March 10, 2010

County races take shape

By Rodger Nichols
The Chronicle

     It will be a busy ballot for Wasco County voters in the May primary elections this year. Both incumbent Wasco County commissioners will face challengers in their own parties, and there are eight candidates for five positions on the board of a new Mosier fire district that could be created by voters on the same ballot.
     Scott Hege, who was Port of The Dalles’ executive director for 14 years, will challenge incumbent commissioner Dan Ericksen for the Republican nomination for position No. 1 on the commission.
     No Democrat filed for position No. 1, but Democrat Bill Lennox, the incumbent in position No. 3, will be challenged by Scott Dixon, owner of the Ninth Street Sugar Bowl, and former utility supervisor for the City of The Dalles.
     Two candidates will vie for the Republican nomination for position No. 3 on the county board of commissioners: Rod Runyon, Port of The Dalles commission, retired insurance agent and broadcaster, and Georgia Murray, real estate broker and member of the Home Rule Charter Committee.
     Mosier voters will have plenty of choices for fire district board, should they decide to form a new combined Mosier Fire District.
     Candidates who filed for the five positions are:
• Nigel M. Langland, emergency room physician
• Glenn Bartholomew, vineyard owner
• LeeRoy Herman, retired Darigold Farms employee
• Ken Hudson, cherry orchardist
• Darrin Molesworth, orchardist
• James Matthisen, actuary and winemaker
• Branford Thiel, public finance underwriter
• Craig Funk, EMT and former fire battalion chief for the City of Portland
     Those positions would have significance only if voters in Mosier and the surrounding area pass two ballot measures. The first would dissolve the Mosier Rural Fire District and the second would combine the Mosier Rural and City of Mosier fire departments to form a new combined Mosier Fire District.
     Wasco County voters will also vote on whether to change to a home rule county. If a proposed county charter is adopted, it would change a number of county offices from elected to appointed positions, including county clerk, assessor, surveyor and treasurer.
     It would also expand the number of commissioners from three to five, with four of them elected from geographic districts, and the fifth at large. Day to day functions of the county would be turned over to a paid administrator, and commissioners would receive a stipend rather than a salary.
     All four judge positions in Oregon’s Seventh Judicial District, which covers those five counties, will be up for election. Incumbent judges John Kelly (Position No. 2) and Bernard Smith (Position No. 4) have indicated they will not file for re-election, while judges Paul Crowley (Position No. 3) and Donald Hull (Position No. 1) plan to run again.
     Attorneys Tom Peachey and Janet Stauffer have both filed for Position No. 2, and attorney John Wolf has filed for Position No. 4.
     Though the filing deadline for offices ended Tuesday at 5 p.m., ballot measures and tax measures have until March 18. Wasco County commissioners were scheduled to meet today on a request from Home at Last animal shelter for a three-year serial levy to cover a funding shortfall.
      Sherman County voters have one partisan office on the ballot, a county commissioner position currently held by Republican Steve Burnet. He has filed for re-nomination, but three other Republicans have also filed to challenge Burnet in the primary: Ruth Bourgeois, Donald Richeldurfer and Ken DeGrange. According to the Sherman County clerk’s office, candidates have until five p.m. Friday to withdraw, and the three challengers are said to be conferring about that possibility
     Incumbents Wade McLeod and Marnene Benson-Wood, respectively, were the lone filers for district attorney and treasurer. Not facing primary opposition, they will not appear on the primary ballot, but will appear in November.