On Sunday, Mayor Tom Potter again upped the volume on his recent pro-immigration stance, publishing an op-ed in the Oregonian calling on political, religious, and community leaders to do, well, something.

Here’s an excerpt:

What has to happen now is for good people to get involved and take the debate out of the hands of the talk shows whose main interest seems to be selling fear along with advertising time. I’m not naïve, and I don’t believe this will be easy. When I spoke up in June, the silence that followed was deafening. Many people whom I respect sat on their hands - and their principles - and said nothing. I don’t think our community can afford that silence any longer.

Potter then goes back to remember the civil rights struggle in the ’60s, urging religious leaders to do more to get involved on behalf of the rights of immigrant communities. He also answers critics who’ve said that it’s not a mayor’s place to challenge or not enforce federal law: “Now, as Portland ’s Mayor, I cannot stay silent on an issue that affects each of us, not merely as residents, but as human beings. To remain silent about the inhuman working conditions, the destruction of individual families and the devaluing of human beings is to give our tacit approval to them.”

As with everything Potter has said or done in recent months, observers—including me—are attempting to divine Potter’s future in his few words. In his two and a half years in office, he’s only really become visibly excited when facing off against the federal government: pulling out of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, catching an FBI “spy” trying to infiltrate city hall, condemning the Del Monte raid, building a day laborer access center, etc. So it’s no surprise that he’d continue hammering away on immigration, since that’s obviously where his passions are.

But, does this mean that he’s running again for mayor, or not? Former city council candidate—and current pundit—Dave Lister seems to think so: “I think Potter’s op-ed in today’s Oregonian is the opening salvo for his bid for a second term,” he wrote, in an email advertising his column in this week’s Brainstorm NW. “He will be running on immigration reform.”

If that’s true, it’s a curious platform to run on—there’s very little a mayor can do that will actually impact immigration policy. Maybe that’s the secret to political success, run on a grand platform that you have no hope of affecting if elected. But if that’s really what he’s passionate about, he’s going to have a disappointing few more years in office.

So maybe it’s something else. Maybe he’s simply setting up the focus for the remainder of his first term, creating a legacy, and building political support for the day laborer access center. Maybe he’s hinting that he’ll be moving on to a position more suited to reforming immigration laws.

That said, if he does run, there’s a good chance he’ll run unopposed, or at least under-opposed. His popularity ratings are still above 50 percent, and will only climb with feel good measures like this op-ed.

It’s why Lister calls him “Teflon Tom.” Which leads me to the following conclusion: