SEASIDESIGNAL.COM • COMPLIMENTARY COPY
OUR 110th YEAR • December 9, 2016
Dorchester
surprises
Seaside
with move
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GOP gathering heads to Salem
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
The Dorchester Conference, a perennial
gathering of Republicans at the Seaside Civic
and Convention Center, is splitting up with an
old friend.
The conference, which has drawn U.S.
presidents and national and state politi-
cal leaders to Seaside for the past 46 years,
booked the spring conference at the Salem
Convention Center. The conference features
“a new look, new direction and new location”
in promotion for the March event.
Access to legislators at the state capital,
a search for a more centralized location, di-
visions within the membership and program
changes were among reasons for the reloca-
tion, said Tom Simpson, Dorchester’s imme-
diate past p resident .
“This was not a decision we made lightly,”
Simpson said. “We looked not only at the last
couple of years, we looked at where things
are going in Oregon and the population as
a whole. We needed to make a fundamental
shift.”
Jaime Daniels and
Katie Bulletset de-
signed “Where There’s
Smoke, There’s Fire”
for Providence Seaside
Hospital Foundation’s
Festival of Trees.
Founded by Packwood
The conference was founded in 1965
by Bob Packwood, the future U.S. senator.
Their fi rst meeting at the Dorchester House
in Lincoln City brought 200 Republicans and
launched what is today the nation’s oldest po-
litical conference.
The event moved to Seaside in 1970 and
has been a feature of the community since.
While the conference is not formally affi liated
with the GOP, the guest list is a Who’s Who of
the Republican P arty: George H. Bush, Ron-
ald Reagan, Nelson Rockefeller, Karl Rove
and Jack Kemp, along with every Oregonian
of note from the last half-century.
Simpson described the Dorchester Con-
ference as “center-right” on the political spec-
trum.
This year’s conference featured Fox News
contributor Tucker Carlson as keynote speak-
er and state candidates, including members of
the Independent Party of Oregon.
The bruising November election drove
an ideological wedge among membership,
which in a presidential straw poll strongly re-
jected the candidacy of Donald Trump.
In the aftermath of the election, the
Dorchester Conference has seen a “small but
signifi cant” drop in membership, both from
the left and the right.
“I know a number of lifelong Republicans
who have walked away from the party be-
cause of this last election,” Simpson said.
On the right, the Oregon Liberty Alliance
describes itself as “a coalition of organiza-
tions that share a common mission to support
Oregon candidates that uphold conservative
values and protect our freedoms.”
“The social conservatives have a new
place to go,” Simpson said. “I know they were
upset with how Dorchester dealt with social
issues. That’s OK — it’s a free marketplace.”
Access to Republican leadership in Sa-
lem provides another incentive for the move,
Simpson said, with opportunities for “more
face time” with elected offi cials .
Seaside is just too far for many conference
attendees, Simpson added, many of whom
live in the eastern part of the state.
EDWARD STRATTON/EO MEDIA GROUP
Festival of Trees rocks around the Christmas tree
By R.J. Marx
Seaside Signal
T
his year’s Providence Seaside Festival of Trees broke
all records for attendance and giving. More than 1,500
people came to the daytime community event between
10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 312 guests at the evening gala
pledged more than $160,000, far surpassing the goal of
$138,000. ¶ The numbers “blew all records out of the wa-
ter,” Executive Director Kimberly Ward of the Providence
Seaside Hospital Foundation said. The evening’s special
appeal to fi ght cancer raised $52,000, more than double last
year’s appeal amount.
See Trees, Page 9A
JEFF TER HAR/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
Haley Hadduck reads to kids at the Festival of Trees
community event.
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See Dorchester, Page 8A
Seaside artist
Thriller nears fi nish line
raises eyebrows
By Eve Marx
For Seaside Signal
Display, inspired by
Trump’s election, spurs
concerns
By Lyra Fontaine
EO Media Group
The painting in the win-
dow of T. Anjuli Salon and
Gallery features a nude
woman with her legs open.
Artist Billy Lutz’s “Rape
of Mother Earth” portrays
the sun, mountains, trees
and waters, along with in-
digenous people and “force
rings” that represent “all that
exists which is unseen.”
The display, inspired by
Republican businessman
Donald Trump’s election as
president, has drawn com-
plaints from some because of
the graphic images.
Allegorical fi gures —
women pregnant or breast-
feeding — depict the earth’s
fertility. A graph pattern
representing the rationality
of capitalism is encroaching
upon the wildlife and “cap-
turing nature.” On the graph,
Lutz painted fi gures wield-
ing weapons and a cross, a
criticism of what he called
“corporate Christianity.”
See Paintings, Page 8A
Seaside’s turn on the big
screen comes closer as crew
members put fi nishing touch-
es on “Seaside,” the movie,
which was shot in April
“We are almost fi nished,”
director Sam Zalutsky said,
speaking from his home in
New York City. Post-produc-
tion — including color cor-
rection, sound edit and sound
design are expected to reach
completion in about a month.
“The movie is a love letter to
my home state,” he said.
Zalutsky said he was drawn
to do a fi lm about Seaside after
spending so much time here as
a youth.
“My parents have a home in
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Matt Shingledecker and Ariana DeBose at Funland in the
movie “Seaside.”
Arch Cape and I’ve spent a lot
of time there,” Zalutsky said.
“The Oregon coast land-
scape has so seldom been caught
on fi lm,” he added. “I knew I
could do a visually dynamic
fi lm, and of course I had use of
my parents’ beach house not just
as a location, but as a place to
live during the shooting.”
See Movie, Page 8A