Eight years later, Eric Postma still can't quite figure out what happened. Running against current mayor-elect Julie Fitzgerald and former Wilsonville City Councilor Susie Stevens in a race for two council spots, Postma won two of three Wilsonville precincts but lost the Charbonneau precinct by such a margin that he wound up finishing third. This result reflects a perplexing quagmire for more outwardly conservative candidates (Wilsonville elections are nonpartisan races but several recent candidates have been outspoken in their right-wing leanings) running for City Council. Despite the fact that Charbonneau residents vote more conservatively than the rest of Wilsonville in most races (Donald Trump lost narrowly in Charbonneau in 2016 and 2020, and convincingly in the rest of the city), those candidates have been losing the planned community south of the Willamette River by massive margins. And this has helped the current council majority maintain its foothold on city politics.