When Keith Rockow moved to Deschutes County in 2003, one of the first ways he got involved in local politics was by planting a yard sign in his front lawn for Gene Whisnant, a Republican who represented part of the county in the Oregon Legislature for 16 years.
“We were a good, strong Republican force then,” Rockow said.
Now, not so much.
Since then, Democrats have loosened the Republican stronghold on many local and state offices. The three legislative districts are all represented by Democrats, and the party has backed all seven members of the Bend City Council.
The party’s reach in local politics grew on Tuesday, when early ballot returns put two Democrat-endorsed candidates firmly in victory territory. The party’s members will take up at least three of the five seats on the board in 2027 — a monumental swing in the political makeup of the County’s governing board. Democrats have not had a majority on the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners since the early 1990s, according an article in The Bulletin from 2006.
Jamie Collins, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran who unseated four-term Commissioner Tony DeBone, and homeless nonprofit leader Rick Russell, who won a newly created seat, will join Democrat Commissioner Phil Chang on an expanded five-member commission in 2027. The new majority will likely mean big changes in the way the County addresses rural development, homelessness and other issues.
Deschutes County commissioner races became nonpartisan in 2022, but local parties still endorse and support candidates.
Only a handful of Democrats have served on the Deschutes County Commission in the last several decades, said Judy Stiegler, an OSU-Cascades political science instructor and former Oregon lawmaker who served a term in the legislature and has lived in Bend for about 50 years.
Despite the leftward shift, Stiegler said she believes Deschutes County is solidly purple — a mix of Democrats and Republicans.
Stiegler ended a long streak of Republican control in House District 54 — which covers most of Bend — when she won the seat in 2008. Two years later, the seat flipped back to Republicans until Rep. Jason Kropf won in 2020.
Local Democrat party leaders said Tuesday’s result signifies a voting populous thirsty for change on the county commission. Republicans, meanwhile, are looking ahead to 2028, and how to overcome a growing gap in party-registered voters.
Unofficial results show Collins defeated DeBone by more than 10,000 votes and 16%, while Russell defeated Republican-backed candidate Chet Wamboldt by about 9,000 votes and 15%.
“I think there was just a strong sense that maybe we needed to see a more effective County Commission, and that coupled with really, really strong candidates that ran really strong campaigns led to the result we saw last night,” Deschutes Democrats Chair Jason Burge told the Source on Wednesday.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 4,000 in the county. In 2006, Republicans outnumbered Democrats by about 10,000.
But the largest portion of voters are not registered to either party. Part of the reason could be the 2016 Motor-Voter Law, which began automatic voter registrations for people getting or renewing drivers licenses.
Burge attributed his party’s success not just to the growing number of registered voters in the county, but to a message that resonated with non-affiliated voters.
“I am really happy that there are going to be at least three commissioners who are interested in the needs and concerns of all Deschutes County residents,” said Chang, the lone Democrat commissioner, who often finds himself butting heads with — and outvoted by — his Republican counterparts, perhaps most commonly on issues related to destination resorts and rezoning of rural lands for housing.
Despite the divide on the current board, Chang said he feels the issues are fundamentally nonpartisan. He helped usher in a voter-approved ballot measure in 2022, doing away with partisan primaries for county commissioners. Now, non-affiliated voters have a more prominent role in electing that board’s members, because they can participate in primary elections previously restricted to only Democrat or Republican voters. In nonpartisan primaries, candidates who get more than 50% of the vote automatically win the seat. If no one does, the top two advance to a runoff election in November.
But even with name recognition, candidates without an endorsement from a major party did not do well in Tuesday’s election. Sisters Mayor Jennifer Letz gained just 15% of the vote in her bid for Position 5, while Redmond School Board Member Amanda Page gained 20% of the vote for Position 3, falling behind Amy Sabbadini, the Democrat-endorsed candidate.
The only Republican-endorsed candidate to lead in their race was Lauren Connally, a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran and office administrator at a public defense nonprofit, with 38% of the vote.
Rockow, the Republican chair, attributed the success to an appeal to non-affiliated voter outreach.
“She focused on the people that were going to decide her race,” Rockow said.
Rockow’s term as chair will end this year, but said he’s looking ahead to the county commissioner races in 2028, when three more seats, including the two seats created this year,will be on the ballot — a chance to regain a majority. That election could be a referendum on a Democrat-run commission, he said, citing top issues like addressing homelessness, finding a new landfill site, development and private property rights.
“We’ll have tangible results for their progress,” Rockow said. “You guys have complained about the way the county has been run in 2024 and 2026. In 2027, you have taken over. You’ve had all of 2027, half of 2028 — what have you done?”
And the circumstances of that election could again change dramatically if voters in November approve a proposed ballot measure that would split the County into five representational districts. Republicans have backed the proposal, while Democrats are poised to mount a fierce opposition campaign.
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