So, yes, there is a provocative choice to be made next month in a Portland City Council primary race. There's a defining conversation worth having.

But it isn't the one being force-fed to voters by the city's earnest progressives.

Dan Saltzman's retirement has finally cleared a seat, we're told, for the first woman of color on the council.

White women, apparently, need not apply. Jillian Schoene - one of two executive directors at Emerge Oregon, which recruits and trains Democratic women candidates - spelled it out for Felicia Williams in an email last fall:

"This isn't about your qualifications. You are qualified. But this isn't the right race."

Not when three women of color - Jo Ann Hardesty, Andrea Valderrama and Loretta Smith - are on the ballot. Many activists see the May primary as a way to "shift Portland's historically lily-white politics," as Beth Slovic wrote in Portland Monthly, and ensure that one council seat "reflect(s) the city's long-disenfranchised communities of color."

Nonsense.

The first problem with this argument? One woman who clears the racial bar here is Loretta Smith. As I wrote in February, the Multnomah County commissioner has a nasty habit of bullying and abusing young women of color on her staff.

Any equity-engineering campaign that ignores her legacy and elevates her candidacy is a grotesque non-starter.

Secondly, city residents are already fiercely engaged in a debate over public safety, mental health, tent camping, homeless services, and housing emergencies.

In the months leading to the general election, that discussion will be best served with Williams in the mix.

Williams is the business manager at Aronora, a biotech company; an Air Force veteran and adjunct history professor; and president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association.

When I ignored her candidacy in the February column, she sent along a thoughtful email, tagged "The Fourth Estate and Foregone Conclusions." That led to several hours of conversation about a campaign others are neglecting as well.

"The narrative was formed very clearly last summer: three women of color running for office," Williams says. "I didn't fit the narrative. It's optics vs. outcome. It's one person's turn. Everyone else has to sit down and shut up."

As Williams notes, too many Democrats used a similar argument in the 2016 presidential primary, arguing it was Hillary Clinton's turn to ascend to the White House. Local voters were not impressed: Sen. Bernie Sanders beat Clinton in Multnomah County by 34,000 votes.

In the long hours Williams has spent on doorsteps and at forums and house parties, she hasn't seen much evidence that the "woman of color" imperative is captivating her audience.

"If Portland's problems weren't so acute, maybe that message would resonate," she says.

Williams has heard, instead, about unpaved streets and non-existent sidewalks, about homelessness and police response times. She's gotten an earful from women like Angela Todd, an interior designer in Montavilla.

"I feel like Portland is in crisis right now," Todd says. "What was that Tina Turner movie? This neighborhood sometimes feels like Thunderdome. We have regular burglaries in the area. On 80th, we had a stolen car every other day for two weeks."

Todd's view of Felicia Williams? "She's smart. She understands how to connect the dots on funding. She's the only candidate who does not support tent camping. And she's the only one who believes we need more police."

Williams is frustrated by how poorly Home Forward serves low-income residents and seniors on fixed incomes. She believes the city can fund dramatic improvements in transportation and housing by following Copenhagen's model with long-term leases of public lands.

And she's been strategic in crafting the message that will carry her through the primary. She needs 40,000 votes. She's well aware that conservatives in town don't know where to turn.

When I asked the gate-keepers at Emerge Oregon about their issues with Williams, Schoene reminded me in an email, "Emerge Oregon does not endorse. Our focus is recruitment and training. But many of our alum, including Felicia ... reach out to me to discuss choosing the right race at the right time - for all the right reasons - and I always, always give my honest assessment."

I'm all for that. Here's mine:

You may think Portland is long overdue for a talented woman of color on the council. As luck would have, two - Valderrama and Hardesty - are running.

But Williams is smart, involved and eminently qualified. You might want to spend a couple hours listening to her, too. If she is one of the top two voter-getters in May's primary, we'll likely spend several months listening to two candidates with dramatically different perspectives on the future of the city.

Sure feels like the right conversation to me.

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com