September 03, 2003

(Updated) 'Portland Tribune' Reveals Former Police Chief Tom Potter To Run For Mayor

Note: This post has been updated. Any and all updates appear at the end of the original post.

Well, we really are in for a very curious ride. Thanks to this post on Worldwide Pablo, I've manged to catch this breaking story from the Portland Tribune (who, bless them, are beginning to get the put-breaking-stories-on-the-Web religion):

Former Portland Police Chief Tom Potter has decided to run for mayor next year, he told the Portland Tribune Wednesday.
Potter, 62, of Southeast Portland, is saying little about his campaign for now. He said he won't discuss specifics until he gets his organization lined up, probably within a few weeks. But he said he plans to mount a serious campaign with the resources necessary to get elected.
"I've decided to run," he said Wednesday. "I've given this a lot of thought since February and made up my mind Aug. 17."

Potter was Chief from 1990 until 1993 when, it seems, he bailed a few months after Vera Katz was sworn in as Mayor.

Jack Bogdanski recently had this to say about Potter:

Potter strengthened his credibility with gays and lesbians when he publicly supported his gay daughter, a Portland police officer. There was quite a flap over his wanting to march in uniform in a gay pride parade. Naturally, he became a target of criticism from the Oregon Citizens Alliance, with one of its officers accusing the chief of bending under the pressure of the "homosexual agenda." Shortly after Vera Katz became mayor, Potter abruptly retired at age 52, two and a half years after becoming chief, reportedly because of the mayor's penchant for micro-managing the bureau.

And the Tribune breaking news item puts it this way:

He was known during his tenure for his support for gay rights, much to the objection of the more traditional elements in the police bureau. At his 1990 swearing in as chief, he said he wanted to eliminate racism, sexism and homophobia from the Portland Police Bureau and the community. Not long after he became chief, his daughter, Kate, became the first Portland police officer to publicly acknowledge her homosexuality.

As pointed out on Worldwide Pablo, the Tribune breaking news links tend to expire or change. But WP handily provides the full text of the item, so if the Tribune link doesn't work for you, just go over to WP.

Potter left the Bureau about four years before I moved to Portland, so I will have to rely on sources other than personal memory for further background. I'm sure it will be quickly provided by the local media, as well as, I suspect, Bogdanski.

But damn it's a wonderous time to be experimenting in "hobbyist journalism." This mayoral election is going to be something and a half.

September 03, 2003

Update

Here is a piece written by Tom Potter about his daughter for an organization called Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

And Potter was, in fact, quoted in a recent column by David Sarasohn (as I, in fact, mentioned here, as it turns out):

"My biggest concern at the time was that he not bring the LAPD mind-set with him, and I think he did," said former Portland police chief Tom Potter, who in the early '90s helped launch a community policing program that connected the police with Portlanders who don't regularly dress in blue.
"He saw community policing more as community-police relations. That's a different horse than community policing," a horse you ride at press conferences and not at ground-level policy planning.

You can also, via this Google search, start digging into Potter's background on your own.

September 03, 2003

Update

And here's an article co-written by Potter in 1995 about strategic planning and community policing.

September 03, 2003

Update

Actually, if you try this Google News search, you'll notice that Potter has been quoted rather frequently in local coverage of the Kroeker resignation. He seems to have been making himself fairly available for comment in recent days.

September 04, 2003

Update

I wish I knew how these things worked. Today's Oregonian covers the Potter entry, and everything they quote Potter as saying sounds like it was lifted from last night's Tribune item. So either the Oregonian just didn't feel the need to credit the Tribune, or Potter actually held some sort of event to announce this, or lots of media outlets talked to Potter yesterday and he gave them all the same quotes.

Anyway, the Oregonian says the mayoral campaign looks like this: Commissioner Jim Francesconi is in; Congressman Earl Blumenauer is out; former Police Chief Tom Potter is in; former Katz chief of staff Sam Adams maybe; Robert Ball maybe; Commissioner Erik Sten is out; Multnomah County Chair Diane Linn is out; Portland Development Commission Chair Matt Hennessee is out; African American Chamber of Commerce President Roy Jay is out.

Posted at 07:16 PM | PermalinkComments (1) | TrackBacks (2)
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Comments (1)

  1. Tafari on 14 Nov 2003

    Anything wrong with losing various forms of discrimination and the direct engagement and participation of ALL citizens in civic processes?

    I like where this Tom Potter comes from.

Trackbacks (2)

  1. The PDX plot thickens: Earl Blumenauer is out, but Tom Potter is in on 03 Sep 2003

    Apparently Tom Potter wants into the race to be mayor of my fair hometown. I remember him only vaguely, since he was chief of police from 1990 to 1993, but I seem to have a favorable impression of him since...

  2. The PDX plot thickens: Earl Blumenauer is out, but Tom Potter is in on 03 Sep 2003

    Apparently Tom Potter wants into the race to be mayor of my fair hometown. I remember him only vaguely, since he was chief of police from 1990 to 1993, but I seem to have a favorable impression of him since...