An action-packed primary race for Position 3 on the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners features six candidates and a diverse set of backgrounds, including a teacher, a tribal member and a former Marine.
The seat is currently held by Commissioner Patti Adair, who announced last fall her bid for the U.S. House of Representatives, leaving her seat and a four-year term up for grabs as the commission expands from three members to five.
The top two vote-getters in the nonpartisan May 19 primary will advance to the general election in November. If one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, they automatically win and forego the November election.
That’s highly unlikely, though, as three candidates have strong financial and political backing.
Contested endorsements
The race for Position 3 has been divisive, at least when it comes to the Deschutes Democrats party endorsement.
After Amy Sabbadini, a civics teacher, edged Amanda Page, a flight medic and Redmond School Board member, in the party’s endorsement vote, Page’s supporters wrote a letter alleging a “smear campaign” and said the vote was biased because the ballot highlighted her reluctance to pledge support for only Democrat-endorsed candidates. The letter also criticized the Deschutes Democrats for an alleged lack of support for candidates of color. Page is a member of the Klamath Tribes.
Some local Democrats on the Bend City Council and Bend La-Pine Schools board have endorsed Page anyway.
Page said the lack of party endorsement means she has a smaller team of people knocking on doors for her campaign. But she feels it pulled her supporters in tighter, mobilizing younger voters and people in the BIPOC community.
“Our campaign really draws out people who otherwise would sit this out, because they see that we’re different, they see we have a vision that’s fully in line with our values,” Page said. “We don’t just go along with things to ease the tension for people, or, ‘let’s be more moderate, moderate our message.’ We’re 100% here for working families here in Deschutes County. That’s our mission. We protect the land and we take care of people.”
Page has raised $110,411 in campaign contributions — more than any other candidate for Position 3. That includes $30,000 in cash and in-kind donations from the Tribal Democracy Project, a nonprofit whose mission is to help Native candidates get elected. She also received $9,000 from the Color PAC, which supports candidates who are people of color.
Protecting the land and taking care of the community are two pillars of her tribe’s philosophy, which she would translate to county commissioner, she said. That translates to policies that reduce urban sprawl and protect natural resources, she said. Page said she would advocate for a fee on short-term rentals and vacant houses to create an “affordability fund” to help people pay for rent, mortgages and child care. She also said she would want the County to do more to actively protect people from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. For example, the County could get creative by using the emergency alert system to warn of immigration agents in a certain area.
“I think there’s a lot we can do if we choose to,” Page said.
Sabbadini has reported $72,801 in campaign donations, which she says is all from individuals, not from PACs. She called the effort “grassroots.”
Sabbadini called endorsements her “biggest asset” as far as competitiveness in the race.
“I’m the person most of the electeds trust to win this position,” she said in an interview.
Sabbadini, 50, is the regional program manager with the Civics Learning Project, a nonprofit that teaches students about government and democracy. She’s also an instructor with the teaching program at Oregon State University-Cascades and has lobbied on behalf of the Oregon Education Association. In her 20s, she was a land use planner with the County of Santa Barbara in California.
Sabbadini’s top priorities include helping plan for low and middle-income housing, supporting public health programs and law enforcement, minimizing rural sprawl and preparing for wildfire, including helping ease insurance rates for homeowners in high-risk areas.
More competition
Meanwhile, Lauren Connally, the Republican-endorsed candidate, has characterized herself as the most moderate choice for Position 3.
“We need long-term, systems-driven thinking,” Connally said. “When we allow policy to be driven by emotional rhetoric … then it’s piecemeal.”
She added: “The two-party system wants you to talk from what their foundational values are,” Connally said. “I’m very clear with everyone: I’m going to be me, I’m going to speak as me, and I’m going to act as me.”
After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2004 to 2007, Connally has worked with suicide prevention groups for veterans and advocated for veterans’ health care on Capitol Hill.
Now, she’s the office administrator for Deschutes Defenders, a state-funded nonprofit that provides public defense services.
In 2025, she lost her housing and lived out of a travel trailer with her two kids, moving in and out of RV sites and campgrounds across the county. The experience gave her insight into the homelessness and housing affordability crisis, she said.
“Despite having a job, it was easier to live in a trailer in an RV park than to rent a small three-bedroom house,” Connally said.
She moved into housing in January, but still spends more than half her income on rent.
She also cited the need for more resources to treat substance use and mental health disorders. She talked about how many of the people tied up in the local justice system are stuck in multigenerational cycles of drug abuse and mental health-related problems.
“It really pushes me to say, what are we doing to take care of our families and our youth, what are we doing to break that cycle,” Connally said.
On land use, Connally said decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis. She said there are many farm-zoned lands in Deschutes County that aren’t desirable for farming, and pointed to the economic benefits of destination resorts.
Connally has reported $14,886 in campaign contributions, including $5,000 from the Central Oregon Association of Realtors PAC.
Three others have gained little traction fundraising and campaigning: Samuel Facey, A 28-year-old mill worker from La Pine, Gary Campbell, a former board member with the Swalley Irrigation District, and Charles Webster Baer, a perennial local candidate and advocate for depopulationism, or one-child policies.
Facey, a Republican Precinct Committee Person who ran for county commissioner and mayor of La Pine in 2024, said he was motivated to run to do something about the threat of wildfire and high cost of living.
“Most people can’t afford to live here,” Facey said in an interview. “I make above minimum wage, and can’t afford it,” Facey said. “We’ve gotta do something about it.”
He works at a window and door mill in Bend and serves on the city of La Pine’s budget committee. He started a business making fish food and selling it online, but said he took the website down because of the cost.
In his first 100 days, he said he wants to form a Deschutes County agricultural department, order a housing code and zoning audit and ramp up fuels reduction and defensible space projects.
Campbell didn’t return phone calls from the Source for this story. His filing application lists a variety of past experience: school bus driver and driver’s education teacher, irrigation district board member, lab technician for a pharmaceutical company in Bend and forklift driver for Jeld Wen Millworks, the same place Facey now works.
Baer is making another attempt at local office after a handful of unsuccessful campaigns for Bend and Redmond city offices. He said he would try to enact a one-child policy for Deschutes County, and have the county develop its own cryptocurrency, AI and social media platforms.
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