Mayor-Elect Keith Wilson Selects Aisling Coghlan as His Chief of Staff

Portland Mayor-elect Keith Wilson has chosen Aisling Coghlan, a longtime Democratic Party operative in local and state politics, as his chief of staff.

Wilson takes office Jan. 1 and will oversee an entirely new form of government that’s led by a professional city administrator and guided by policies decided by a 12-member City Council.

Coghlan, 53, has held a number of influential roles in local and state politics over the past two decades. In the early aughts, Coghlan served for three years as the chief of staff to then-City Commissioner Dan Saltzman.

Beginning in 2004, Coghlan helped run a number of campaigns, including for a measure to legalize same-sex marriage, led by Basic Rights Oregon. She then spent years as a political consultant to various campaigns and politicians. As recently as 2019, Coghlan worked for a time as a congressional staffer to U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).

Between 2020 and 2024, according to her LinkedIn profile, Coghlan served as director of the Democratic Party of Oregon’s coordinated campaign committee, a powerful wing of the party. For the past year and a half, she’s also worked as an independent political consultant.

Coghlan’s husband is Mark Wiener, the powerhouse political consultant that’s advised some of the state’s most powerful politicians, including Govs. John Kitzhaber, Kate Brown and Tina Kotek.