Candidates scramble for county posts

Update: Wheeler appointment sets rash of last-minute filings

By Jim Redden

The Portland Tribune, Mar 9, 2010, Updated Mar 9, 2010 (6 Reader comments)

Ted Wheeler’s appointment as state treasurer has set off a scramble to fill the two Multnomah County commission seats up for election this year – the ones occupied by Wheeler and Commissioner Jeff Cogen.

Until Tuesday morning, no one with any political experience had filed against either Wheeler or Cogen, who holds the District 2 seat. But all that changed when Wheeler withdrew from his re-election campaign.

By early Tuesday, Cogen announced that he would withdraw from his re-election campaign and run for county chair. He was quickly joined in that race by former State Sen. Margaret Carter, who resigned from the Oregon Legislature last year to take a state job.

Political consultant Steve Novick also announced in the morning that he would run for chair but withdraw in the afternoon without filing. Novick had most recently worked on the campaign to pass ballot measures 66 and 67, which increased state income taxes.

Mike Dargan, a Gresham insurance agent with no political experience, filed for the seat on March 1.

Cogen already has one early advantage over Carter and Dargan — he has already raised almost $70,000 in cash and in-kind contributions and has a professional campaign manager on board. She is Emerald Bogue, who is also running City Commissioner Dan Saltzman's re-election campaign.

Candidates for Cogen’s seat also began lining up early. One of the first was his staff assistant, Karol Collymoore. She sought appointment to two legislative seats last year, the senate district vacated by Carter and the Oregon House district vacated by State Rep. Chip Shields, who was appointed to replace Carter. The vacancies were filled by the county commission, which chose Shields to replace Carter and consultant Lew Fredericks to replace Shields.

Also announcing for the race is the Rev. Chuck Currie, a United Church of Minister and longtime homeless advocate, and former county commissioner Gary Hansen, who also served on the Metro Council.

By the 5 p.m. filing deadline, they had been joined by, among others: Paul van Orden, the city noise enforcement officer; Tom Markgraff, a policy advisoy to Portland-area Congressman Earl Blumenauer; and consultant Mario Rubio, a former aide to Mayor Tom Potter.

The primary election is April 18. If no candidates receiving over 50 percent of the votes in either race, the top two finishers face off in the November general election.

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