Incumbent Dan Saltzman won the City Commissioner position 3 spot Tuesday evening by securing 58 percent of the general vote.
Saltzman secured his spot in the Portland City Council by beating out competitors with 24,211 votes, nearly three times the amount other candidates individually locked in. Amanda Fritz pulled the second most votes at 9,521, approximately 23 percent of the total poll.
Early in the race Saltzman pledged to raise only $150,000, the amount Fritz would be financed to race against him, in order to make the election about issues and not money. Saltzman remained true to his promise until a week before Election Day, when he raised an additional $10,000 and subsequently faced criticism for not remaining true to his campaign promise and not giving Fritz enough time to gain matching funds.
The five other candidates combined for less than 20 percent of the entire vote, a total of 8,214 votes. Saltzman will now take seat for his third term as city commissioner after starting in the position in 1998.
Saltzman remained confident after hearing the results, but gave the credit to the voters.
“I think it shows that Portlanders look at people as individuals,” he said. “I talked about what I’m passionate about.”
Saltzman plans to continue his work as city commissioner in the area of the Portland Children’s Investment Fund. The fund provides $8.5 million annually to after-school, mentoring, childhood-abuse and intervention programs, according to Saltzman’s web site.
Saltzman additionally developed a plan, his Utility License Fee, to effectively save $25 million on sewer and water rates over the next five years. Similarly, he is working toward making a more sustainable Portland with his effort to make Portland municipal electricity based 100 percent on renewable wind power.
Saltzman is an advocate against the Bush administration’s establishment of the Patriot Act and has introduced an ordinance that restricted payday-lending practices in Portland.
Before he began service as city commissioner, Saltzman served for five years as the District 1 Multnomah County commissioner from 1993 to 1998. His history in public service began before his tenure as county commissioner, as he served as an elected member of the Portland Community College Board of Directors, on the board of affordable housing organization HOST Community Development and as a volunteer for Loaves and Fishes Meals on Wheels program.
Fritz, the candidate who scored the closest behind Saltzman, has worked 14 years as a PTA member and for 13 years in the West Portland Park Neighborhood Association. Additionally, she worked as a commissioner on the Portland Planning Commission from 1996 to 2003 and on the City of Portland Measure 37 Advisory Committee.