A4 THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2022
Johnson
Continued from A1
On Friday, she added Dem-
ocratic former Gov. Ted Ku-
longoski and former U.S. Sen.
Gordon Smith, R-Oregon.
She’s backed by former Rep.
Knute Buehler, R-Bend, who
was the GOP nominee for
governor in 2018, losing to
Gov. Kate Brown in her last
election.
Johnson, 71, has straddled
the political divide for much
of her life. Born in Bend and
raised in Redmond, her father,
Sam Johnson, was a promi-
nent timber industry business
owner. He served seven terms
in the state House, as a Repub-
lican. He was mayor of Red-
mond at the time of his death
in 1984.
After earning a law degree
and commercial pilot’s li-
censes for both fixed-wing air-
craft and helicopters, Johnson
ran an aviation company that
included firefighting aircraft.
Like her father, she ran for
the House, winning election
in 2000.
Unlike her father, she was a
Democrat.
She moved to the Senate in
2005 and served until resign-
ing to run for governor.
With the primary on Tues-
day, she now knows who her
opponents will be if she quali-
fies for the ballot.
Former House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, won the
Democratic nomination. For-
mer House Minority Leader
Christine Drazan won the Re-
publican nomination.
Johnson was often at odds
with Kotek, most recently on
Hydro Flask
Continued from A1
Hydro Flask hired Makris
in 2017 as director of market-
ing. He’d previously worked
as a marketing supervisor for
Icebreaker, Columbia and Sa-
lomon.
Delperdang said Makris
routinely bullied her in public,
around the office and in meet-
ings, according to the lawsuit.
She states she received several
years worth of positive per-
formance reviews and was on
track to receive a promotion
until Makris, and Operational
Director Lucas Alberg, sub-
jected her to negative perfor-
mance reviews in retaliation for
her filing a complaint against
Makris with human resources.
The suit alleges several fe-
male employees resigned from
the company due to Makris’
alleged conduct.
“(W)orking conditions due
to the discrimination and re-
taliation were so intolerable
that a reasonable person in her
circumstances would have re-
signed,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states that in
2018 and 2020, three male Hy-
dro Flask employees filed com-
plaints with human resources
officials stating they witnessed
Makris harass Delperdang and
other female employees.
The first instance described
in the lawsuit occurred in De-
cember 2017 on a work trip
to Hawaii. She states Makris
interrupted a conversation
among employees to make
a lewd comment regarding
her necklace. “This comment
made (Delperdang) feel very
uncomfortable and power-
less,” the lawsuit states.
She states that after Makris
acted hostile toward her
during a meeting, she filed
a complaint with human re-
sources, according to the law-
suit. She was told by the rep-
resentative that her complaint
carbon cap legislation that
led to Republican walkouts in
2019 and 2020. Passage of the
bill was a priority for Kotek.
While its fate was uncertain in
the Senate, Johnson was seen
as a likely opponent.
Over the years, Kotek and
leaders of the progressive wing
of the Legislature’s Democrats
have seen Johnson as a road-
block to legislation on gun
control, the environment and
the expansion of collective
bargaining rights further up
the ranks of fire, police and
other public employees.
Johnson already has a
sound-bite-ready line when
asked about Kotek, playing
off polls that show Gov. Kate
Brown with low popularity
ratings.
“Tina Kotek is more Kate
Brown than Kate Brown,” she
said.
On the Republican side,
Drazan won a fragmented
primary with 22% of the vote
among 19 candidates. Fervent
followers of former President
Donald Trump were unable
to rally around a single stan-
dard-bearer, instead splitting
their votes into substantial
chunks spread among several
candidates. That helped Dra-
zan win on election night.
Johnson said it will be im-
possible for Drazan to appeal
to moderate swing voters who
are the key to winning the
governorship while not alien-
ating the conservative GOP
base.
“I don’t think she’s going to
be able to speak her mind,”
Johnson said.
Kotek had been the
front-runner for the nom-
would be investigated. She al-
leges it was never followed up.
About one month after she
filed her complaint, Makris
“accosted and yelled” at her in
the middle of the marketing
department. The yelling went
on for several minutes and
when she attempted to speak,
Makris “interrupted her, raised
his voice, and continued to yell
at her,” the lawsuit states.
“This incident occurred in
front of other employees in
the Marketing Department.
When Mr. Makris left, several
employees approached (Delp-
erdang) and asked if she was
okay. (She) was shocked and
felt humiliated and unsafe,”
the lawsuit states.
In May 2020, Hydro Flask
employee Mitch Loge filed
a complaint with human re-
sources officials alleging he
was retaliated against. In his
report, Loge stated he wit-
nessed Makris and Alberg
treat Delperdang unfairly.
“Mr. Loge informed HR
that it was well known within
the Marketing Department
that Mr. Makris consistently
harassed and treated Plaintiff
unfairly,” the lawsuit states.
Delperdang states she was
subject to unfair scrutiny and
receiving “needs improve-
ment” in her performance re-
views despite hitting “every”
performance metric.
In 2020, she was placed on
a performance improvement
plan twice. She told the hu-
man resources director she
was being asked to do the jobs
of three employees and was
being set up to fail. She was
terminated Nov. 3, 2020.
Founded around 2008 by
Travis Rosbach and Cindy
Morse , Hydro Flask’s sales
skyrocketed around 2016, the
same year it was sold to global
consumer goods company
Helen of Troy.
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“Let Betsy be Betsy. Let me get out and connect with regular
people who are sick and tired of the status quo.”
— Betsy Johnson, running for governor of Oregon
Submitted photo
ination since announcing
her candidacy in September.
Democrats have been plan-
ning a counterattack on John-
son since well before Kotek’s
primary victory on Tuesday.
‘Let Betsy be Betsy’
Oregonians for Ethics, a po-
litical action committee that
registered with the Secretary
of State’s Office in early Feb-
ruary, has raised $195,000
to highlight Johnson’s votes
against Democratic initiatives.
The largest contributor has
been the Democratic Gover-
nor’s Conference, with a total
of $65,000.
Drazan has chafed at sug-
gestions that if Johnson makes
the ballot, the Republican can-
didate could be nothing better
than a spoiler for a Johnson
victory over Kotek.
In April, Drazan told Wil-
lamette Week that Johnson’s
break with the Democratic
Party was an opportunistic
move to take advantage of the
first election in which a gover-
nor or ex-governor wasn’t on
the ballot since 2002.
“She could have been help-
ing recruit and elect moderate
Democrats all these years,”
Drazan said.
Johnson says she won’t re-
vise her politics to try to si-
phon more votes away from
Kotek or Drazan.
“Let Betsy be Betsy,” John-
son said. “Let me get out and
connect with regular people
who are sick and tired of the
status quo.”
Drazan will be the only can-
didate who is against abortion
rights running for governor.
That could cap Johnson’s ap-
peal to a large percentage of
Republicans.
The abortion issue could
loom even larger due to a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that
could strike down the land-
mark Roe v. Wade ruling.
Johnson said her position is
“not negotiable.”
“I am unapologetically pro-
choice,” she said. “I disagree
with everything that Tina
Kotek stands for except when
it comes to a woman’s right to
choose.”
Johnson said that the much
discussed urban-rural di-
vide is a problem for Demo-
crats, whose center of political
power is Portland.
Johnson is critical of Port-
land Mayor Ted Wheeler and
what she sees as local officials
allowing sometimes violent
demonstrations and sprawl-
ing populations of homeless
to chase away businesses and
visitors.
But she sees the popular Re-
publican route of campaigning
against Portland as misguided.
As the state’s largest city
and business hub, the city au-
tomatically has a huge — at
times overwhelming — im-
pact on state politics.
“You can’t have Oregon
without Portland,” Johnson
said. “It’s our metropolitan
area.”
While Democrats dominate
in Portland and much of the
Willamette Valley, Republi-
can political leaders have of-
ten been drawn from Eastern,
Central and southwestern Or-
egon. Drazan, from Canby in
Clackamas County, close to
Portland, was an exception.
Johnson noted she grew up
in Central Oregon and has
represented districts first in
the southern coast around
Bandon, then one on the far
northwest of the state. Her avi-
ation business took her to all
corners of Oregon, with fre-
quent stops in Portland.
Johnson said that makes
her a unique candidate — not
bound by one spot on the state
map for political support. She
hopes her campaign appeals
to voters in between the polit-
ical norms in Salem — which
she sees as political extremes.
“Rural or anyone who feels
disrespected and ignored,”
Johnson said. “My loyalty will
only be to the people of Ore-
gon.”
█
gwarner@eomediagroup.com