.
"The Office of Equity is a particularly crucial initiative that I want to see firmly established and thriving before I leave service on the City Council," she wrote in her prepared statement this morning.
WWeek 2015