SEEKING OFFICE: Tina Smith. |
A familiar face around Portland’s activism scene is about to get even more familiar: West Ender Tina Smith, who formerly worked as a community organizer with the Maine League of Young Voters, is running for an at-large city council seat.
She plans to run on a platform that focuses on the local economy (especially saving the State Theatre and supporting a city center for the arts), responsible transit (she wants to create an “alternative transportation hub” where car-sharers, bikers, and alt-fuel advocates can share resources), and equality for underrepresented groups in the community (she wants to increase their clout with decision-making bodies).
This last issue is particularly important to her. “The real big factor that helped me decide...is that if you look at the people who are in decision-making positions in the city, it doesn’t reflect how diverse our city is at all,” she says, pointing out the absence of a gay councilor on the city council, and the fact that non-citizen immigrants — whose children make up a large part of Portland’s student body — can’t sit on the school committee.
Smith, 30, says several people asked her to consider running in the race, which will pit her against incumbent Ed Suslovic and former Portland School Committee member and Bayside community organizer Dory Waxman.
Over the past few weeks, she’s met with members of the community, as well as city officials, to discuss her candidacy — and she’s even picked up an endorsement: “Tina Smith will add much needed diversity to the City Council and bring strong commitment to public transportation,” says District 2 councilor Dave Marshall. Smith, who is a registered Green, would likely form an occasional voting bloc with Marshall and fellow progressive councilors Kevin Donoghue (if Donoghue’s not recalled through East End resident Randee Bucknell’s efforts, that is — see Deirdre Fulton's post "Recall Kevin Donoghue?" on thePhoenix.com/AboutTown blog, May 26), John Anton, Jill Duson, and Dan Skolnik.
