August 22, 2007

Republicans narrow nominee choices to three
County commissioners will choose Monday who will be District 59 State Representative

By RODGER NICHOLS
of The Chronicle

     Republican PCPs (precinct committee people) from around House District 59 winnowed a crowded field of eight candidates down to three nominees Tuesday night in a lengthy nominating convention at the Wasco County Courthouse.      Former broadcaster John Huffman and attorney Meredith Van Valkenburgh, both of The Dalles, and financial consultant Mick Goss of Madras made it onto the short list of candidates.
     All were vying for appointment to the seat left vacant by the sudden resignation earlier this month by former Rep. John Dallum.
     Oregon law requires, when a sitting state legislator resigns, that the legislator’s party choose a list of three to five nominees. That becomes the candidate pool from which county commissioners of the counties in the district must select a replacement.
     Tuesday’s meeting was chaired by Vance Day, head of the Republican Party in Oregon, and included two last-minute candidates, Larry Lear of Condon and Matt Cyrus of Sisters.
     The other candidates were Ben Garrett, Pat Stone and Georgia Murray, all of The Dalles, PCPs took a few procedural votes prior to the start of the convention.      Motions to extend the time allotted for candidates to address the group and to choose the maximum of five nominees were defeated, and a motion to limit responses to one minute per candidate per question passed.
     Each of the seven candidates present was allowed a five-minute campaign speech.
     Cyrus was not able to attend the meeting, and Sen. Larry George of Sherwood gave a five-minute address on his behalf by phone.
     PCPs in the audience submitted written questions to the chair, and each candidate was asked to respond. Question topics included Measure 37, whether or not the candidate had ever met a payroll, the potential loss of federal payments to counties in lieu of timber revenue, the ability to attract Democrats and independents, an anti-discrimination ordinance passed by Wasco County, immigration and abortion.
     Under convention rules, successful candidates were required to receive a majority of weighted votes from the group. Each precinct committee person’s vote was weighted according to the number of registered Republicans in that person’s precinct. In the case where there were two precinct committee members from the same precinct, each represented half of the registered Republicans in their precinct.
     During the first ballot, each PCP was allowed to cast their weighted vote for three candidates.
     There were 57 electors present for the first vote, representing a total of 11,518.39 weighted votes, and a minimum of 5,759.21 weighted votes were required to achieve a simple majority.
     Huffman was elected on the first ballot, but it took four additional ballots to elect Goss and Van Valkenburgh as the other nominees, and the meeting, which began with registration at 5:30 p.m. did not conclude until after 10 p.m.
     The three candidates will have less than a week to campaign before commissioners meet Monday, Aug. 27 at 9 a.m. in the banquet room at Cousins Restaurant in The Dalles. Commissioners will also vote on a weighted system based on the number of registered voters in their respective counties, or portions of a county in the legislative district.
     The person picked at that meeting will become the new legislator and attend the next meeting of the legislature, scheduled for February. They will have the advantage of the incumbency when facing re-election in November, 2008.