Former City Hall Adviser, Onetime Multnomah County Sheriff Mull Runs for Portland Mayor

As the 2024 race for Portland’s next mayor creeps closer, the names of rumored hopefuls are swirling around political circles.

According to two sources familiar with Portland politics, a former longtime City Hall politico, Marshall Runkel, and onetime Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese are each considering running for mayor next year.

Runkel served as chief of staff to City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly and before that served as a longtime adviser to City Commissioner Erik Sten. Runkel was also one of the chief architects of the 2018 ballot measure that created the Portland Clean Energy Fund. Following Eudaly’s ousting from office in 2020, Runkel went to work as a solar energy consultant. He now works at the prominent political consulting firm Strategies 360.

Runkel says he hasn’t made a decision yet about running. “My kid is going to be senior at Grant this year, and I’m not screwing that up,” Runkel says. “I’ll be interested in what’s happening in May or June. That’s the truth.” Runkel has never before run for office but has led a number of successful campaigns.

The other person said to be considering a run is former Sherif Reese, who left office at the end of 2022. He tells WW that he’s “in the process of discerning how best to help during these challenging times, and it may be running for an elected position. However, there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the mayor and City Council roles and responsibilities that will be determined soon by citizen-led committees. I’m closely following their work.”

Prior to serving as sheriff, Reese was chief of the Portland Police Bureau from 2010 to 2015, a position in which he worked closely with Mayors Sam Adams and Charlie Hales.

Reese and Runkel would be joining a sparse race so far, though the field of candidates is likely to grow in the coming months. City Commissioner Mingus Mapps recently announced his campaign for mayor, and it’s rumored that City Commissioner Carmen Rubio and incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler are strongly considering runs, too. Neither Rene Gonzalez nor Dan Ryan, the two remaining city commissioners, has publicly ruled out a run.

Whoever wins the 2024 mayoral race will oversee a form of government that the city has never seen before, thanks to a ballot measure approved by 58% of Portland voters last fall that is set to radically reshape how the city functions. A professional city administrator appointed by the mayor will run city bureaus. The mayor will not have veto powers over the 12-member City Council but will have a tie-breaking vote.

The next mayor will also oversee a city reeling from the trifecta of homelessness, increasingly deadly drug use, and mental illness—a dauntingly difficult task.