Bend Council Race Gets Ugly | The Source Weekly - Bend

Bend Council Race Gets Ugly

Sally Russell and Kathie Eckman are gettin’ into it!

These two candidates for Position 3 on the Bend City Council are each firing off negative ads in The Bulletin, and in Kathie’s case, with a follow-up mailer that says Sally is an unemployed environmental extremist.

Definitely a little nasty for a city council race. Here’s how it’s all gone down.

Sally started running this ad in The Bulletin in mid-October:

That really torqued off Kathie, because she claims:

  1. She didn’t actually vote to approve all the things on the list
  2. She didn’t have anything to do with the buses
  3. And the money for the new sidewalk curbs hasn’t actually been spent, yet

Sally agreed that she had made an error on the buses part and removed that line in future versions of the ad, but said today that she stands behind her other claims. As for running an ad that wasn’t factually correct?

“I have to go with what’s been put in front of me,” said Sally.

This, FYI, concerns us quite a lot considering that one of the greatest problems on the city council today is a near total reliance on the recommendations, good or bad, of city staff.

Anyhoo. In response to Sally, Kathie created her own Bulletin ad and a mailer that she’s sent to houses in town.

Here’s Kathie's Bulletin ad:

Here’s the front of the mailer:

Here's the back of the mailer:

Um, Kathie, there’s a problem with your stuff here.

For starters, you are retired, which makes you unemployed, too, we think.

And that interview with the Source that you reference in these ads?

Yeah, you also said in those interviews that you were in favor of a gas tax. Here's the video of Kathie telling us she would endorse a gas tax. (Don't let Rondo's picture confuse you here. Kathie will speak as soon as you click play.)

We called Kathie today to get some explanation for how she could run such ethically-questionable ads.

Her response: “She’s totally misconstrued my leadership and my management. I have never had a negative campaign like this and she started it. ”

Ladies, not your best moments.

But when it comes right down to it. We’re still behind Sally. She did make an error, but worked to correct it. As for saying someone's done a poor job in office—that's just politics. Kathie’s response comes across as petty and that’s not a quality we can endorse in our community's leadership.

If you haven't voted, yet, we recommend Sally Russell.