PORTLAND, Maine — The first debate in the ranked-choice voting race among Portland’s five mayoral candidates revealed often subtle but important differences in their agendas.
The intertwined housing affordability and homelessness crises defined the debate hosted by the Bangor Daily News and CBS News 13 on Tuesday evening. One candidate stuck out by calling on Gov. Janet Mills for more help housing asylum seekers, and a surprise came when every hopeful in the liberal city said they wanted to revisit a high-profile wage policy.
Here are the three main lessons from the hour-long discussion between City Councilors Pious Ali, Mark Dion and Andrew Zarro, as well as former Councilor Justin Costa and political newcomer Dylan Pugh.
Every candidate embraced growth, but there were qualifications.
Portland’s housing crisis is staggering. At one point in 2022, there were just nine houses for sale in the state’s biggest city. The average home value has doubled since 2016 to $529,000, and the median rent was up to $2,800 earlier this year, according to Zillow data.
Growth is on the agenda for every candidate. Every one of them said the city needs to build more housing. Zarro’s goals are perhaps the most outwardly ambitious. He is calling for 12,000 new housing units to be built over the next decade. Light and moderate industrial areas and downtown lots could be rezoned to allow housing, he said.
Dion said while the city should look at increasing density along busy corridors, Zarro’s figure was unrealistic. He also cautioned that any rezoning plan must take the concerns of residents across the city into consideration.
Costa took aim at the three councilors on the stage, noting that they could have introduced politically thorny rezoning proposals anytime, but the city needs to act now by allowing developers to build denser properties and tie that to affordability requirements.
“Every time that we delay, that we let the perfect be the enemy of the good, we’re really doing tremendous harm,” Costa said.
Dion plainly called out the governor to coordinate asylum seeker housing.
Dion, a former state lawmaker and Cumberland County sheriff, was the most aggressive debater. He put Gov. Janet Mills on the spot in response to a question that noted some city officials want her administration to take a more active role in supporting the hundreds of asylum seekers who have come here in recent months.
“Governor, I need you to come fully square with the city of Portland and take an active leadership role to provide us resources outside process, outside typical procedure, so first we can house all the immigrant families that are here,” he said.
His central point was that Portland was bearing the brunt of federal policies on this subject, including one that bars asylum seekers from working for six months after their arrival. Virtually everyone in the city agrees with that.
Ali defended Mills and her administration, saying he has spoken with them and they are working quickly to set up an Office of New Mainers. The other candidates were more equivocal on this subject, generally arguing for more support and saying asylum seekers provide a major opportunity for Portland. But Dion looked like the most vociferous advocate on this topic.
There were differences on wage policies, but agreement stood out.
Nearly two-thirds of Portland voters are Democrats, and every candidate here is a progressive member of the party on the statewide scale. But politicians here lie on their own spectrum, which was on display in their answers to a minimum wage question.
Portland’s $14 hourly minimum wage is only slightly higher than Maine’s minimum now, but it will rise to $15 next year. Zarro, Costa, Ali and Pugh said they support raising it further. Dion said the city should not raise it.
But the city also has a hazard pay ordinance, giving workers at least $21 during a state of emergency. Business groups oppose this policy, which was invoked briefly over the weekend as Hurricane Lee descended on Maine. Each candidate responded “yes” when they were asked if that policy should be revisited as wages rise.
