News Column

Adams hitches his yoke to Yocom

Sources Say

The Portland Tribune, Oct 9, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (4 Reader comments)

Sometimes what decides an election doesn’t make big headlines.

One example happened last week when Jennifer Yocom signed on to be city Commissioner Sam Adams’ campaign manager for his bid to replace Mayor Tom Potter next year.

The name means something only to political insiders, but to them it means a lot. Yocom, 30, is a dynamic up-and-comer who earned her chops in the campaign business by directing the 2006 re-election campaign of Commissioner Erik Sten.

In what had been expected to be a tough race, Yocom mapped out an intense, sophisticated strategy that led to Sten being re-elected without a runoff.

Yocom was considered a major force in the Oregon Bus Project, an influential group dedicated to mobilizing progressive voters. So hiring Yocom secured a large portion of Sten’s political base for Adams.

Fritz rushes in where Liberty fears to tread

The race to take over Adams’ seat became much clearer last week when Metro Councilor Robert Liberty and Jefferson Smith of the Oregon Bus Project announced that they would not make a bid for City Hall.

That led Amanda Fritz, former planning commissioner and board member of the Coalition for a Livable Future, to promptly jump in the race.

Fritz, who ran for Dan Saltzman’s council seat in 2006, had wanted to see who her opponents might be before declaring.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit