Eugene weekly., April 26, 2018, Page 7, Image 7

effective representative for his constituents from day one.
Should she win, Koops (28) would be the youngest
woman ever elected to the Oregon House — an institution
that needs more women, of any age, to join its ranks.
Though she’ll need toughening up, our bet is she’ll be a
quick study.
We’d be happy to see either one of these two candidates
win the primary.
EW generally doesn’t endorse in Republican primaries,
but in the case of Joshua Powell v. Mark Herbert, it’s really
helpful to know that Powell regularly posts racist and anti-
Semitic statements on social media and the Republican
Party does not back him as a candidate.
NOR A K EN T
past — at least we haven’t seen him taking photos of other
commissioners and mocking them on Facebook lately. And
we mind that his votes reflect a mindset that favors mining
and logging over the environment. And we mind that back
in 2015, you know, a couple mass shootings ago, he voted
in favor of the resolution saying the county was “unable to
expend any county resources for the implementation” of
Oregon’s new gun background check law.
The West Lane Commissioner District is a mix of
progressives and more middle-of-the-road and right-
wing voters. Kent herself is from Deadwood, known as a
progressive Coast Range enclave. She’s new to politics,
though not to public service as she points to her work at
Lane Community College and volunteer efforts with her
school district’s PTA. Four years ago, Dawn Lesley gave
Boz a run for his money. Hopefully this year, Kent can
build on that and shake things up.
Workers in Central Coast California and organized
“Networking for Youth.” His commitment to social justice
showed when Grupo de Latino Acción Directa invited
both Berney and Leiken to meet with Latinx voters in
Springfield. Of course, only Berney showed up.
But, there’s more to Berney than just his commitment
to social justice. He says he has a Rolodex of previous
partners with whom he’s done green business and, since
he knows what sort of incentives they like, he can attract
them to Lane County. And, if his business’ success is any
indication of his ability to coordinate and make green
development happen, Lane County could see itself in a
more sustainable place in four years. At the very least,
electing Berney will be a breath of fresh air Lane County
desperately needs.
HE AT HER BUCH
SPRINGFIELD COMMISSIONER, POSITION 2
SID LEIKEN V. JOE BERNE Y
County Commission
WEST COMMISSIONER, POSITION 1
JAY BOZIEVICH V. NOR A K EN T V.
BEVERLY HILLS
LEAN LEFT
There are two things that crack us up about this race.
First that it’s “nonpartisan,” which means technically
it’s not about the political parties. And second, someone
named Beverly Hills is running and will probably get some
votes on the name alone.
But we say vote for Nora Kent.
Partisan or not, incumbent Jay Bozievich is a heavy
part of the Lane County Commission’s lean to the right.
We don’t mind that he’s prickly and quick to take offense
(he’s probably got a Google alert for his name, is reading
this right now and feeling annoyed, and is getting ready
to send us an email); we mind that the best we can say of
him is that he’s been less polarizing than he’s been in the
FEEL THE BERNEY
Lane County has a chance to reinvent itself from timber
country into a forerunner of America's green future with
Joe Berney. It all boils down to someone with a proven past
in sustainable, renewable development who can give the
county a boost into establishing sustainable work, against
someone (current Springfield Commissioner Sid Leiken)
whose partners represent business as usual in Lane County
— timber and resource extraction.
In addition, Berney has a proven history as a social
justice advocate. He served as assistant director of
Community Services Administration during the Carter
administration, worked with Teamsters and United Farm
JOE BER NE Y
EAST COMMISSIONER, POSITION 5
HE AT HER BUCH V. K E VIN M AT T HE WS V.
GARY WILLIAMS V. FRANK KING V.
JAMES BARBER V. TIM LAUE
GO EAST, YOUNG VOTER
Voters in east Lane County have two great candidates
in a field of many to support in unseating current East
Commissioner Gary Williams. In the race against Williams
— who is new on the board, since the right-leaning Board
of Commissioners appointed him in early 2017 — we
at EW believe east Lane County couldn’t go wrong in
supporting either Kevin Matthews or Heather Buch.
This isn’t the first time Kevin Matthews has run for
the east Lane County commissioner position. In 2014, he
finished second to Faye Stewart. Since he’s no stranger
to the commissioner campaign, Matthews speaks with
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Paid for by City Accountability, Wayne Lottinville, Treasurer
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