By Jean Cowan
You may have noticed the proliferation of political news and advertising telling us that it is election season once again! The 2022 General Election will be November 8, but your ballot should arrive in your personal mailboxes about three weeks prior to that date. (The last date to register to vote in Oregon is October 18.) In keeping with our commitment to voter education, the Lincoln County League of Women Voters will host at least one forum for local candidates in the evening of October 20. (Note that this date may change based on candidate availability.) That event will replace our regular October membership meeting. Whether we will be in-person or virtual is still under discussion. We will focus on the candidates for State Representative House District 10, County Commissioner Position 1 and, hopefully, some of the mayoral and city council races. If there is specific local interest, we may schedule additional forums in the communities where there are the most contested races.
The HD 10 State Representative race features Celeste McEntee (R), challenging the incumbent, David Gomberg (D). For the Board of County Commissioners, Katey Jacobson successfully held the Position 3 seat by gaining the majority vote in the Primary Election. However, Position 1 will be decided by a runoff election in November and features Casey Miller and Carter McEntee, in this non-partisan race.
Additionally, Amy Southwell is unopposed for the County Clerk position and will succeed retiring Clerk Dana Jenkins. Jayne Welch is also unopposed to continue as County Treasurer. Both individuals will be invited to our forum to introduce themselves and tell us a little bit about their respective jobs.
The League will seek to discover the level of interest from municipal candidates before we determine whether additional forums should be scheduled. The filings for municipal races have just been listed with the County Elections office. They include:
Depoe Bay: Jerome Grant and Kathy Short are seeking the mayoral seat, while two of the three open council positions have only one individual in each, Rick Beasley, position 4 and Fran Recht, position 6. No candidate is listed for Position 5.
Lincoln City has three contested races – Susan Wahlke and Riley Hoagland for Mayor, Sydney Kasner and Carolyn Nguyen, seeking Ward II, and Rick Mark and Mellissa Sumner running for Ward III. Mitch Parsons is unopposed for Ward I.
Newport has no contested races; running unopposed for Mayor is Dean Sawyer, and Jan Kaplan, Ryan Parker, and CM Hall seek to continue in the three at-large council positions.
Siletz also will see no contested races. William Worman has filed for Mayor, Tina Retasket for Council Position 1 and Jasmine Whitehead for Position 4.
Toledo will have the Mayor and three Council Member positions on the November ballot. At press time, Candidate names were not available.
Waldport will experience contests in both the mayoral race and for three city council positions. Michael Gatens and Greg Holland are running for Mayor. Seeking to fill three at-large council positions are Michael Flaming, Michelle Severson, Rick Booth, Sue Woodruff, and Jerry Townsend. Melaia McKenley Kilduff is also running for an unexpired term in a separate at-large position.
Yachats Mayoral seat is sought by Ann Stott and Craig Berdie. Seeking the two positions for at-large seats are Mary Ellen O’Shaughnessey, Anthony Muirhead and Catherine Ann Whitten-Carey.