October 27, 2003
Rojo de Steffey Out, Adams In, Fish Officially Announces
The latest whiplash in the jockeying for next year's City Council races came Friday, when Maria Rojo de Steffey dropped out of the election:
Rojo de Steffey, of Northwest Portland, announced her city council campaign last month. But she said Friday that she started having second thoughts when she missed her granddaughter's first piano recital in favor of a campaign event.
"That said to me, 'You have your priorities wrong, lady,'" Rojo de Steffey said Friday. "All my life has been dedicated to family. When it hit me in the face it was like a slap. Why give up time with the family when time for all of us is fleeting? It's insane to chase around 24 hours a day for a year for a job. I don't need it, and I don't want to do it."
But her departure from the race opens the door for a Sam Adams, former chief of staff to Mayor Katz:
Adams, 40, quit his job with the mayor recently and talked openly about entering the council race earlier this year. Rojo de Steffey, who said she's close with Adams, agreed not to run for the seat unless Adams passed.
Adams did so and instead set his sights on a possible run for the U.S. Congress, anticipating that Rep. Earl Blumenauer would run for Portland mayor. At the same time, Rojo de Steffey announced her intention to run for the council.
Adams' plans fell apart when Blumenauer announced that he'd run for re-election instead of for mayor. But now Adams says he'll run against Fish.
"My commitment was not to run against Maria," Adams said Friday. "Now that Maria's out, I'm going to run."
Meanwhile, Nick Fish will officially announce his candidacy today, at an event for which the press release has already been written:
"Our government is too precious to be left to political insiders. It belongs to each of us, when we the people band together we can accomplish extraordinary things," Fish said as he announced his candidacy in Northeast Portland. "Let's take that energy and passion to City Hall. Let's throw open the doors and let a fresh breeze in. Let's keep working together and make this city we love an even better home for ourselves and our children."
Which, of course, won't actually be said for another couple of hours.
All of this means that the current list of candidates for Commissioner No. 1 stands at five: Woody Broadnax, Brian H. Smith, and Jerry Watson are officially filed; Nick Fish announces (and likely files) today, and Sam Adams stating his intention to get underway in the next couple of weeks.
Comments (3)
jack bog on 27 Oct 2003
"I was in charge of Vera Katz's economic development accomplishments."
BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA!!!!
Dave Lister on 28 Oct 2003
Please clarify. Was that a statement from Sam Adams, or from Maria??
jack bog on 28 Oct 2003
That'd be from Sam. Bwahahahaahahahahah!