Andrew Zarro
PORTLAND — District 4 voters have chosen Andrew Zarro to represent them for the next three years on the city council and Aura Russell-Bedder to represent them for the next three years on the school board.
Zarro captured 52 percent of the vote overall in the city, winning a two-way race against Rosemary Mahoney for the seat, which is being vacated by Justin Costa. While Mahoney captured the majority of the 1,658 in-person vote, Zarro captured more of the absentee total, finishing with close to 54 % of the total vote.
Zarro, who was making his first run for public office, ran for the seat to give the younger generation more representation on the City Council and to advocate for small businesses and the LGBTQ community. His biggest concern, he said, is how the city is going to address climate change.
“It is maybe the greatest issue we have ever faced. I have a lot of ideas and passion for what we can do, and the good news is we can do a lot at the municipal level,” Zarro, 32, told the Forecaster earlier this fall.
In the school board race, Aura Russell-Bedder bested Chris Vail by taking 61% of the overall votes, including two-thirds of the 4,888 absentee ballots.
Aura Russell-Bedder
Russell-Bedder said she ran for the seat Timothy Atkinson is vacating because she wanted to see her section of the city have a more active representation on the school board.
“I think this is a good opportunity for me to represent the whole district, but in particular the East Deering neighborhood, which I think is underrepresented in Portland government,” she told the Forecaster this fall.
District 4 represents East Deering and much of the area between Stevens Avenue, Woodford Street and Baxter Boulevard.
This story was updated Nov. 6 to include official vote tallies.
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