Who should working people choose for Portland mayor?

By Don McIntosh, Associate editor

Unless someone else enters the race by the March 8 deadline, we know this much already: Portland’s next mayor will be an Ivy-League-educated white male who graduated from Lincoln High School and lives in Southwest Portland with his wife and child.

Ted Wheeler and Jules Bailey have all that in common, and more. Both say Portland’s biggest challenges are a lack of affordable housing and too few family-wage jobs. Both support a phased-in $15-an-hour minimum wage for Portland — if state law is changed to allow it. And both have spent years cultivating good relationships with organized labor.

To find out how they differ on issues that matter to working people — and delve into their records — I talked to over a dozen union leaders and political staffers, spent close to an hour interviewing each of the candidates, and tagged along to public events to see what they say to non-labor audiences.

Neither candidate criticized the other, but I was struck that each of them emphasized in themselves the thing their opponent is perceived to lack.

Wheeler, 53, emphasizes his experience. He’s 17 years older than Bailey, and has a longer résumé.  After getting an economics degree from Stanford, an MBA from Columbia, and a masters in public policy from Harvard, he worked as an executive a research analyst at Bank of America and then for Copper Mountain Trust, an investment management firm. He entered politics in 2006, defeating incumbent Diane Linn to become Multnomah County Chair.  Three years into his four-year term, he was appointed State Treasurer by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski after the death of Ben Westlund. He was re-elected in 2012, and sources say he would have run for governor in 2016 if it weren’t for the resignation of John Kitzhaber, which gave Kate Brown that promotion. So he challenged incumbent Charlie Hales for mayor of Portland … and was as surprised as anyone when Hales dropped out of the race in late October.

Bailey meanwhile — with an environmental science degree from Lewis & Clark and master’s degrees in public affairs and urban planning from Princeton — entered politics in 2008  (two years after Wheeler), running for a vacant state House seat in Southeast Portland. He served three two-year terms in the Oregon House and won a seat on the Multnomah County Commission in 2014. Two years into that four-year job, he’s running for mayor — at age 36.

While Wheeler emphasizes experience, Bailey emphasizes his humble origins: The son of public-sector union members, he says even on a county commissioner’s salary he couldn’t afford a house in the inner Southeast Portland neighborhood he grew up in. Instead, he and his wife live in a $375,900 ranch house in Multnomah Village. Wheeler, in contrast, was born into a family of Oregon timber barons that stretches back to the state’s founding. He lives in a  $1.25 million 4,000-square-foot home in the Southwest Hills, and his personal wealth enabled him and his wife to contribute $270,000 to his past campaigns for chair and treasurer.

Bailey says he won’t accept individual campaign contributions larger than $250. Wheeler is not limiting campaign contributions, and had to wrap up our interview in order to make fundraising calls.

In our interview, Wheeler copped to being a member of the 1 percent, but said people can judge him based on his record: As county chair, he used executive orders to implement transgender health benefits and to “ban the box” in order to give ex-offenders a fairer shot at employment. And as treasurer, Wheeler supported a bond-funded endowment to help with state college tuition, though voters rejected the confusingly-titled and thinly-supported ballot measure that was needed to implement it. Wheeler also helped develop and pass a program that will help up to 400,000 private-sector workers save for retirement when it launches next year. [Service Employees International Union, the union that proposed it, credits Bailey for the legislation’s passage in the House.]

Relationship with city workers

City labor relations will most likely improve under Wheeler or Bailey. For years, Portland’s mayor and City Council have stood aside while city attorneys and HR managers assumed combative postures toward city employee unions. The result: Bad blood, drawn-out contract negotiations, and contract violations that resulted in big-dollar losses when unions won in arbitration. Wheeler and Bailey say that will come to an end when they’re mayor: They’ll take charge of HR and will be more hands-on with labor. Union relations were fractious with the county too — before Wheeler took over. AFSCME credits him for creating a much more respectful and collaborative relationship, which continued under Chair Deb Kafoury.

Public employee retiree benefits

As treasurer, Wheeler came out early sounding the alarm over PERS difficulty recovering from investment losses, and he called for cutting retiree cost-of-living increases to reduce the unfunded liability. When Kitzhaber later pushed that proposal, public employee unions fought hard against it, and warned the cuts would be struck down by the state Supreme Court. As state rep, Bailey voted against the PERS cuts voted for an initial set of cost-of-living cuts in April 2013, but against a second round of cuts in a special legislative session that September; an Oregonian newspaper editorial said the electorate should remember his vote. In the end, the cuts were struck down, as the unions predicted. Wheeler now says that was the right decision. PERS investments have rebounded somewhat in recent years under his oversight, and Wheeler has put the message out that the system is no longer in crisis.

Trade agreements

Mayors have no say over NAFTA-style trade deals like the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, which unions oppose. But you never know where someone who’s asking for your vote today will end up tomorrow: Earl Blumenauer, who votes for such deals, was once a member of Portland City Council. Neither Bailey nor Wheeler had anything critical to say about the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Gas tax

Both candidates say they favor a local gas tax to pay for additional road maintenance — as long as voters approve. But Bailey says it should be temporary, while Wheeler says the City should first show the public that it’s spending existing transportation dollars wisely.

Jobs

Mayors don’t create or eliminate recessions, which are caused by national and global forces. But they can make a difference on construction jobs, which are related to land use decisions and public investments in infrastructure. I asked each candidate for their positions on several recent union-backed developments that foundered amid controversy.

Pembina propane terminal: Neither candidate was clear on what they’d have done, but Wheeler faulted Hales for  changing his mind on the project.

West Hayden Island industrial land: Wheeler says a compromise with the Port of Portland is still possible.

I-5 bridge over the Columbia River: Bailey took flak from environmental allies when he voted in the Legislature to fund it. Wheeler, as treasurer, found problems with the project’s financial assumptions. In the end, it was the Republican-led Washington state Senate that halted the project by failing to approve funds.

Union endorsements

Six labor organizations have endorsed Wheeler for mayor so far — the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, IBEW Local 48, Communications Workers of America Local 7901, Bricklayers Local 1, Cement Masons Local 555, and Carpenters Local 271. All those endorsements were made while Hales was still running, and before Bailey entered the race. Despite that, union leaders I spoke to said they’re sticking with Wheeler — for his competence, greater experience, and for his record at the county putting together projects that put union members to work. Most of the same unions endorsed Bailey — for county commission — but the backing doesn’t transfer to a bid for mayor. As yet, he has no union endorsements, but he only formally launched his campaign Jan. 9. AFSCME is doing candidate interviews this week and will make an endorsement decision Jan. 26. SEIU did candidate interviews Jan. 16, and will make an endorsement by early March.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: Two candidates. Two lengthy interviews. See how candidates answered the questions in the transcripts: Here for Jules Bailey and here for Ted Wheeler.