PENDLETON ROUNDUP MAGAZINE | INSIDE
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
154th Year • No. 36 • 16 Pages • $1.50
MyEagleNews.com
Oregon Capital Bureau
Candidates for governor: Republican Christine Drazan, left, Democrat Tina Kotek and non-affi l-
iated Betsy Johnson.
Contributed Photo/Cycle Oregon
Cycle Oregon is coming to Grant and Wheel-
er counties Sept. 10-17.
Cycle Oregon
rolling into
Grant County
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Around 1,000 cyclists are
preparing to descend on Grant and Wheeler
counties for a weeklong ride that will start
and end in John Day while passing through
Monument, Fossil, Mitchell and Dayville.
Riders will arrive in John Day on Satur-
day, Sept. 10, and spend the night in town
before starting their ride on Sunday. Setup
crews for the event will arrive in town on
Wednesday, Sept. 7.
Also coming with the riders will be an
array of services and support personnel for
event participants, including a beer tent,
food trucks, a coff ee wagon, showers, bike
technicians, live music and even a massage
service.
The length of the ride will vary, with rid-
ers having the choice of a short route of 272
miles with no ride day options, an alternate
paved route of 352 miles and a route with
all optional routes (including traveling on
gravel) that is 443 miles. The longest trek of
the event will be a more than 70-mile ride
from Mitchell to Dayville on the event’s
sixth day.
The appearance of Cycle Oregon in
Grant County provides opportunities
for local organizations to raise money
through signing up for paid tasks like
serving dinner and manning rest stops
for the riders. Tammy Bremner of the
Grant County Chamber of Commerce
said people are still needed to serve din-
ner to the riders on Friday, Sept. 16, in
John Day.
A historic race
Q&A with Oregon’s three leading candidates for governor
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
Editor’s note: See the full version of this
Q&A on our website at MyEagleNews.com
O
n Nov. 8, Oregonians will elect a
new governor.
Several factors make this
race unique and explain why it’s
garnering national attention.
First, many Oregonians are disenchanted
with the state’s current leadership. Outgoing
Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, is America’s
least popular governor, according to a 2022
poll from the data fi rm Morning Consult.
The race is also capturing national inter-
est because it’s a tight contest. Sabato’s Crys-
tal Ball at the University of Virginia Center
for Politics, a nonpartisan newsletter with
a high rate of accuracy in predicting elec-
tion results, labeled Oregon’s outcome as a
“toss-up.”
Oregon is hosting an unusual race led by
a trio of women who are all recent mem-
bers of the state Legislature: former state
House Speaker Tina Kotek, running as a
Democrat; former House Minority Leader
Christine Drazan, running as a Republican;
and former state Sen. Betsy Johnson, run-
ning as unaffi liated, formerly a moderate
Democrat.
If Kotek wins, she will be America’s fi rst
out lesbian governor. If Drazan wins, she
will be the fi rst Republican to win an Ore-
gon gubernatorial race since 1982. If John-
son wins, she will be the fi rst independent
governor to win since 1930.
The Capital Press sat down with each
of the candidates to talk about issues that
matter to rural Oregonians. Each candidate
answered the same set of questions.
The candidates’ answers have been
shortened for readability. Words in paren-
thesis are written by the Capital Press to add
context and clarity. Follow-up questions are
indicated in italics.
Capital Press: If you are elected,
how do you plan to bridge the
political divide between Oregon’s
urban and rural communities?
Johnson: “Well, show up is the fi rst one.
We’ve just come back from a trip to Eastern
Oregon. I think being there is important and
understanding that whether you’re making
silicon chips, or wood chips, or potato chips
out in Boardman, or fi sh and chips in Asto-
ria, that we have throughout Oregon dif-
ferent micro-economies, and the governor
needs to understand that.”
See Q&A, Page A16
123RF
The Oregon Capitol
See Cycle, Page A16
Elections take shape for Grant County voters
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
GRANT COUNTY — Local and
statewide elections are starting to come
into focus roughly two months out from
the November midterms.
Here in Grant County, voters will
elect numerous city councilors, mayors
and conservation district board members.
They will also decide a hotly debated pool
bond measure.
In John Day, fi ve people are running
for three available city council seats, and
there are contested mayoral races in John
Day, Prairie City and Granite.
Grant County Clerk Brenda Percy is
running unopposed for reelection.
Statewide, Oregonians will elect a
new governor following the end of Kate
Brown’s two-term limit. Democratic
Sen. Ron Wyden is running for election
to his fi fth term in the U.S. Senate, facing
a challenge from Republican nominee Jo
Rae Perkins.
In the Oregon Legislature, all 60 seats
in the House of Representatives will be up
for election in November, along with half
of the 30 Senate seats.
Four statewide ballot measures will go
before the voters in November as well.
Measure 111 is a proposed amend-
ment to the Oregon Constitution that
would ensure every resident of Oregon
has access to cost-eff ective and clinically
appropriate health care as a fundamental
right.
Measure 112 would repeal language
that allows slavery or involuntary servi-
tude as punishments and would autho-
rize a court, probation or parole agency to
order alternatives to incarceration for con-
victed individuals.
Measure 113 would exclude state
legislators from seeking re-election if
they had unexcused absences from leg-
islative sessions.
Finally, Measure 114 would outline a
procedure to apply for a permit to pur-
chase a fi rearm and would ban maga-
zines that hold more than 10 rounds of
ammunition.
Locally, the most well-known and
divisive ballot measure before the vot-
ers this November is the John Day/Can-
yon City Parks & Recreation District
pool bond. The $4 million bond mea-
sure failed in May with a count of 802-
802 and was recently put back on the
November ballot following a push by a
local pro-pool political action committee.
Another pair of county ballot mea-
sures will let voters decide whether to
allow medical use of psilocybin mush-
rooms within the unincorporated county.
A separate vote on medical psilocybin
mushrooms will also be on the ballot in
Prairie City.
A LOOK AT COUNTY RACES
John Day:
Mayor; two-year term:
Mayor; two-year term:
Mayor; two-year term:
David Mosteit
Georgia Patterson
Ron Lundbom
Sandra Smith
Scott Offi cer
Heather Rookstool
Dorothy Jewell
City council; three open-
ings, four-year term:
Long Creek:
City council; three open-
ings, four-year term:
Shannon Adair
Don Porter
Richard “Richie” Colbeth
Ron Phillps
City council; two openings,
four-year term:
Katrina Randleas
Position 3: Brent Near
Sherrie Rininger
Position 4: Denise Porter
Canyon City:
Monument:
City council; three open-
ings, four-year term:
City council; three posi-
tions open, four-year term:
Jim Johnston
Position 4: Kegan Forrester
Les Percy
Dayville:
Position 5: Sherry Car-
penter
Mayor; two-year term:
Position 6: Ron Ford
Valli Hettinga
Mount Vernon:
City council; three open-
ings, four-year term:
Mayor; two-year term:
Position 2: David P. Billar
City council; two openings,
four-year term:
Position 3: Robert Walten-
berg
Mayor; two-year term:
Kenny Delano
Lori Kerr
Chase McClung
Seneca:
City council; one opening,
four-year term:
Barbara Northington
Grant County Soil and
Water District:
Zone 1; one opening, four-
year term:
At large Position 2; one
opening, four-year term:
Roger Ediger
Monument Soil and
Water District:
Zone 1; one opening, four-
year term:
No candidate fi led
Zone 3; one opening, four-
year term:
Lisa Atkin
Position 4: Ilah Bennett
Justin Deming
At large Position 2; one
opening, four-year term:
Granite:
Prairie City:
No candidate fi led