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Keith Wilson
Portland is entering uncharted territory with this election, and one of the biggest changes is to the role of the mayor.
Starting in January, when the next mayor assumes office, the job will carry less responsibility and a far slimmer scope of work. This city’s next mayor will no longer get a vote on the City Council or distribute bureau oversight assignments like party favors. Instead, the mayor’s tasks will be twofold: hiring and firing the city administrator, who will oversee the day-to-day operations of city services from cops to drinking water; and providing the public face that City Hall shows to Portland citizens and the larger world. In other words, the mayor will be an agenda setter and an ambassador. As voters decide who will fill that role, they should seek the person who will best perform those narrow tasks.
We still have our reservations about this overhaul. But perhaps it’s a blessing that the mayor’s job is reduced, given the quality of the candidates voters must choose from.
Revelations about the past actions and character of the contest’s two leading candidates, incumbent City Commissioners Carmen Rubio and Rene Gonzalez, have left many voters throwing up their hands and asking, isn’t there another choice?
There is. It’s Keith Wilson.
Wilson, 60, runs Titan Freight Systems, a 70-employee trucking company. He’s championed green energy not only in rhetoric, but also in action: Titan is the first trucking company in Oregon with an entirely green fleet. He runs a tight ship at Titan, bringing in roughly $10 million in revenue annually.
Wilson’s campaign is built around his lofty plan to end unsheltered homelessness within one year of taking office by setting up 20 to 25 nighttime shelters across the city in businesses, churches and community centers. We know that’s probably an impossible goal, and even if it weren’t, it would be tough for Wilson to get a majority of the 12-member City Council and Multnomah County on board with the plan.
But at least it’s a plan. Neither of Wilson’s leading opponents has articulated a homelessness strategy that we can stomach. Gonzalez would jail people who violate the city’s camping ban, and remove resources from the streets; we’re concerned Rubio would take a back seat to the failed leadership at Multnomah County. They offer voters the familiar, binary choice between cruelty and inaction.
Wilson’s plan is refreshingly grounded on what other cities are doing. Over the past three years, he’s traveled to cities across the country to research best practices when it comes to sheltering unhoused people.
Critics call his research selective, and political consultants, homeless service providers, and local elected officials have scoffed, saying his plan doesn’t take into account the complexities of homelessness, especially when it’s compounded with mental illness and addiction. Perhaps they’re right. But look up and down your block: How have local experts fared at reducing the misery and squalor in Portland? This city has suffered immeasurably because two warring factions—business and nonprofits—have refused to consider that their approaches are insufficient. Wilson offers a starting point for resetting the conversation.
His enthusiasm for solving the problem is unflagging; perhaps that’s something we shouldn’t scoff at, but instead ask for more of from our elected officials.
We suggest you rank Carmen Rubio second on your ballot.
Rubio, 50, worked for various local elected officials, including Mayor Tom Potter, before spending 10 years growing the Latino Network into an $18 million nonprofit. At City Hall, she has passed meaningful legislation like reallocating Portland Clean Energy Fund revenues to plug city bureau budget holes, consolidating the city’s permitting functions under one office, and launching new tax increment financing districts, a historically successful economic development tool used by the city.
But two things give us significant pause: First, she’s been unable to articulate a vision for the city. Second, she’s shown a flagrant, yearslong pattern of disregard for traffic laws. In some ways, these two problems are the same one: an inability to act when faced with a crisis. She’s given us no reason to think she’d be the standard-bearer Portland needs to reinstill confidence in its residents.
Our third choice, Rene Gonzalez, doesn’t back down from a fight. But we suspect he’d create as many crises as he’d solve.
Gonzalez, 50, is hell-bent on bringing law and order back to the city. He is full of bravado but has made few meaningful policy decisions in two years on the City Council. Instead, he has antagonized his colleagues by introducing slapdash legislation, and he’s become increasingly paranoid that progressive activists and nonprofits in this city are trying to take all moderate politicians down. At times, his back-the-blue act turns into self-pity, suggesting he believes Portlanders should ask what they can do for their public servants, rather than the other way round.
We recognize that having a mayor with a clear-eyed vision and blunt appraisal of the city’s woes has value. So we’ll rank Gonzalez third.
The Mingus Mapps of three years ago might have been our mayoral pick today. But Mapps, 54, a former professor of political science, has shown little ability to make a measurable difference at City Hall and, in fact, has been unable to complete some of his bigger policy ideas, such as putting an alternative charter reform measure on the ballot when he was unhappy with the measure approved by the 2022 Charter Commission. We don’t doubt Mapps’ dedication to this city, nor his intelligence. He just doesn’t do much.
We laud Liv Osthus, best known as a dancer at Mary’s Club, for bringing some lightness to a mayoral race that’s felt dimmer than a busted light bulb. Her campaign message is simple: hope. Unfortunately, she hasn’t proven a quick study on the workings of city government, and she hasn’t articulated a vision for the city other than bringing back the arts scene to vacant buildings.
After speaking with the rest of the candidates, we don’t see a viable sixth option.
This newsroom has often warned against the perils of tossing out what we know—a lackluster politician or a dysfunctional form of government or policy—in hopes that a shinier, untested thing will do a better job.
Yet here we are, taking a big chance on Wilson because he offers a third way and an energy missing from city politics. Portland has decided to start over. Voters should pick a mayor who offers a clean break from a decade of lowered expectations. It’s Wilson.
What Wilson was known for in high school: He was the worst player on the varsity basketball team.