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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 2018)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2018 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7 LOCAL NEWS Cost per vote in race? A cup of coffee Commissioner hopefuls spent about $2 per vote in May primary By PHIL WRIGHT STAFF WRITER The five candidates run- ning in the primary for Umatilla County commis- sioner seats spent about as much per vote cast as a cup of coffee. Tom Bailor, Rick Pullen and incumbent George Mur- dock ran for Position 1 and received a total of 11,469 votes, according to unoffi- cial elections results, while John Shafer and incum- bent Larry Givens received 11,555 votes combined in the Position 2 race. The five spent about $46,700 on their campaigns and received a total of 23,024 votes. That pencils out to a tick more than $2 per vote across the board, with more than three times as much spent in the two-way race as in the STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS Ballots await counting in Umatilla County. Campaign spending reports show some interesting numbers. . other. Bailor, Murdock, Givens and Shafer spent $45,399.80 collectively on their cam- paigns, according to ORE- STAR, the Oregon Secretary of State’s public website for campaign finance activity. Pullen said he spent about $1,300. Oregon election law requires political commit- tees to maintain records of all contributions and expen- ditures, but committees only file those transactions with ORESTAR if they expect to receive or spend more than $3,500 for a calendar year. “It all comes down to budgeting,” Pullen said. “We said we were going to stay under that threshold, and I think we did pretty well with that.” Pullen won 3,506 votes at a cost of about 37 cents each. Bailor’s 2,735 votes cost about 61 cents each. And Murdock’s 5,228 votes cost 96 cents apiece. Givens spent $16,881 and won 5,484 votes, so $3.08 per vote. Shafer, the mayor of Athena, spent $21,827 and won 6,071 votes, just shy of $3.60 per vote. Shafer won, and Mur- dock and Pullen will face- off in the November general election. Spending in the race for the open circuit court seat of the 6th Judicial District encompassing Umatilla and Morrow counties mirrored the toe-to-toe between Sha- fer and Givens. Michael Breiling received 4,907 votes and spent $20,685. That’s $4.22 per vote. Robert “Rob” Collins defeated Breiling, receiv- ing 7,593 votes. He spent $16,130, so $2.12 per vote. The campaigns for com- missioner and judge spent $11,827 with local news- papers for print and online advertising (The East Ore- gonian took in more than $6,500), and more than $11,930 for signs, but- tons and the like. But they pumped almost $20,500 into local radio stations. Breiling alone accounted for nearly $11,000 in broadcast advertising. Expenditures in ORE- STAR, however, do not account for where all cam- paign money goes. Charles Danforth of Milton-Freewa- ter gave $8,262 in-kind for radio ads to Shafer’s cam- paign. Likewise, Heidi Van Kirk gave $2,549 in-kind for online ads, signs and more to help the campaign of Breiling, her husband. Those are campaign contri- butions, not expenses, but the goal is the same: get votes. Debra Royal, chief of staff for Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, said the candidates input all their own financial information into ORESTAR, so any mis- takes are theirs. Commit- tees now have seven days to report expenses, she added, and late expenses could be coming in. The local cost per vote is about in line with the races for Oregon’s gubernatorial nominations. Gov. Kate Brown won the Democratic nomina- tion with 315,907 votes. Her expenditures were $699,082, so $2.21 per vote. Republican Greg Wool- dridge came in third in the primary with 60,524 votes. He reported expenditures of $285,679. That’s $4.72 per vote. Second place finisher Sam Carpenter received 87,938 votes and spent $331,395 for $3.77 per vote. Knute Buehler won the Republic nomination with 139,872 votes, and getting those cost him more than $2.6 million. That’s $18.90 per vote. Independent party can- didates Patrick Starnes and Skye Allen are on the other end of the cost spec- trum. Starnes finished with 5,842 votes while spending $3,675 for 63 cents a vote. Allen lost with 2,333 votes but spent just $219.40, so 9 cents per vote. But Starnes didn’t quite secure the nom- ination — there were 12,311 write-in votes on the ticket. Morrow County Com- missioner Don Russell found the best value in his re-election win. He reported miscellaneous cash expen- ditures of $95 and received 1,219 votes. Less than 8 cents each. Cook Security Group hiring for new Hermiston office By JADE MCDOWELL STAFF WRITER A security company that combats everything from trespassing to ATM fraud is looking for new technicians and new clients after open- ing an office in Hermiston. Cook Security Group, headquartered in the Port- land area, celebrated the opening of its Northeast Oregon office Wednesday, located at 1150 W. Hartley Ave., Suite E in Hermiston. The company provides an array of security measures such as high-tech video surveillance systems, bank vaults, access controls and alarms. Ian Schuchardt, general manager, said the company used to specialize mostly in protecting financial institu- tions but has been expand- ing into hospitals, schools, private companies, govern- ment institutions and data centers. Cook Security Group has developed the Suspi- cious Activity Notifica- tion system, for example, known as the SAN Solu- tion, to combat ATM fraud such as skimming and jackpotting. “Whenever there are new solutions from ven- dors, (criminals) seem to have a way to work around it,” Schuchardt said. “The SAN Solution covers a lot.” One of the most pop- ular ways criminals use ATMs for theft is a tech- nique known as skimming. The thieves hide a device on an unattended ATM machine or gas station pump that reads a person’s credit/debit card informa- tion at the same time as the machine, then stores that information for the thieves to use themselves or sell on the black market. In 2016 dozens of Hermiston resi- dents reported falling vic- tim to a skimming scheme. Another newer method is jackpotting, in which criminals install malware on the ATM and tell it to “test” the dispenser by dis- pensing cash over and over again. “They can clear out an ATM in less than an hour,” Schuchardt said. The security company can install a system on the ATM that combats fraud in a number of ways, such as cameras that sense when someone has been stand- ing in front of an ATM for an unusual amount of time, allowing Cook Security or the financial institution to shut down the machine remotely or notify police after reviewing the video. Craig Cook, vice pres- ident of operations, said the Cook Security Group has invested a lot in devel- opment of new technol- ogy and creative solu- tions in order to keep up with the constant stream of new methods criminals use. The company also pro- vides technology such as door access controls and surveillance for “high-se- curity environments where you want to regulate where everybody goes.” Glen Valiguette, an installation technician who was based in the Tri-Cit- ies before Cook opened the Hermiston office, said the local office will allow the company to serve more businesses and government institutions in what has been a growing market. “We finally got to the point where we needed an office, needed a base of operations here rather than our truck,” he said. For more informa- tion about Cook Security Group, visit www.cookse- curitygroup.com. ST GET INCREDIBLE MEMORIAL DAY SAVINGS NOW THROUGH MAY 31 on 13 select new toyota models! on approved credit. Offer expires 5/31/18. 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