Portland’s fall election — the one that will transform the city’s form of government — has attracted a lot of interest. Here are eight notable candidates running to represent Southeast Portland and the West Side. (Last week’s segment covered seven from the other two districts. Candidates have been entering the races since last fall, more than a year before Election Day.)
District 3
Besides current City Commissioner Dan Ryan, Steven Novick is the only other candidate to have served on Portland City Council — from 2013 to 2017. A lawyer, he has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the Oregon Department of Justice.
Like Dan Ryan and Steve Novick, Rex Burkholder has experience as an elected official in Portland, though not on City Council. He served three terms on the Metro Council. Notably, he founded advocacy group the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now called The Street Trust).
District 4
Eli Arnold is a Portland police officer. During his tenure in the Army, he was deployed twice to Afghanistan. This is his first run for elected office.
Olivia Clark is a former legislative director for Gov. John Kitzhaber and has worked in government affairs at TriMet and the Department of Environmental Quality.
Chad Lykins is the founder of Rose City Chess, an after-school program, and the current president of the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation. This is his first run for elected office.
Moses Ross chairs the Multnomah Neighborhood Association. He runs the political consulting firm M.J. Ross Group Inc. He ran unsuccessfully for Portland Community College’s board in 2017.
Bob Weinstein is a retired school superintendent and former mayor of a small city, Ketchikan, Alaska.
Eric Zimmerman has been a chief of staff to two Multnomah County commissioners and a senior adviser to Mayor Ted Wheeler. He ran unsuccessfully to be a Multnomah County commissioner in 2016.
