THURSDAY • January 13, 2022
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $3
Bend theater presents ‘Murder on the Orient Express’
IN GO! »
SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
Congress
incumbents
weigh in
with huge
war chests
Winter storms bring
above-average snowpack
CROOK COUNTY SCHOOLS
Board to
ask voters
for $66M
bond
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
BY BRYCE DOLE
The Bulletin
A U.S. senator from Oregon has
raised over $4 million for his cam-
paign to win another six-year term.
Not Sen. Ron Wyden, who is up
for reelection this year.
The bankroll is held by Sen. Jeff
Merkley, who wouldn’t run again un-
til 2026.
Wyden has $6 million in the bank
for the 2022 race to hold the seat he
first won in 2016. The six candidates
who have filed to run against Wyden
all together have under $60,000 in
the bank.
The numbers will rise after new
campaign finance data for the final
three months of 2021 is released later
this month. But Wyden’s fundraising
lead is extremely unlikely to shrink.
The Oregon senators’ ongoing
fundraising underlines the reality
that incumbents’ campaigns for the
U.S. Senate — and U.S. House —
slow but never stop between elec-
tions.
Jim Moore, a political science pro-
fessor at Pacific University in Forest
Grove, says a large cache of money
acts as a firewall against political sur-
prises for officeholders.
“Incumbents almost always have
several hundred thousand dollars in
the bank — and if they do not have
strong challengers, that amount will
grow,” Moore said. “Kurt Schrader is
a great example of this in the Oregon
delegation.”
Schrader is the least liberal House
member from Oregon with the most
politically competitive of the state’s
five current congressional districts.
He’s won every race since he was first
elected in 2008 but never by more
than 55%. That is hair-thin com-
pared to others in the Oregon dele-
gation.
With redistricting for the 2022
election, he’s also the incumbent of
a 5th Congressional District that
was shifted significantly east. The
new district is a swath running from
Portland over the Cascades to Bend.
It’s still a competitive district, with a
projected 3% Democratic voter tilt,
according to the political website
FiveThirtyEight.com.
The 5th District race has drawn
candidates in both the May prima-
ries and November general election.
Jamie McLeod-Skinner, of
Crooked River Ranch, a former can-
didate for secretary state and for the
2nd Congressional District, is run-
ning to Schrader’s left in the May
Democratic primary. Along with
political lines, the two Democrats
are from opposite sides of the moun-
tains.
Crook County residents will have
the opportunity to vote in May on a
new school district bond meant to
replace roofs, boilers and improve
safety in its nearly 100-year-old
school buildings.
The $66 million bond would also
allow the district to offer additional
career and technical education,
performing arts programs and im-
prove outdoor facilities like Ward
Rhoden Stadium, according to a
press release from district spokes-
person Jason Carr. And if passed,
it would allow the school district
to receive an additional $914,414
in grant funds from the Ore-
gon School Capital Improvement
Matching Program.
A local planning committee in-
volving 35 parents, business owners,
farmers, students and educators re-
viewed the condition, capacity needs
and educational adequacy of district
facilities and made recommendations
to the school board. The board voted
unanimously Monday to place the
bond on the ballot.
See Bond / A14
JEFFERSON COUNTY
SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Cory Barnett, of Newberg, walks the perimeter
of the Mt. Bachelor parking lot as his wolf
hybrid, Cinder, trots along the snow berm. Mt.
Bachelor reports 254 inches of snow this season
and a 72-inch base. Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
BY MICHAEL KOHN • The Bulletin
F
ollowing a dry stretch in November and
most of December, heavy snowfall in the
Cascades boosted snowpack levels to per-
centages well above normal. The fresh snow
doesn’t end the drought affecting the area but
could help to alleviate some of its worst impacts.
It has also been a welcome sight for skiers,
sled riders and snowshoers.
As of Monday, snowpack in the Upper De-
schutes and Crooked River area was 130% of
average, based on the past 30 years of data, ac-
cording to the Natural Resources Conservation
Service . Precipitation for the water year, which
began Oct. 1, is 110% of normal.
Statewide, the picture is even better. Oregon
snowpack is 148% of average, ranging from
113% in the Malheur basin to 195% of normal
in the Hood, Sandy and Lower Deschutes area.
Statewide precipitation is 113% of normal for
the water year.
As of Monday, snow depths include 39 inches
at Three Creeks Meadow (elevation 5,960 feet),
near the Jefferson View Shelter on Forest Road
700; and 73 inches at McKenzie Snotel site (ele-
vation 4,770 feet), which is close to Scott Lake.
See Snowpack / A14
Ex-deputy
charged in
alleged case of
revenge porn
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
A former Jefferson County cor-
rections deputy is accused of send-
ing sexually explicit pictures of a
woman to people she previously
dated.
Joshua Tyler Oliveira, 36, on
Wednesday made his initial appear-
ance in Deschutes County Circuit
Court, where he stands accused of
three counts of unlawful dissem-
ination of an intimate image, also
known as “revenge porn.”
The Prineville resident resigned
from the Jefferson County Sheriff ’s
Office in July, the same month he
was cited by Redmond Police, ac-
cording to police and court records.
See Congress / A13
See Deputy / A13
‘Joy Luck Club’ writer kicks off Author! Author! series
The Deschutes Public Li-
brary Foundation will kick off
the 10th year of its Author!
Author! literary series with
a virtual appearance Thurs-
day by Amy Tan, the writer
behind “The Joy Luck Club,”
“The Bonesetter’s Daughter”
and other bestsellers.
The 7 p.m. event will fea-
TODAY’S
WEATHER
ture Tan, 69, in conversation
with longtime Bend artist
and musician Jason “MOsley
WOtta” Graham, followed by
a Q&A with audience mem-
bers.
On Tuesday, Tan said that
although she won’t be visiting
this time around, she is famil-
iar with Central Oregon from
her time attending Linfield
College in McMinnville, and
Clouds and rain
High 47, Low 30
Page A12
INDEX
various ski trips with friends
who live in Bend.
“I know what it looks like.
It’s beautiful there,” Tan said
Tuesday. “Whenever we went
back and forth home (San
Francisco) and then back
to school, we would go past
Bend.”
Most of the events Tan has
done since the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic have
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11-12
A14
A9-10
Dear Abby
Editorial
Events
A7
A8
GO!
been virtual pro-
grams akin to her
upcoming Author!
Author! appearance.
She’s something of a
fan: Tan misses meet-
ing fans at signings
and other events, she Tan
said, but she doesn’t
miss the delays and other has-
sles of airline travel.
“I think people are getting
Horoscope
Local/State
Lottery
A7
A2- 4
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
used to this as the
format that’s being
used,” Tan said. “In
a way, even though
they can’t see me on
stage, I think it lends
itself to something
more personal, be-
cause people can ask
questions and can see clearly
— and ask things that nor-
mally might not be asked on-
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 section
stage.”
Such occasions “give me
the opportunity, because
we’re so close up, to show
people for example what my
journals look like, or even
they’ll see where I live, or
what my writing space is,”
Tan said. “It’s a different take
on how I am as a writer, I
think.”
See Author / A13
SUN/THU
BY DAVID JASPER
The Bulletin
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