The Portland Metro Chamber urges its members and partners to support Melissa Fireside in her campaign to unseat incumbent Mark Shull. In the primary, the Chamber endorsed Tina Irvine but also extended a greenlight to Melissa Fireside as our members determined that both candidates would be a vast improvement over Commissioner Shull.
We believe Melissa Fireside will be a strong new voice on the county commission and a vast improvement over the incumbent. Fireside is a small business owner, a teacher, and a working mom. She has deep knowledge of the most critical issues facing Clackamas County and will be a pragmatic collaborator with her fellow commissioners and leaders from around the region. The Chamber has been pushing for greater policy alignment and cooperation between county leaders, and we believe Melissa Fireside will strengthen that critical work.
The incumbent, Commissioner Mark Shull has been one of the least effective elected leaders in the region. This is primarily due to the fact that he made or promoted racist and antisemitic statements that severely damaged his credibility as a community leader.
It is formal Chamber policy to ‘actively denounce any appeal in our political discourse to exploit bigotry and intolerance.’ And to ‘withhold all forms of support, including endorsements and campaign contributions, for political candidates who either actively support bigotry or political violence or neglect to condemn political violence when it comes from their allies or supporters.’ The Chamber determined that Shull violated both policies and disqualified himself from consideration for support or endorsement.
We encourage Portland Metro Chamber members and partners to support Melissa Fireside for Clackamas County Commission, Position 4.