Mingus Mapps’ Mayoral Campaign Owes $17,000 to Vendors

City Commissioner Mingus Mapps’ bid to become Portland’s next mayor continues to struggle as his campaign stares down $17,000 in unpaid bills to vendors, and has only $2,842 cash on hand to pay expenses.

The Oregonian reported in February that Mapps’ campaign had spent all of its money and was in the red. Finance databases show Mapps’ financial standing has worsened considerably since then.

By contrast, Mapps’ two leading opponents for mayor—City Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Rene Gonzalez—have raised $84,000 each so far this year, compared with Mapps’ $21,000. (Rubio has $46,000 cash on hand and Gonzalez has $105,000—over half of which is rollover money raised by Gonzalez last year.) A third mayoral candidate, business owner Keith Wilson, so far has raised $76,000.

Mapps says he has no intentions of ending his campaign for mayor.

He promises to make vendors whole and says he is waiting to unlock matching funds from the city’s Small Donors Elections program, which matches small contributions by up to 9 to 1. Mapps is about 25 small donations short of unlocking the $100,000 in matching funds, the highest amount mayoral candidates can get from the program in this election cycle.

“I’m confident we’ll get to where we need to be,” Mapps says. “The key here is to reach the 750 donors.”

Mapps says he lost fundraising steam over the past few months because he was focused on some of the city’s biggest problems: passing the gas tax renewal, getting through budget season, and dealing with the city’s transition to a new form of government.

The commissioner says he thinks his opponents will also struggle with money at some point: “I’m not overly concerned about the money piece, because every candidate is going to have the same problem. None of us will have enough money to run a mayoral campaign.”

Mayoral candidates in previous cycles could receive up to $750,000 in matching funds from Small Donor Elections. It wasn’t until earlier this year, facing a budget crisis, that the program limited that amount to $100,000 for mayoral candidates—a change that’s upset a number of such candidates, including Mapps.

Mapps’ aspirations to become Portland’s next mayor were rumored since he was elected to City Council in 2020. They became reality when he officially launched his campaign in August. But his campaign floundered from the outset, bringing in much less cash than Rubio and Gonzalez in their first few months of fundraising.