It rarely happens that a union retracts a candidate endorsement. But Laborers Local 737 withdrew its backing of Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s campaign for city mayor after The Oregonian reported Sept. 9 that she had racked up 150 parking tickets over two decades, mostly during the time she led the nonprofit Latino Network between 2009 and 2020. According to the newspaper, Rubio was referred to collections over 100 times for failure to pay her parking tickets, and had her car impounded twice and her drivers license suspended six times after she failed to pay the tickets or show up in court.
“This is beyond the pale,” Local 737 political representative Ryan Nielsen told the Labor Press. “We basically said, ‘Look, we can’t in good faith go in front of our members and staff and volunteers and say, this is someone you should spend time door knocking for. And we just can’t excuse this behavior.”
After Local 737 notified Rubio and other endorsed candidates by email of its decision, Willamette Week learned of that and reported it, followed by The Oregonian.
“While we deeply respect the work that Carmen has done while on Council — such as much needed permitting reform — our Local was shocked by the information that came out,” Nielsen explained in the email to its other endorsed candidates.
The Portland mayor’s race is closely contested, and three candidates have at least some labor backing. Rubio continues to have the backing of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, the Carpenters, AFSCME Local 189, AFT-Oregon, SEIU, and Portland Association of Teachers. Her fellow city commissioner Rene Gonzalez is endorsed by the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, Operating Engineers Local 701, Teamsters Joint Council 37, and the Portland Police Association.
And business owner Keith Wilson has three dual endorsements. Because a new ranked choice voting system will allow voters to rank up to six candidates in order of preference, several unions are endorsing more than one mayoral candidate. IBEW Local 48 and Fire Fighters Local 43 are endorsing both Wilson and Gonzalez, and UFCW Local 555 is endorsing both Wilson and Rubio.
