8 Portland City Council Candidates for Southeast and the West Side
Portland’s fall election — the one that will transform the city’s form of government — has attracted a lot of interest. Here are eight notable candidates running to represent Southeast Portland and the West Side. (Last week’s segment covered seven from the other two districts. Candidates have been entering the races since last fall, more than a year before Election Day.)
Portland’s fall election — the one that will transform the city’s form of government — has attracted a lot of interest. Here are eight notable candidates running to represent Southeast Portland and the West Side. (Last week’s segment covered seven from the other two districts. Candidates have been entering the races since last fall, more than a year before Election Day.)
District 3
Besides current City Commissioner Dan Ryan, Steven Novick is the only other candidate to have served on Portland City Council — from 2013 to 2017. A lawyer, he has worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as well as the Oregon Department of Justice.
Like Dan Ryan and Steve Novick, Rex Burkholder has experience as an elected official in Portland, though not on City Council. He served three terms on the Metro Council. Notably, he founded advocacy group the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now called The Street Trust).
District 4
Eli Arnold is a Portland police officer. During his tenure in the Army, he was deployed twice to Afghanistan. This is his first run for elected office.
Olivia Clark is a former legislative director for Gov. John Kitzhaber and has worked in government affairs at TriMet and the Department of Environmental Quality.
Chad Lykins is the founder of Rose City Chess, an after-school program, and the current president of the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation. This is his first run for elected office.
Moses Ross chairs the Multnomah Neighborhood Association. He runs the political consulting firm M.J. Ross Group Inc. He ran unsuccessfully for Portland Community College’s board in 2017.
Bob Weinstein is a retired school superintendent and former mayor of a small city, Ketchikan, Alaska.
Eric Zimmerman has been a chief of staff to two Multnomah County commissioners and a senior adviser to Mayor Ted Wheeler. He ran unsuccessfully to be a Multnomah County commissioner in 2016.
More about Local Civics
$106M in Unspent Funds at the Portland Housing Bureau
The Portland Housing Bureau has $106 million in unspent funds, the city administrator disclosed late last week. Some of it may be spoken for, but it leaves open the question of how City Council will spend the funds. When the pot of unspent funds was believed to be only $21 million, City Council was divided over whether to spend it on rent assistance or a Prosper Portland housing project. Maybe all of the above are possible now. [Portland Mercury]
City Cast Portland staffFeb 10, 2026
The Gas Tax and Oregon's Legislative Session
State lawmakers convene in Salem next week after a chaotic few weeks for Democratic state leaders as they scramble to address the issue of transportation funding. They have a key problem: Voters appear to oppose the gas tax passed last fall.
City Cast Portland staffJan 28, 2026
US Sen. Wyden Explains His Votes To Arm Israel
Oregon’s U.S. senators usually vote the same way (like for continuing the government shutdown until healthcare costs are addressed). But a key exception in recent months was Sen. Ron Wyden’s support for continued arms sales to Israel while Sen. Jeff Merkley voted to oppose them. Wyden’s support came up again last weekend — at a Portland Book Festival event featuring Omar Al Ekkad, author of “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” (a title you may recognize as “the one book every Portlander should read right now”).
City Cast Portland staffNov 12, 2025