ELECTIONS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
A7
Lineups for primaries are set
SALEM — Oregon’s polit-
ical merry-go-round spun ever
faster Wednesday, March 9,
as the lineup of 2022 candi-
dates rolled out and the chair of
the Oregon Republican Party
resigned with a torrid denounce-
ment that “communist psycho-
logical warfare tactics are being
used daily within the party.”
When the 5 p.m. filing dead-
line passed on March 8, 390
people had filed to run for an
array of offices on the May 17
primary ballots, along with 29
who have signed up for the gen-
eral election on Nov. 8.
{span}“For those of you
who are first-time candidates,
you are about to embark on
the strangest job interview you
have ever had,” Secretary of
State Shemia Fagan said Tues-
day night as the window to run
in May closed. {/span}
The list included a platoon
of 41 candidates for governor,
inspired by an election which
won’t feature a current or for-
mer governor on the ballot for
the first time since 2002. Gov.
Kate Brown was barred from
running by term limits.
No major new candidates
filed in the final hours, with
former House Speaker Tina
Kotek of Portland and Trea-
surer Tobias Read the headliners
among Democrats. Republicans
include former House Minority
Leader Christine Drazan of
Canby, 2016 governor nominee
Bud Pierce of Salem, 1998 gov-
ernor nominee Bill Sizemore
of Redmond and Sandy Mayor
Stan Pulliam. All seek to get a
shot at becoming the first GOP
winner for the top job since Vic
Atiyeh in 1982.
Former Sen. Betsy John-
son, D-Scappoose, who grew
up in Bend and Redmond, plans
to bypass the primaries to run
Court
Continued from Page A1
After John Day disbanded its
police department in October, the
job of enforcing the law within
the city limits fell to the Grant
County Sheriff’s Office, which
has four patrol deputies to cover
the entire county.
On many occasions, Sher-
iff Todd McKinley has said he
needs additional deputies to pro-
vide adequate coverage. How-
ever, the Grant County Court and
John Day City Council have yet
to settle on the terms of a funding
agreement.
Rowell, along with Palmer,
has met to discuss the issue infor-
mally with McKinley and City
Councilors Gregg Haberly and
Heather Rookstool.
Rowell said the county needs
to move past “particular issues”
with John Day and work to fund
law enforcement in an efficient
and economically sound way.
Rowell concedes that the
“how” is a big question with no
easy answers.
Rowell said the county needs
to get options on the table for all
of the cities in the county to mull
over.
“That’s the only way I know
how to go about it,” Rowell said.
“Because it appears that there’s a
stalemate between the city (John
Day) and the county right now.”
Rowell said that those in
smaller communities such as
Dayville may not be able to
afford to pay for coverage like
the more populated cities. The
point, he said, is to bring people
in from those communities to
find out what they want.
“We need to get the alterna-
tives on the table and find out
what we can,” Rowell said. “If it
is going out for a bond levy, then
maybe that’s what we have to do.
But I’d like to hear the input from
everybody on this point.”
Beyond the policing debate,
Rowell said he would like to
make information about projects,
grants and other county activities
more easily accessible for con-
stituents. He said the county is
already posting that information,
but it’s not always easy to find or
understand.
Rowell said he would espe-
cially like to see information on
the county’s website about its
grants from the state and fed-
eral government. For exam-
ple, how many grants does the
county have, what is the status of
each grant and what is the grant
amount?
“Grants come from the
as an unaffiliated candidate in
November.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Or-
egon, will seek another six-year
term. He faces two Democrats
in the May primary and if he
wins in May, the victor among
seven Republicans.
GOP leader makes bitter
exit
The intra-party battles of the
primaries were jump-started by
the sudden, angry resignation of
Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg,
as chair of the Oregon Repub-
lican Party with a long tirade
against internal GOP enemies
he said had “broken my spirit.”
“My physical and spiritual
health can no longer survive
exposure to the toxicity that can
be found in this community,”
Heard said in a statement. “We
truly have an equal if not greater
evil than the Democrats walking
among us. Communist psycho-
logical warfare tactics are being
used daily within the party. ”
}Heard will retain his seat in
the Senate, where he has been
removed from the floor of the
Senate during sessions in 2021
and 2022 for refusing to wear
a mask as required under the
state’s COVID-19 emergency
rules.
GOP state Vice Chair Her-
man Baertschiger, a Josephine
County commissioner and for-
mer leader of the Senate Repub-
lican Caucus, said he will fill in
until a new election for chair is
organized. Sen. Dennis Linthi-
cum, R-Klamath Falls, a Heard
ally, remains party treasurer.
Late out and ins
Was in, now out: Rep. Bar-
bara Smith Warner, D-Portland,
let the deadline pass without fil-
ing for re-election. Two Dem-
ocratic insiders jumped into
the race in the final 30 hours.
Smith Warner sent an email on
Monday afternoon to “constit-
High God,” he said. “I just feel
that we’re driving inflation.
We’re driving everything with
money that we don’t have, is my
opinion.”
He said the federal and state
governments distribute the
money for the grants, and that
money comes with restrictions
on how it can be spent. Then, he
said, the county issues the money
with strings attached.
“My opinion is that it’s the
people’s money and they can
dictate the behavior,” he said.
“They can dictate changes with
money.”
He said this became an issue
when he was required to wear a
mask during a County Court ses-
sion. Rowell said Grant County
Judge Scott Myers told him the
county could lose state and fed-
eral funding if it were to flout
pandemic protocols such as
masking mandates.
“That should be the county’s
decision,” he said, “not a state
decision. I’m a more of a home
rule kind of guy.”
Rowell said he wants to push
these issues with representatives
at the state and federal levels.
“That’s one of the issues I
have. What can I do about it?
I’ve got to live with it,” he said.
“But I can push it upstream.”
Scott Knepper
Scott Knepper, a Prairie City
resident who said he has had ties
to Grant County since 1968, is a
retired postal employee who now
works as a substitute teacher.
Knepper said he had been wait-
ing for the right opportunity to
run for a seat on the court for a
decade. He said now was the
right time, with no incumbent in
the race.
According to Knepper, popu-
lation decline is one of the most
significant issues Grant County
faces.
Pamplin Media Group, File
The candidate field for the May 17 primary election for state and
federal offices in Oregon is set after the March 8 filing deadline.
uents” saying she wouldn’t be
running, according to a report
in Willamette Week. No public
announcement was made before
the window to run in the pri-
mary for the heavily Democratic
district was closed.
Was out, now in: Former
Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, filed
March 8 — the last day — to
run for the nonpartisan com-
missioner of the Bureau of
Labor and Industries job. It’s
one of the four executive posi-
tions in Oregon government,
along with governor, secre-
tary of state, and treasurer.
Helt faces six other candidates
including Yamhill County
Commissioner Casey Kulla
and Portland attorney Christina
Stephenson, who has won early
labor union support.
Out, move, in: Rep.
Brad Witt, D-Clatskanie, had
announced he wouldn’t seek
re-election to his seat in House
District 31, in the northwest of
the state. He noted the increased
percentage of Republicans within
the boundaries following redis-
tricting for the 2022 election.
Witt made a surprise move
March 7, announcing he would
try to stay in the House, mov-
ing to Salem and running for
the open House District 19 seat
being vacated by Rep. Raquel
“The kids grow up here, and
there is no education here to
speak of past high school,” he
said. “And they go elsewhere
and they never come back, and
then there’s a drain on the com-
munity and all of the young peo-
ple leave.”
Additionally, Knepper points
out, the economy is dependent
primarily on federal agencies,
such as the Forest Service. He
said he wants to see the county
work more aggressively with
the federal government to bring
more jobs to the county. Knepper
said Palmer would be an excel-
lent liaison to the federal gov-
ernment if he is elected to the
Senate.
Knepper said he pledges to
have at least one community
meeting in each city in Grant
County every year to get smaller
communities involved in county
issues.
Knepper said people are
inherently more concerned about
their “own backyard.”
He pointed out that Grant
County is five times the size
of Rhode Island with a lot of
unpopulated space between cit-
ies, and he wants to try to bring
people together.
A routine background inves-
tigation revealed that Knepper
has had two convictions for driv-
ing under the influence of intox-
icants. Both were in Multnomah
County, one in 1992 and the
other in 2006.
Knepper noted that both con-
victions were from many years
ago and said he didn’t think
they would prevent him from
doing a good job as a county
commissioner.
candidates in the GOP primary.
Most of the money and
attention have been going to two
well-financed candidates from
opposite ends of the district.
Former Happy Valley Mayor
Lori Chavez-DeRemer lives
near the northeast most end of
the district, while Bend busi-
nessman Jimmy Crumpacker is
at the southeastern end in Bend,
where he made an unsuccess-
ful 2020 bid for the 2nd Con-
gressional District seat. Both are
aligned with supporters of for-
mer President Donald Trump.
One factor likely to come up
in several of the congressional
races is residency. Unlike leg-
islative seats, candidates for the
U.S. House do not have to live
in the district where they are
running, just the state.
Some candidates in the 6th
district race are from the Port-
land area, while DeRemer
and McLeod-Skinner live just
beyond the boundaries of the
5th District.
Will it matter? It’s a question
of whether the official OK from
the U.S. Constitution translates
clearly during the bare-knuckle
fights of the primaries.
Candidates for state offices
who plan to raise and spend
money must take a separate step
to create or revise a campaign
finance committee with the sec-
retary of state.
Candidates for the U.S. Sen-
ate and U.S. House races must
file with the Federal Elections
Commission, which has differ-
ent rules and limits than Ore-
gon’s nearly “everything goes”
campaign financing.
One is the loneliest
number — unless it is you
Oregon now has six con-
gressional seats, one more than
the previous decade, awarded to
the state for population growth.
There will be at least one new
member of Congress represent-
ing the new 6th Congressio-
nal District around the Salem
area. Three House members
are among the nine Democrats
and seven Republicans trying to
jump from Salem to Washing-
ton, D.C.
Of the five other races, the
main attraction so far has been
the 5th Congressional Dis-
trict, which now stretches from
Portland, over the Cascades, to
Bend. Several forecasters have
said it’s the race with the most
near-even split among Demo-
cratic and Republican leaning
voters. Both party’s primaries
are shaping up into slugfests.
U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader,
D-Canby, is the official incum-
bent in the much realigned dis-
trict. Former congressional and
secretary of state candidate
Jamie McLeod-Skinner has
attracted progressives to her bid
to oust Schrader in May.
The winner will move onto
the general election among five
The list of candidates could
shift somewhat in coming days.
The Elections Division of the
Secretary of State’s Office will
review all filings and could also
disqualify candidates who filed
for offices who falsify names
or other information. They can
also be removed for failing to
meet residency, age and other
requirements. Candidates who
filed have until Friday to with-
draw from a race.
While the filing list is the
total of those who signed up
to run, a better indicator of the
level of competition can be
found at the campaign financ-
ing web pages of the Secretary
of State’s Office.
Late redistricting and incum-
bent uncertainties have led to
some bald spots on the ballot.
A preliminary analysis of the
filings by John Horvick, politi-
cal director of DHM Research
in Portland, showed nine House
districts had only one party’s
candidate filed to run.
Rep. Boomer Wright,
R-Reedsport, is running unop-
posed in House District 9, where
Horvich calculated the 29%
of voters who are registered
Republicans will decide the
area’s lone candidate to move
on to the general election.
Only one senator gets a solo,
Horvick reported.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eu-
gene, has no primary or general
election opponent in Senate Dis-
trict 4. The 36% of voters who
are registered Democrats are
eligible to vote in the May 17
primary.
Democrats currently hold
a 37-22 majority in the House,
where all 60 seats are on the
ballot.
Democrats hold 18 Senate
seats. All 12 of the other sen-
ators were elected as Republi-
cans, but only 10 now officially
belong to the GOP caucus.
Normally, half the 30 Sen-
ate seats would be up for a four-
year term, but resignations and
appointments have jumped the
number to 16 this year.
served a term as Grant County
judge. Webb said he decided to
throw his hat in the ring for a
commissioner’s seat after the fil-
ing deadline when he announced
Monday, March 14, his intention
to run as a write-in candidate.
Webb said several factors
prompted him to jump into the
race. First, he said that elected
officials at the county level have
significant opportunities to advo-
cate for the county if they work
with federal and state partners.
The County Court’s work
with the Blue Mountains Inter-
governmental Council has been
a good start, he said.
The BIC, which came
together after the Forest Ser-
vice scrapped its draft land man-
agement plan for several East-
ern Oregon national forests after
more than a decade of working
through revisions, recently com-
pleted its recommendation for
desired conditions on the forests.
However, Webb said, Grant
County is further along in the
process than other Eastern Ore-
gon counties and needs to start
working with Forest Service offi-
cials on the management plan for
the Malheur National Forest.
Instead of waiting for other
counties to get on board, Webb
said, the county needs to invest
in its own needs. Those needs,
according to Webb, are ensur-
ing stability for natural resource
jobs on the forest and ensur-
ing the forest’s environmental
sustainability.
Getting there, Webb said, is
going to entail working with the
Forest Service to draft the new
forest management plan.
With the annual volume of
commercial logging on the Mal-
heur National Forest dipping
from 75 million board feet to 55
million board feet under the new
stewardship contract that will be
awarded later this year, Webb
said the county should work to
increase the cut by addressing
the forest plan.
From his perspective, Webb
said, it makes more sense to
work with the Forest Service to
achieve a desired outcome than
to butt heads with the federal
agency.
“It’s not just about small gov-
ernment,” he said. “It’s about
responsible government.”
Moore-Green, R-Salem, who is
running for the Senate.
Capitol Hill hopes
Candidate cull coming
Mark Webb
Mark Webb, the executive
director of Blue Mountains For-
est Partners, is no stranger to
local politics, having previously
Serving Eastern Oregon since 1959!
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