National Women's PAC Endorses Eileen Brady for Mayor

Portland Mercury:

Eileen Brady, already by far the fundraising leader in next year's mayoral race, just scored a prominent endorsement this morning (and likely fundraising boost) from EMILY's List, the self-described "community of progressive Americans dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to every level of office." The group, according to its website, has helped raise more than $80 million for its chosen candidates, electing hundreds of women since starting out in 1985. It's currently active in 13 states besides Oregon. It started a program for local races in 2001, backing candidates who have already declared but also training women who might one day want to run. "Only eight of the 100 largest cities in the US have female mayors," the group said in a statement announcing its endorsement. "Eileen Brady would make Portland the third largest city in America to have a female top executive, after Houston and Baltimore." Not that Brady, a New Seasons co-founder, needs a lot of help—at this point. She's claimed nearly $90,000 in cash contributions (the vast majority of it in chunks larger than $100, or even $500), putting her well ahead of the $14,000-plus in total contributions reported by her only serious declared rival so far, former city commissioner Charlie Hales. And she and Hales, and Mayor Sam Adams, who is expected to run again, also got another bump today. Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen told the Oregonian that he wasn't going to run for mayor after all. Cogen's call matched what insiders guessed all along, despite Cogen's popularity in certain circles and his open flirtation with move. Because voters didn't change the county's charter last fall when given the option, Cogen would have had to step down merely to run for another office—with no fallback in case he lost in what's going to be a hard-fought race with a lot of credible candidates, including Adams himself. Read the rest of EMILY's List's statement after the jump. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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