Good Ole' Boys

This week has been quite revealing when it comes to the Douglas County Commissioner race.

We’ve had conflicting polls about the front-runners, one candidate drop out, and at least one sitting commissioner (so far) endorsing a candidate. That in itself is quite unusual; in fact the last time (if not the only time) I can remember that happening is when Doug Robertson endorsed Joyce Morgan for reelection when she was challenged by Marilyn Kittelman. That didn’t work out too well though because Marilyn defeated the 16 year incumbent in her own party!

I remember the big expensive print ads and mailers Doug bought including a picture of Joyce and him and the slogan; “Keep the Winning Team”. But our ads for Marilyn countered with; “Sometimes in order to keep the team winning, you need to trade players! “ The voters agreed and they did. Outspent almost three to one Marilyn went on to be elected Douglas County Commissioner.

Commissioner Chris Boice came out today with a full-on endorsement of local sporting goods store owner Tom Kress.

Boice is in his second term as commissioner, having run to fill the vacated seat of Doug Robertson who quit less than halfway into his 9th consecutive 4-year term as Douglas County Commissioner. Boice was only to have filled the remaining approximately 2 years of Robertson’s term, but somehow got legal counsel to make the case to let him have a full four year term. And now he’s decided who he’d like to have in the seat next to him on the board.

Tim Freeman, a former City Councilman in Roseburg, and former State Representative, this week was reported to have paid for a new political poll to see who was leading in the commissioner race. He said he didn’t “have a dog in the fight” but wanted to get a feel for how the race was doing in the event that he endorsed someone.

Also of note is that Freeman’s former campaign consultant Chuck Adams is the consultant for Kress. The poll, which was at odds with an earlier poll released by Alek Scarlartos’ campaign, shows Kress trailing Skarlatos by only one percentage point, while Skarlatos’ poll conducted by Remington research showed he led Kress by almost two to one. The Remington poll has Skarlatos at 35% and Kress at 16%.

Retired Army Aviation Logistician Dan Loomis, after returning from his European vacation, and finding he was trailing the two front runners by double digits, dropped out of the race unexpectedly on Sunday October 7, just a little more than two weeks before the ballots were to go out. Loomis gave the nod to Kress and said he hoped his supporters would follow his lead. Loomis will still be on the November ballot, although he has withdrawn.

Meanwhile the rest of the field, including democrat Jeremy Salter, are polling with single digits, most with less than 5%.  So this race for Douglas County Commissioner is clearly between Boice’s guy Kress and Alek Skarlatos.