Vera Katz

Sho Dozono is widely seen as the most likely candidate to jump into the Portland mayoral race and actually challenge Sam Adams, who, at this point, is facing no opposition.

But according to Len Bergstein, who is a close friend of Dozono, but has no formal or direct involvement with a potential campaign, Dozono is still seriously weighing his options, and likely won’t make a final decision until after the first of the year.

“Sho is a very family oriented guy, so I think this period between now and the holidays is probably very focused on family for him, and I would not expect a decision before New Years,” Bergstein said.

Is Sam Adams the front runner for Mayor of Portland in 2008?Now that one-term wonder Portland Mayor Tom Potter has officially announced his retirement from office and the floodgates are open to all the perennial candidates, the only serious declared candidate is long time political operative and current City Commissioner Sam Adams. Portland developer Bob Ball spoiled his own bid for mayor with an attempted smear campaign trying to create an inappropriate relationship between Adams and a 17-year old intern. Based on his own character, Ball clearly forgot about the lost art of loyalty in the political world. But, former Mayor Vera Katz and City Commissioner Randy Leonard did not and they promptly outed Ball’s low grade tactics thereby ending his campaign before he could print even one bumper sticker. New Seasons co-founder Eileen Brady dipped her toes in the mayoral pool (along with the US Senate pool) for about five minutes and decided to take a pass for now.