Conley for PDX

I’ve been fascinated by people for as long as I can remember. For a time, I thought that fascination would lead me to politics. But journalism and photography found me instead, and I spent the last 20 years as a journalist and mentor.

As I look around Portland and our politics, however, I realized that my career as a journalist in conflict zones left me with a particular set of skills - skills that Portland needs in this new iteration of governance. We need leaders who have an honest self appraisal, and are champions for our city. We don’t need people who despise our most vulnerable communities and use their positions for personal gain.

Portland is still working to come back from the trauma of the pandemic, it’s true. Yes, we are seeing some scary trends in Portland politics, like the rise of far-right ideology and politicians like Rene Gonzalez treating accountability and Portlanders like a bad joke. But Portland is, and will always be, Oregon’s bastion of liberal democracy, and we can find our way back.

I’ll end with two rules I learned from my time abroad in war-torn and struggling countries like Afghanistan:

1. If you want to understand people’s needs, you must ask the right questions and actually listen to the answers.

2. If the people don’t have hope that things will get better, nothing you do can work long term.

It’s time for a government that listens.