Friends,

We began this journey eight months ago in front of the Skidmore Fountain, celebrating its quote about citizenship. The journey ended for me last night, at least for now, but I’m elated by what we have accomplished:

• We gathered 1145 qualifying contributions, more than any other campaign in this race.

• We promised to make this campaign an example of what Voter Owned Elections can bring to Portland’s elections, and we succeeded with a great campaign, including FIVE VOE candidates — and the winner of the runoff will be the first non-incumbent Commissioner elected with a VOE campaign!

• I had the opportunity to meet hundreds, probably thousands of citizens of Portland and learn from them about an incredible array of issues.

• We’ve impressed upon the other candidates the importance of the themes we articulated: the necessity of Portland leading the nation in creating a model for sustainable cities and the opportunities it will bring to us; and the vital need to engage all parts of our community to make Portland the city it can be.

This journey would not have been possible without your support. I am deeply grateful for all the volunteer hours, $5 contributions and the kind words I have received during the last eight months. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

I don’t know yet what’s next for me, but you can be sure that I’ll keep working to make Portland even more extraordinary…

Chris

After nine months on the campaign trail, we're getting ready to party!

Come join us starting at 7:30pm on Tuesday at Cafe Reese, 1037 NW 23rd Ave (at Marshall St.).

Under Voter Owned Elections, campaigns are prohibited from spending public funds on election night parties. So I’ll provide soft drinks myself, and we’ll encourage you to purchase coffee drinks, wine and delicious food from Glenn Brugman and his staff at Café Reese, a neighborhood small business.

See you Tuesday!

Our campaign's "strategic objective" for Candidates Gone Wild was to "not disgrace ourselves" (I suspect many of the campaigns had the same goal).

Mission accomplished :-)

Thanks to Aaron Tarfman for the photo

Today the League of American Wheelman awarded Portland the coveted Platinum Bicycle City status. We are only the second U.S. city and the first major metro area to receive this award. This is tremendous recognition of the work so many of us have done toward making Portland the leading cycling city in the country.

Now it's time to shift our goals toward becoming one of the best cycling cities in the world!

Get all the details on our Platinum award at BikePortland.org