The next election for Metro Council District 6 is 464 days away. Increasingly, it appears that the campaign is a little more than a month old.
When Robert Liberty announced on Jan. 4 that he'd be resigning as District 6's Metro councilor, it didn't take long for two names to jump out as possible successors – Bob Shiprack and Bob Stacey.
Now, both are saying they're planning on being on the ballot next year, no matter who the Metro Council appoints to replace Liberty. The council is expected to make its decision this month; four people, including Woodland Park Neighborhood Association Chair Alesia Reese and Eastmoreland resident Martha Dibblee, have applied for the vacancy.
Stacey has met with most of the Metro Council, including Council President Tom Hughes, who bested Stacey for the council presidency in November by 1,003 votes. On Thursday, after leaving a meeting with another councilor, he said he's now focusing on the interests and the concerns of District 6.
"My campaign with the people will be starting this fall and going into next May," Stacey said. "Of course, I would like to start that campaign season as the appointed representative of District 6."
So how has Stacey's message as a candidate for a local seat changed from his message as the at-large hopeful?
"The one thing that has occurred to me as I've visited with people in District 6 is what a wealth of issues are applicable to things I talked about in the campaign," Stacey said. "It's the only district that doesn't have part of its boundary on the UGB. It's the one where success or failure depends upon what we do in our neighborhoods, our town centers and in the regional center."
Stacey, who succeeded Robert Liberty as head of 1000 Friends of Oregon, is still thinking about the urban growth boundary – but in a different context than during the campaign for president.
"By doing a great job of providing services and assistance to make our existing urban land supply work, we can stave off the day when it's necessary to expand," he said. "It's where the rubber meets the road. If not in District 6, where?"
Stacey might seem like a natural fit for the seat. He won about six times as many District 6 precincts as Hughes in the November election; he lives next door to Liberty, and has traded jobs with the former councilor for years, including the 1000 Friends leadership and a fellowship at Harvard University that Stacey held two years before Liberty.
But Shiprack, a former state legislator and a longtime union representative, disagrees. He said he was already planning on running against Liberty, saying the district needed a new voice on the council.
"There seems to be too much emphasis on the UGB in Washington County and not enough emphasis on the daily needs of District 6," Shiprack said. "I'd be happy just to work on sewers, sidewalks and streets – little transportation projects that need to get done."
Shiprack, a graduate of John Marshall High School who lives in the Foster-Powell neighborhood with his wife, Multnomah County Commissioner Judy Shiprack, said basic infrastructure problems should be more of a focus for Metro.
"The same streets in my neighborhood that I used to ride my bicycle to school on, they're still not paved. They still don't have sidewalks," he said. "I'd like to see a little more emphasis on community development, and I'm really, really excited about the efforts that Metro has just started on community reinvestment."
He was also critical of the focus of transportation spending on light rail.
"I love light rail, and it's been a million paydays to construction workers – but don't cut back on your basic bus service in order to do something else," Shiprack said. "These people around where I live don't have a lot of access to anything but bus service, and it's important to them."
Both candidates also made sure to emphasize the importance of creating jobs in the region.
"I want to support Tom (Hughes) and his efforts to get employment up, and to do business recruiting in a way that Metro has not participated before," Stacey said. "It's a great opportunity for us to work together mutually for economic prosperity and for improved goods and services."
Shiprack said he was upset by recent reports from the Portland Business Alliance and other groups about the state of the region's economy.
"The county's lagging in the western region. Wages are declining. That means benefits are declining," Shiprack said. "Those are issues that I've spent my adult career working on. That's what I have done. And I think I can lend a lot to trying to get those numbers turned around."
Applications for District 6 will be accepted through 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Correction- An earlier version of this story misidentified Alesia Reese's neighborhood. This version has been corrected.