On the morning of Dec. 3, the Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners had quite a few things on its meeting agenda, as per usual.
But this particular day, the meeting room filled up with citizens holding signs for only one reason — the 11am agenda item: “Recommendations from the District Mapping Advisory Committee to the BOCC.”
As previously reported by the Source, the DMAC recommended, in a 4-3 split vote, its Map C proposal to the commission. Critics, mostly Democrats and independents, have called this map a deliberate attempt by Deschutes County Republicans to ensure they don’t lose their current majority on what is officially a non-partisan commission. The BOCC will expand to five members in next year’s election, making the current districting proposal a timely measure by Republicans, who want to see the map voted on at the May primary election.
Speaking before the BOCC, Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, a DMAC member, attested to a comment made by fellow member Phil Henderson, former Chair of the Deschutes County Republican Party. She quoted him as saying, “We’re [DMAC] just here to do the Commission’s bidding.”
The Commission has a 2-1 Republican-affiliated majority. Those two Republicans appointed two conservative members each to the seven-person mapping committee; those four members voted to advance Map C, which will statistically favor Republican-leaning candidates. Some, including Democrat Commissioner Phil Chang, are calling it an open attempt at gerrymandering.
Several DMAC members appeared before the Commission at the Dec. 3 meeting, one after another.
The first member, Deschutes County League of Women Voters President Carol Loesche, said that the proposal to draw five districts, “would ensure that Republicans would have the majority in the county even though they are in the minority of voters,” and that districting of any kind would be divisive to Deschutes County.
Next up was Matt Cyrus, president of the Deschutes County Farm Bureau, who defended DMAC’s use of voter registration data to form districts – a method no Oregon county has used – and said that districting could lead to Commissioners with a “better knowledge for the specific area” they represent.
Commissioner Chang gave Cyrus a math pop quiz that the Sisters-area farmer seemed unprepared for, pointing out that DMAC’s final recommendation violated the Commission’s guidelines to make each district’s population within 10% of any other.
“The largest district is more than 10% bigger than the smallest district. That’s what my math is telling me,” Chang said.
According to independent analysis by Bryce Kellogg, a local ecologist, Chang’s figures check out. “It essentially means we are diminishing the representation, the voting power of the people who live in the biggest district,” the Commissioner said, calling it an indication that at least 1,637 voters would be “disenfranchised” in what’s currently named District B, a hard candy-shaped chunk of east Bend.
Some of Kebler’s comments centered around the timing of redistricting.
“Why are we doing this now?” Kebler asked the commission. “I’ve heard of people asking, ‘Well, what district am I in?’ We don’t have districts yet. This conversation has confused the public into thinking maybe they’re in one, or maybe they only get to vote for certain people, when in May we will be voting at large as we have always done for our Commissioners.”
“I’m not a politician,” DMAC member and engineer Ned Dempsey told the commission. “I’ve never held political office, I’ve never participated in partisan politics, and I have no political ambitions in the future – just in case you guys are worrying about me.” Dempsey denied that the districting process was affected by political foul play. “There was no gerrymandering,” he said.
The last DMAC member to appear was Henderson, himself a former Deschutes County Commissioner, who used Oregon’s representation in Congress – 5 House Democrats and 1 House Republican – as a counterpoint example of “what gerrymandering usually looks like.” He said the DMAC map “was really what the law prescribed,” with a “dominant feature” of “common interest.”
As the meeting came to a close, Chang had heard all that he needed to. “I may be the only one, but I don’t see any reason to draw this out any longer,” he said, pressing his fellow Board members to vote on the map. Although DeBone said DMAC officially “received” the proposal Wednesday, it has been available publicly for weeks.
Commissioners Adair and DeBone were unwilling to act immediately, which Chang harshly criticized, contending they instead wanted to “make a decision when the room is empty.”
Adair requested that a public hearing be held before any decision-making by the Board, which DeBone seconded.
Chang made several symbolic motions to create ballot measures. He proposed a pay cap and term limits for Commissioners, as well as that Deschutes County adopt the “Missoula model” for districting. DeBone and Adair abstained from supporting each motion as an icy silence filled the boardroom.
The commission will hold a public hearing, most likely in January, to let community members weigh in on Map C. The date and time will be publicized through a future press release.
This article appears in the Source December 11, 2025.
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One person, one vote. Districting reduces the need to appeal to ALL voters. Vote No, to districts. I’m not sure why we need districts now, but I can guess….the minority population is a bias for the majority of commissioners. Ironic that Mr. Henderson says “we’re just here to do the commission’s bidding”, The County Commission has a 2-1 Republican-affiliated majority.
Appeal to ALL voters? County wide seats would have the exact opposite effect. The city of Bend, mostly the westside, would decide ALL of the commissioners. Districting provides representation to each local region each with their own common interests. Take a look at Map A, Mayor Keblers preferred option. It looks like spokes of a wheel siphoning off votes from Bend to influence huge geographic chunks of the county. This is a common gerrymandering technique designed to use a densely populated urban area to influence multiple districts. The state of Oregon’s congressional district map is a classic example of this with Portland taking a slice out of four of the six districts. (BTW this map earned a grade of D from the Gerrymandering Project.) Deschutes county democrats thought that expansion to five members was going to be their key to dominance and are now suddenly crying afoul when they realized this whole thing may have backfired on them.
Link to Map A: https://www.deschutes.org/sites/default/files/fileattachments/board_of_county_commissioners/page/28588/dmac_meeting_packet_-_october_22_2025.pdf