Some of you will no doubt have seen the lawn signs, ads, or had Jeff Bissonnette come knocking on your door to say hi, tell you why he was running for Portland City Commissioner (Sam Adams's vacated seat), and ask you what were your concerns regarding city government. Jeff had taken a leave of absence for the past few months, but before that you may remember he has been CUB's long-time Organizing Director and Man On The Scene in the Oregon Legislature.

Because of very practical and valid laws governing the use of non-profit organizations' money and voices, we have not mentioned Jeff's campaign before. But now the vote is over, and Jeff came in a close third behind Charles Lewis who was behind Amanda Fritz as the frontrunner. Those two will face each other in a runoff in November, while we will happily welcome Jeff back to his place at CUB.

We would like to congratulate Jeff and his staff and supporters on a well-run campaign, and thank him for being a voice for clean energy solutions in the candidate discussions. We hope that the two remaining candidates will follow Jeff's lead in making those clean and affordable energy discussions high-profile issues and maintaining Portland's reputation as one of the most sustainable cities in the nation. It's not just a feather in our collective municipal cap, it's a web of green energy jobs and market solutions that will prove invaluable as we deal with high gas prices, higher food prices, and increasing signs of global warming.

We know that Jeff enjoyed the many conversations he had on the campaign trail, and we expect that those conversations about energy, the economy, and the environment will serve him well as he continues to be a primary advocate in Oregon for fair and clean energy solutions.

So kudos to Jeff, welcome back, and Bob says, get back to work! Because, honestly, we missed you and we're gonna need you in '09.