Skip to main content
Lynn Peterson, a former Clackamas County Commission chair and high-level transportation official, is exploring a run for Metro Regional Council president next year, campaign filings show.
Peterson held the top spot on the Clackamas board from 2007 through 2011, when then-Gov. John Kitzhaber hired her to be his transportation advisor.
From that job, Peterson landed a bigger position: she served a director of the Washington Department of Transportation from 2013 through February 2016.
Peterson lost that job last February when the GOP-led Senate refused to confirm her position.
She's long been known as a strong advocate for transit and alternatives to the single-occupancy vehicles that congest Oregon roads and highways.
Metro is a logical place for her to seek her next opportunity as the agency is in charge of transportation planning for the region and helps decide how federal transportation dollars are allocated locally.
Current Metro Council President Tom Hughes is mid-way through his second four-year term and is prohibited by the Metro charter from running again.
Filings with the secretary of state's election division show that Peterson formed a campaign committee in January and reported donations from former Metro Council President David Bragdon ($500); former state Rep. Greg Macpherson (D-Lake Oswego) ($500); and three former mayors, Sam Adams (Portland, $101); Judy Hammerstad (Lake Oswego, $101); and Alice Norris (Oregon City, $101).
Peterson says the mixture of transportation and land-use planning Metro engages in are attractive to her, as is the opportunity "to protect and build upon all the progress we've made in the region over the past 20 years."