Oregon Primary Day: Ted Wheeler Will Be Mayor of Portland

Ted Wheeler will finish first in his race to be mayor of Portland, election-night results indicate.

And with 58 percent of the vote, he will avoid a runoff in November.

Early on, he had 62,253 votes, well ahead of second-place Jules Bailey with 17,384 votes.

Sarah Iannarone was in third with 10,628 votes.

They are running to replace Charlie Hales as mayor.

Hales last year became the third straight mayor to call it quits after one term.

There were 12 other candidates on the ballot.

Bailey tweeted his congratulations.

Wheeler's victory — it looks like he will have the largest margin of victory since Vera Katz in 1996 — is yet another big win for the 53-year-old Wheeler.

He was first elected to office a decade ago when he scored an upset victory over Multnomah County Commission Chairwoman Diane Linn.

He was then elected and re-elected State Treasurer — a position he will hold until the end of the year when he becomes mayor.

Facing being forced out of office because of term limits, it had been assumed that Wheeler would run for governor when John Kitzhaber was term-limited out in 2018.

But then Kitzhaber abruptly resigned, giving Kate Brown a leg up. She also handily won her race Tuesday night.

There were also two races for City Council in Portland as Amanda Fritz and Steve Novick seek reelection.

While Fritz won outright, it looks like her colleague, Steve Novick, will face a runoff in the fall. Most likely he will face architect Stuart Emmons, who was in second.

Novick has 41,244 votes to Emmons' 14,107, but it does not look like Novick will crack 50 percent.

Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill is running unopposed as he seeks another term.

There are several races for the Multnomah County Commission.

In District 1, it looks as if Eric Zimmerman and Sharon Teleran will have a runoff.

In District 2, Jessica Vega Pederson has no opponent.

In District 4, it looks like Amanda Schroeder and Lori Stegmann will face a runoff in the fall.

There are three big measures on the ballot.

A levy that would have helped Mount Hood Community College — and which had a lot of support — was defeated.

In Portland, Commissioner Novick proposed a gas tax that would fund street repairs. In early returns, it was looking like it will pass but was still too close to call.

The voters also passed a levy to help fund the Oregon Historical Society.

In early returns, it was passing 69-31 percent.

When the society last went to the voters, in 2011, it passed; Its director said if they ever came back for money, they would have done something wrong.

The voters, apparently, were forgiving.

The levy won't raise taxes but keeps the current rate of a nickel per $1,000 of assessed value. That equals approximately $10 per year for proper with an assessed value of $200,000.