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Mayoral candidate Rep. Jefferson Smith (D-Portland) still has plenty of liberal friends. Today, one is vouching for him.
Bob Stacey, a newly-elected Metro Councilor and a former director of environmental group 1000 Friends of Oregon, endorsed Smith this morning.
"Jefferson is a very exciting leader," Stacey tells WW. The longtime conservation activist, who led ballot-measure battles to preserve the Urban Growth Boundary, says he's supporting Smith partly for his stance against the Columbia River Crossing. "He has the right position for the right reasons," Stacey says.
The two men first became allies in 2005, as 1000 Friends began planning to reverse portions of Measure 37 that allowed subdivisions and strip malls to be easily built on farmland and forests outside Portland. In 2007, Oregon voters passed Measure 49, which limited developments outside the UGB.
"Jefferson was one of the first dozen or so people who rallied to our side and dug us out of the pit we were in after Measure 37," Stacy says.
UPDATE, 12:36: There's another twist of history behind Stacey's endorsement. When Smith's opponent Charlie Hales was a City Commissioner in the late 1990s, he fired Stacey from head of the Portland Planning Bureau.
WWeek 2015