PORTLAND, Ore. — The 2024 election is now a little more than a month away, and the candidates in Portland's mayoral race are entering the final stretch ahead of what will likely be the city's biggest-ever election in terms of the number of seats on the ballot.
The winners will be the first to hold office under Portland's new form of government, with the new mayor in particular likely to play an outsize role in setting the tone for how the new system will function. Mayoral candidates and current city commissioners Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk.
Both candidates have appeared on the program before, and so has fellow commissioner and mayoral candidate Mingus Mapps, plus mayoral hopefuls Keith Wilson and Liv Osthus. All of them continue to hone their messages in the final weeks before the election, and Gonzalez and Rubio in particular have had to fend off new reports about problematic driving records.
Returning to Straight Talk this week, Gonzalez maintained a focus on public safety and homelessness issues, pressing the case that his record as a commissioner has helped the city make progress on those challenges.
"I've been the standard-bearer for public safety and livability in my just over 18 months on city council," he said. "That means taking on the hardest issues: homelessness, crime and response times in the first responder system."
He also addressed recent reports that he racked up seven speeding tickets in Oregon from 1998 to 2013 and had his license suspended twice in the early part of that time period. Gonzalez, now 50, described the incidents as youthful mistakes and said he's learned to do better as he's aged, adding that "gray hair slows you down."
"I think the fact that I had speeding tickets when I was 24 has very little to do (with how) I want my parents, and the seniors down the street, and children in the city of Portland to be safe," he said. "I'm acutely aware of the example I need to set. I don't even jaywalk anymore, since becoming an elected official."