Portland’s Sam Adams may win title that eluded Dallas’ Ed Oakley
May 14th, 2008 
Ed Oakley would have been the first openly gay mayor to represent one of the nation’s “big” cities. Now it appears that title may go to Sam Adams (pictured above), a leading candidate to become the next mayor of Portland, Ore. The primary is May 20, and there are about 13 candidates in the race, but according to recent polls, Adams is the frontrunner.
Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the country, with a population of about 1.2 million. Portland is the 23rd-largest, with a population of about 600,000. The largest city to be represented by an openly gay mayor thus far is Providence, R.I., which has a population of about 175,000.
If Adams loses, the next best gay mayoral candidate could be Annise Parker of Houston, a lesbian former city councilwoman who’s currently the city’s comptroller. Parker has said she plans to run for mayor in 2009. Houston is the fourth-largest city in the U.S., with a population of more than 2 million.
For more info about Adams, go here.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Since when is Portland, Ore., a “big city”? I bet its city budget would be, to Dallas, a rounding error. Or a convention hotel.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hello Daddy! I’m buying whatever he is selling
May 16th, 2008 at 12:12 am
Arnold Wayne Jones for President!
May 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Well gee guys I think I was pretty clear about how big each city is. I mean, Dallas is not really a big city when you think about it, but certainly an openly gay mayor in conservative Texas would be more surprising than one in liberal Oregon. This issue also highlights the difference between a city and a metropolitan area. Dallas is the ninth-largest city, but DFdub is the fourth-largest metro area. Providence is a pretty small city, but it’s a huge metro area.
Personally, I think Annise Parrker would go down as the first big-city mayor if she wins. But then you can also talk about the difference between a strong mayor and a weak mayor. In Dallas, for example, the mayor doesn’t have much more power than a city couniclmember. So the first real big-city mayor would have to come in a place like Philadelphia, where the mayor runs the city administration.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
[...] R.I. — which until now was the largest city to be represented by an openly gay mayor – see this previous post. According to the Associated Press, “the mayor-elect’s sexual orientation was never an [...]