Although election officials said that there had been a big day at the ballot boxes, and that trucks were still bringing in voters’ responses from the outlaying districts, by 8 pm results were posted—and all of the races seemed to show clear cut winners; no hanging chads, no nail-biters.
Jodie Barram cleaned up 98 percent of the popular primary vote to push her into the general election for County Commissioner, and Jeff Merkley walked away with 92 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary in Deschutes County for his re-election to U.S. Senator and John Kitzhaber, likewise, pulled in a hefty 90 percent.
Even the races that most observers believed would be toss-up, tipped decisively for the winner; in particular, the race for the District Attorney had been anyone’s guess. In the final weeks of that heated campaign, the Bulletin made a surprise endorsement of the incumbent Patrick Flaherty, while the Source hammered on apparent campaign violations by Flaherty. In the final tally, however, at press time, Hummel cleared the race, pulling almost two out of every third vote.
Also, the Fire Levies, five-year taxes on real estate properties to generate much-needed funding for the City of Bend and Deschutes County fire departments, both passed; with 61 percent of the vote in Bend, and 56 percent of the vote county-wide.
This article appears in May 22-28, 2014.
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Congratulations Mr. Hummel. Flaherty had a kind of caustic air to him that I’m sure a lotta people picked up on. Powerful positions often attract people who can’t feel powerful without a name tag…then proceed to butcher the office. Congratulations Mr. Hummel. Do the people proud and do right by them.