With less than a week until the deadline to run for Bend City Council, 14 candidates have started the process of running for office.
At least five of them have qualified to make the November ballot. Others are still gathering the required 150 signatures they need, waiting for the Deschutes County Clerk’s office to verify those signatures or need to file their verified petitions with City Recorder Robyn Christie.
Candidate hopefuls still can start circulating petitions, but they need to turn in their final paperwork by Tuesday. County Clerk Nancy Blankenship said prospective candidates should get their petitions to her office well in advance so employees have time to verify signatures.
“Sometimes people do think they can wait until the 11th hour, and I hate to have people surprised by that,” Blankenship said.
Mayor
Eight people have picked up petitions to run for mayor, and three — City Councilors Sally Russell and Bill Moseley and security guard Charles Baer — have qualified for the ballot.
Russell, 60, was first elected to the City Council in 2012 and has served as mayor pro tem since her re-election in 2016.
She previously ran the now-defunct Cascade Festival of Music and the Cascade Cycling Classic. She lists improving street safety and transportation options, moving the city’s economy beyond tourism and seasonal jobs and making sure all Bend residents can afford housing among her priorities.
Moseley, 49, owns GL Solutions, a software company, and was first elected in 2016. He’s advocated for more spending on roads, including the council’s recent decision to spend tens of millions to extend Empire Avenue east to 27th Street and Murphy Road east to 15th Street. He also supports limiting spending on tourism, which he says exacerbates Bend’s problems with high housing costs and low wages.
Baer, 49, has previously run unsuccessfully for the City Council. This year, his priorities include banning cars downtown, making most land in a 20-mile radius of Pilot Butte a park and legalizing psilocybin mushrooms.
Four other candidates are still circulating petitions or haven’t yet filed their petitions.
Disability rights advocate Brian Douglass, 69, wants the city to improve its infrastructure, including the city’s 7 miles of unpaved travel lanes. He also opposes a proposed extended-stay hotel near St. Charles Bend and recently protested the addition of a crosswalk at the intersection of 27th Street and Conners Avenue.
Timothy Heckler, 33, holds certificates in culinary arts and nursing but is not currently employed. He is on supervised probation for methamphetamine possession through December 2019, and he said he’s running for mayor to “redefine what community really is.”
Richard Robertson, 43, who has Down syndrome, worked for more than two decades at Abilitree, a nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities live independently. He said fixing sidewalks so people can get around town safely is a priority.
Attorney Michael R. Hughes, 47, had picked up paperwork but was out of town for business and unavailable to speak this week. He describes himself on LinkedIn as a cannabis law attorney, farmer and author.
Photographer Joshua Langlais, 36, said he chose to run for mayor after attending a Chamber of Commerce debate between some candidates and thinking it was “politics as usual.” He said if elected he would focus on actively listening to residents, something he said he already does through a website where he posts portraits and interviews with people he meets.
Position 5
Three people intend to run for this position, now held by City Councilor Nathan Boddie. Boddie is now a Democratic candidate for the state House of Representatives, though former supporters have been pushing him to drop out of the race because of sexual misconduct allegations and his response to those allegations.
So far, only one of the three has finished filing. Gena Goodman-Campbell, 34, is the public lands coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association and ran a close, though ultimately unsuccessful, campaign against sitting state Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, in 2016.
Goodman-Campbell said she decided to run for City Council because of her conversations with voters in 2016, and finding more creative solutions to housing affordability is one of her top priorities.
Andrew Davis, director of student life at Central Oregon Community College, said he chose to run because he wanted to help facilitate conversations on the council. Davis, 34, said he wants to attract high-wage jobs to Bend.
Victor Johnson, 48, a preschool music teacher and musician, said he’s running to be an advocate for the music and arts community. One goal he has is to find funding to bring artists into schools to work with students.
Position 6
This position is now held by Mayor Casey Roats, who initially said he would run for re-election but announced last week that he will not seek another term because of unspecified health issues. Three people, including current City Councilor Barb Campbell, have announced that they’ll run for this seat.
Ron “Rondo” Boozell, a Navy veteran and frequent candidate for City Council, is the only person to finish filing so far. Boozell is running this year as a “progressive Republican,” and he said his No. 1 priority is to make sure Bend becomes a net-zero energy city, or produces as much renewable energy as it uses. He also wants to establish a winter cold shelter for homeless residents, something he pushed city councilors to do at every council meeting last winter.
Campbell, 54, has served on the City Council since 2015. She owns Wabi Sabi, a Japanese-themed downtown gift shop. In announcing her campaign, she said she wants to encourage different types of housing in Bend so working people can afford homes, ensure residents have a network of safe paths and sidewalks so they can walk or bike and minimize effects tourism has on congestion and city infrastructure.
Sarah McCormick, 32, is a stay-at-home mother who said she wants to make Bend a better place for her children and other children to grow up. That includes improving roads and supporting the city’s fire and police departments, she said.
A fourth person, Navy veteran Brian Hinderberger, 46, picked up paperwork but said he ultimately decided not to run and has stopped collecting signatures. Hinderberger, who now works in technical support, said he plans to run for office in the future.
— Reporter: 541-633-2160; jshumway@bendbulletin.com
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