Portland for All
Multnomah County
Endorsements

In just two years as a County Commissioner, Shannon Singleton has shown her deep expertise and effectiveness, demonstrating that she is ready to lead the state’s largest County.

For the last four years, the County has struggled under Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, who chose not to run for re-election. 

The County success is also challenged by a harmful District Attorney, Nathan Vasquez, who wastes our limited public resources by charging thousands of people in unwinnable cases. If Vasquez’s close ally, Julia Brim-Edwards, is elected County chair, the County will be in the hands of two toxic and conservative leaders who will put our County at risk with Trump in the White House. (Learn more below).

Now is the moment to choose an effective leader who will serve the interests of all people across the county, not just a limited few. Singleton's thoughtful, collaborative approach to governance, coupled with her ability to identify root causes and fix systemic issues, makes her a strong leader for the County. These qualities benefit all of us.

Singleton often says, "Let's invest in what works." She demonstrates this in her approach to housing and homelessness by advocating for shelters as a transition to stable housing, pushing for a coordinated, county-wide system of case management, and supporting workforce development programs to give people real opportunities to make a living.

Singleton has been a successful nonprofit executive, worked in Governor Kate Brown’s administration, and served as an executive at a Portland-based consulting company. She understands how to lead and deliver results for people across the County. She knows how to negotiate deals and create effective policy to improve government. 

From the start, she pushed for a better, fairer Moda Center deal that benefited the region, including labor agreements for employees and contractors, as well as transferring development rights to the Albina Vision Trust to return parcels of land near the site that were taken from Black families when the Memorial Coliseum was built. She also found a workable solution that allowed the County to contribute to the Moda Center renovations–raising car rental taxes–that will preserve county services and not put any more job cuts at risk.

Singleton is endorsed by: SEIU Oregon, Portland Association of Teachers, Oregon Working Families Party, Basic Rights Oregon, Building Power for Communities of Color Collective PAC, Color PAC, East County Rising PAC, The Ebony Collective, Latino Network Action Fund, Next Up Action Fund, Oregon Futures Lab, Portland For All, The Sierra Club, The Street Trust Action Fund, Sunrise Movement PDX and UNITE HERE Local 8.

Julia Brim-Edwards is unfit to lead our County’s safety net

A former corporate lobbyist, Brim-Edwards built a controversial reputation as a volunteer on the Portland Public Schools Board and, for the last 2 ½ years, as a County Commissioner.

She spent 12 years on the Portland Public Schools Board, and seven of her peers on the Board wrote and shared a public letter warning voters about her leading the County’s public safety net.  They wrote:

“The Multnomah County Chair has extraordinary authority over a sprawling system that has consequences – often life or death – for thousands of people. It demands a leader who can build trust, foster collaboration, manage effectively, think strategically, and deliver real results in service to the whole community. After working directly with her over many years, we do not believe that Julia Brim-Edwards is the leader Multnomah County needs.”  Read the full letter here.

Brim-Edwards aligns with conservative interests: What we’ve witnessed at the County gives us considerable pause about her leadership. She has aligned herself with the new District Attorney, Nathan Vasquez, a fellow former Republican focused on building his budget to expand this harmful approach to prosecution. Together, Brim-Edwards and Vasquez are the County's most conservative elected officials, and putting them in charge poses a serious risk for funding vital County functions.

Brim-Edwards relies on the politics of fear: Both Vasquez and Brim-Edwards rely on fear-based politics around public safety issues, despite data showing crime has fallen since the Biden administration. Brim-Edwards and Vasquez keep pushing for more dollars for prosecutions and jails, at the expense of shelters. Brim-Edwards threatened dire consequences if Vasquez’s prosecution budget didn’t increase. We are deeply concerned she will gut the County's vital health and homelessness programs to fund Vasquez's ineffective and expensive lock-'em up approach.

Sharon Meieran is also running for the Chair's seat for the second time. She is a doctor by profession and served on the County Commission for eight years. In the first six years, she was a thoughtful and productive advocate for good governance. After she lost the Chair’s race to Jessica Vega Pederson, her final two years were filled with frustration and angry outbursts over policy changes she wanted to see. 

Meieran has offered a substantive housing and homelessness plan since leaving office. The question is whether she can build consensus and lead, given her last two years on the Commission. We have yet to see any evidence that she can.