Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Politics Randy Leonard on Sten’s Departure

Posted by Amy J. Ruiz on Wed, Jan 2 at 10:54 AM

I caught up with City Commissioner Randy Leonard after today’s ever so brief council meeting (oh yeah, it’s Wednesday at city hall—the council voted on lots of things held over from the last agenda of 2007, and heard from a guy who says that road flares cause pollution).

Will Leonard miss Sten? Absolutely—the two were close allies on the council. “It’s pretty clear who of us will deeply miss Erik,” Leonard said. Who won’t miss Erik? Leonard wouldn’t name names, but suggested looking at the voting record (so apparently he means Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Mayor Tom Potter, who tended to be in an occasional 2-3 lock against Sten, Leonard and Adams).

Leonard also notes that Sten will be nearly impossible to replace. “There’s nobody that I see running that can replace him,” he says. He also says it’s “chilling” to think of two new faces on the council next year. “A lot of the stuff I’ve done has been out there—and I’ve counted on Erik’s support.” Without that, he’s not sure what will happen to his projects and ideas. “Hopefully it will be good,” but we won’t know until someone takes the seat.

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Comments

I'm going to run for city council and then just do whatever Randy Leonard tells me once I'm on city council.

Then, when the Oregonian asks why I'm running I'll tell em straight: "To quintuple my salary."

Thanks for the open chair Erik.

Posted by Matt Davis | January 2, 2008 11:53 AM

Great idea. Do it.

Randy's initiatives need to be supported.

Posted by Jerry | January 2, 2008 2:13 PM

This is sad news for Portland. Erik Sten was the least patriarchal of the all male city council revue. I even found Sam to be deferential to males over any women. I don't consider Sam to be a "diverse candidiate".

On the positive side it is an opportunity for another woman to run for a Council seat. I am a fan of a number of women. While I am not a fan of Maria on County Commission, Maria Rojo de Stefano has already said she wants to take on the the male dominated council. It seems perfect for her to run against the two men who announced today they are running for Erik's seat.

If she actually runs for Sam's seat, I would have to say she is disingenuous in her statement about wanting to run against the all white male Council. If she runs against Amanda Fritz and African American candidate John Branam, she is once again demonstrating thay she is a hypocrite.

Hopefully a woman better then Maria will run, but she is better then Fish. She has a rather poor record on County Commission with her history of fiscal disasters and giving money to questionable organizations and old friends.

Happy New Year everyone!!!

I. Singh

Posted by Indira Singh | January 2, 2008 3:16 PM

There will be two new members of the Council for sure, and possibly four.

Might get lonely out there, Dan!

Posted by blogmayor | January 2, 2008 6:41 PM

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