Rene Gonzalez | |
---|---|
Portland City Commissioner | |
Assumed office January 1, 2023 | |
Preceded by | Jo Ann Hardesty |
Personal details | |
Political party | Democratic |
Children | 3 |
Residence(s) | Portland,Oregon,U.S. |
Alma mater | Willamette University (BA,JD) |
Occupation | Attorney,entrepreneur |
Website | Official website Campaign website |
Rene Gonzalez is an American businessman,politician,and former lawyer. He has held a seat on the Portland,Oregon City Council since January 2023. He challenged incumbent commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in the 2022 election, [1] running on a platform that emphasized law and order and livability. [2]
During 2024,Gonzalez faced a controversy over spending of public funds to redress his Wikipedia page. [3] In late October,the city auditor’s office found that spending had violated campaign finance law. [4]
In the November 2024 elections,Gonzalez was a candidate for the position of mayor of Portland. [5] During the campaign,the first under Portland's newly instituted ranked-choice voting system,Gonzalez was the subject of an effort to convince voters not to rank him regardless of the voter's other preferred candidates. Despite winning 25 percent of first-choice votes in the election,many other ballots did not rank Gonzalez,resulting in him finishing the election in third place behind winner Keith Wilson and Carmen Rubio. [6] He will no longer be serving on the Portland City Council.
Gonzalez was raised in Anchorage,Alaska,where his father worked as a trial judge and federal prosecutor. [7] In 1993,Gonzalez moved to Salem,Oregon,to attend Willamette University,where he was president of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and played varsity soccer. [8] After obtaining a bachelor's degree,he continued at the Willamette University College of Law where he obtained a Juris Doctor. [8]
Gonzalez then worked as an attorney at Stoel Rives,a regional law firm. [9] He moved to KinderCare Learning Centers in 2005,where he served in legal advising and corporate strategy roles. [10] In 2012 Gonzalez founded Eastbank,a legal services company. In 2019 he purchased Artifex,a technology consulting company that primarily sells Microsoft software services,merging it to create Eastbank Artifex. [11] [12] [13] [7]
In October 2020,Gonzalez founded ED300,a political action committee to support school board candidates that were focused on reopening public schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers and many parents objected to returning to school before a vaccine had even been created. Six months after the vaccines were available,ED300 objected to the evidence-based,Oregon Health Authority requirement that schoolteachers be vaccinated. [7] [14] Many parents also objected to ED300 for endorsing predominantly conservative candidates,including anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion groups and those who wished to limit the teaching of Critical Race Theory or LGBTQ+ topics in Oregon public schools. Many of these candidates objected to comprehensive sex education or the implementation of Oregon's Menstrual Equity law. When questioned,Gonzalez indicated that he was "ecstatic" with the candidates. [15] [7] [16] [17] [18]
Gonzalez ran for the Portland City Commissioner seat in 2022 against incumbent Hardesty. He won the race with 52.6% of the vote and took office in January 2023. [1] [19]
Gonzalez ran a campaign largely focused on combating homelessness and crime and investing in the revitalization of downtown Portland. In particular,he and Hardesty advocated for different approaches to policing and homelessness. [19] [20] Gonzalez was endorsed by the editorial boards of The Oregonian , Willamette Week ,and the Portland Tribune ,as well as by the Portland Police Association,the Portland Firefighters Union,and the Portland Chamber of Commerce. [20] [21] During the race,his campaign was fined by the city's elections program for allegedly accepting discounted office space,but the fine was later overturned in court for lacking proof that the rent was actually below market rate. [22] [23]
Though both candidates were registered Democrats, [13] during the campaign Hardesty attacked Gonzalez for positions she claimed were right-leaning and for his alleged ties to Republican political consultants and conservative school board candidates. [22]
Gonzalez's two-year term as a Portland City Council member began on January 1,2023. [19] The transition was headed by Tom Miller,who had been a chief of staff for former mayor Sam Adams. [24] Gonzalez was assigned management of Portland Fire &Rescue and other emergency services,excluding the police department. [25] [26] In 2024,Mayor Ted Wheeler appointed Gonzalez as Portland City Council's representative on the Steering Committee Overseeing the Joint Office of Homeless Services. [27] Gonzalez first proposed an amendment to Mayor Wheeler's camping ban that included up to a year in jail for rule-breakers,before transitioning to a proposal that removed the suggested criminal penalty for violating the camping ban but still included large fines. The amendment failed and the criminal penalty was imposed. [28] In January 2024,Gonzalez announced the creation of a new drug overdose treatment response team pilot program to help address the city's drug crisis. [29]
Gonzalez and his wife Angie,whom he met in college,have three children [8] and live in the Eastmoreland neighborhood of Portland. [30] Gonzalez identifies as half-Latino, [8] as his father is Mexican-American and his mother is white. [7]
Gonzalez founded United PDX,a youth soccer club in the city of Portland. [7]
In September 2024,Willamette Week reported that Gonzalez received seven speeding tickets between 1998 and 2013,which resulted in his driver's license being suspended twice. [31]
In February 2023,Gonzalez ordered Portland Street Response (PSR) and the fire bureau to stop distributing tents to the homeless and instead encouraged them to seek out shelters. [32] Portland Street Response personnel complained they were never consulted about budget and policy decisions. Gonzalez described PSR as being "police abolitionists" on a political mission and described the tent ban as a success. [33]
In January 2024,an unoccupied Honda Accord belonging to Gonzalez's family was lit on fire in front of the family's home. No one was injured in the incident,but the Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt believes it to be politically motivated. [30]
In February 2024,Gonzalez moved to significantly cut funding for the Portland Street Response program. [34] [35] After criticism,Gonzalez agreed to move the program out of his portfolio in the following month. [36]
Gonzalez announced in a February 2024 social media video that he would no longer use public transit,claiming that a Black woman accosted him while he rode the MAX light rail on his way to work. [6] [37] Released TriMet security footage showed that a fellow passenger walking through the aisle brushed shoulders with him as he sat in an aisle seat. [6] [38]
During a Portland City Council meeting in July 2024,Gonzalez proposed limiting public testimony on police brutality. [39]
In August 2024,The Oregonian reported that Gonzalez spent $6,400 of city taxpayer dollars to hire a contractor,WhiteHatWiki,to make edit requests for his Wikipedia page in an effort to remove references to his 2022 interaction with Patriot Prayer. [6] [3] [40] The requests were submitted to Wikipedia by Gonzalez' policy advisor Harrison Kass,who ran unsuccessfully for Portland City Commissioner for District 3 in 2024. [41] [42] The Portland City Elections Division opened an investigation into the spending after receiving a campaign finance complaint. [43] The auditor's office initially concluded there was "insufficient evidence" to suggest a campaign finance rule violation,however it has later ruled that the Rene for Portland campaign use of $6,400 on Wikipedia editing related matters violated campaign law;an edit involved ensuring his page stated he was a Democrat,which was not necessary for his office,but only for his candidacy. [40] [44] Since one of the eight edits was to solidify his party affiliation,the City Auditor valued the edit at $800 (1/8th of $6400),and assessed a fine of $2,400 against the campaign as a result. The fine was raised because Gonzalez interfered in the investigation and attempted to mislead the Auditor's Office on evidence. The fine will be returned to the city's general funds. Once touted as the law and order candidate,Gonzalez was the only mayoral candidate cited for breaking the law during the 2024 election cycle. [44] [45]
On November 13,2024,the City of Portland's auditor's office fined Gonzalez an additional $9,180 after determining that Gonzalez failed to expediently refund $3,060 in illegally retained excess campaign funds across at least 17 different occasions,a violation of city campaign finance laws. [46]
Samuel Francis Adams is an American politician in Portland,Oregon. Adams was mayor of Portland from 2009 to 2012 and previously served on the Portland City Council and as chief of staff to former Mayor Vera Katz. Adams was the first openly gay mayor of a large U.S. city.
The Regional Arts &Culture Council (RACC) is an organization that administers arts grants in Multnomah,Washington,and Clackamas Counties that also do advocacy in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon,United States. It evolved from the city’s Metropolitan Arts Commission agency in the 1990s. In 1995,the Metropolitan Arts Commission became the RACC as an independent non-profit organization. It's board of director ousted the executive director Carol Tatch in November 2023 following an outside investigation.
The government of Portland,Oregon is based on a city commission government system. Elected officials include the mayor,commissioners,and a city auditor. The mayor and commissioners are responsible for legislative policy and oversee the various bureaus that oversee the day-to-day operation of the city. Portland began using a commission form of government in 1913 following a public vote on May 3 of that year. Each elected official serves a four-year term,without term limits. Each city council member is elected at-large.
Steven Novick is an American politician,attorney,and activist from the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2008,he was a candidate for U.S. Senate for the seat then held by Republican Gordon Smith,but narrowly lost the primary to Jeff Merkley. He served as a Portland City Commissioner from 2013 to 2017. On the city council,he was in charge of the city's transportation department,among other responsibilities.
Francis James Ivancie was an American businessman and politician who served as mayor of Portland,Oregon,from 1980 to 1985. Prior to his term as mayor,Ivancie served for fourteen years on the Portland City Council. After his retirement from elected office,Ivancie remained active in community affairs,occasionally lending his support to political causes. During his political career,Ivancie was a conservative Democrat.
Edward Tevis Wheeler is an American politician who has served as the mayor of Portland,Oregon since 2017. He was Oregon State Treasurer from 2010 to 2016.
Charles Andrew Hales is a former American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of Portland,Oregon,from 2013 to 2017. He previously served on the Portland City Council from 1993 to 2002.
On Tuesday,May 17,2016,an election was held in Portland,Oregon,to elect the mayor. Ted Wheeler was elected after garnering 54% of the primary vote. Incumbent mayor Charlie Hales did not seek a second term.
Jo Ann A. Hardesty is an American Democratic politician in the U.S. state of Oregon who served as a Portland City commissioner from 2019 to 2022. She previously served in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1995 until 2001.
On May 19,2020,and November 3,2020,elections were held in Portland,Oregon,to elect the mayor.
Carmen Rubio is an American politician and non-profit executive in the U.S. state of Oregon who is currently a Portland City Commissioner,having taken office on the Portland City Council in late December 2020.
Loretta Smith is an American politician and businesswoman who served as a Multnomah County commissioner from 2011 to 2018. She ran unsuccessful campaigns for Portland City Council in 2018 and 2020. Smith was a candidate for Oregon's 6th congressional district in the 2022 election,a new seat created after the 2020 United States census.
The Portland city auditor is one of the six citywide elected positions in Portland,Oregon. The auditor is the only elected official functionally independent of City Council and accountable only to the public. The auditor exists "to promote open and accountable government by providing independent and impartial reviews,access to public information,and services for City government and the public." The current auditor,since January 2023,is Simone Rede.
Dan Ryan is an American non-profit executive and politician who is a member of the Portland City Council. Ryan was elected in a 2020 special election to succeed Nick Fish,who died of stomach cancer on January 2,2020. Ryan was re-elected in 2022.
Mingus Ulysses Mapps is an American professor and politician in Portland,Oregon. He was elected to the city council in November 2020,winning 56% of the vote. His bureau assignments as of September 2023 are Water Bureau,the Bureau of Environmental Service and the Bureau of Transportation (PBOT)
The 2022 Portland City Commission elections were held on May 17,2022,and November 8,2022.
The 2024 Portland mayoral election was held on November 5,2024,to elect the mayor of Portland,Oregon. Businessman Keith Wilson was elected,defeating 3 city council members and 15 other candidates.
The 2024 Portland municipal elections will be held on November 5,2024,to elect the mayor,city auditor and city council of Portland,Oregon. This will be the first Portland election to use ranked-choice voting after it was instituted by the passage of a 2022 ballot measure.
The 2024 Portland City Council elections were held on November 5,2024. It was the first election under Portland's new form of government,the first election to elect a city council instead of a city commission,the first without a primary,the first where every seat was up for election,and the first under a proportional ranked-choice voting system as opposed to a first-past-the-post voting system with a primary. It was held concurrently with the 2024 Portland,Oregon mayoral election.
Keith D. Wilson is an American businessman,nonprofit executive,and Democratic politician who is currently the mayor-elect of Portland,Oregon after winning the 2024 election.
Gonzalez has been with KLC since 2005, serving in several roles.
Ten years ago, he started his own legal firm called Eastbank and later bought up a small Texas-based tech firm called Artifex Partners.
A majority of the candidates the ED300 PAC endorsed were also backed by conservative and sometimes far-right groups with anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion agendas like Parents Rights in Education, Oregon Right to Life and Oregon Family Council. Parents Rights in Education opposes Oregon's inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation in comprehensive sexual health education and advocates for censoring history in school curriculum.