In his wanderings around town Thursday The Eye ran into (soon to be former) Deschutes County Commissioner Mike Daly, who offered some thoughts on why he lost to Democrat Alan Unger on Election Day.
One big reason, he said, was that Deschutes Democrats blew the county’s Republicans out of the water when it came to signing up new voters: “The Democrats registered 5,000 new voters [this year] while the number of Republican registered voters actually dropped.”
“The demographics around here are really changing,” he added. (The Eye suspects the powerful appeal of Barack Obama and the total lack of appeal of the Republican brand this year also played into it.)
Another reason for his loss, Daly said, was resistance in the LaPine area to the county’s plan to require septic system upgrades to keep nitrates out of the local groundwater. “They hate all of us down there,” he said – meaning himself and fellow Commissioners Dennis Luke and Tammy Melton. Unfortunately for him, Daly was the only one running this year.
Daly, 66, was first elected to the commission in 2000. He said he has no further political ambitions and is looking forward to kicking back in retirement. “I think it’s about time,” he said.
This article appears in Nov 13-19, 2008.
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So do we.!!!!!!!!
why you lost has everything to do with the county’s plan to require septic upgrades and nothing to do with demographics. We will tie this measure up until we have a chance to vote all of you out.
A helpful visitor pointed out that I originally had Daly’s last name misspelled in the original version of the post (though I got it right in the headline, oddly). I have corrected the spelling.
here it is years later and I’m having to pay the big bucks to replace my septic tank that was originally installed by the biggest crook to hit Deschutes County Mike Daly. I have ALL the paperwork, it is also on file at Deschutes County Permits Dept showing that the tank is 1,000 gallon concrete AND signed off by the Deschutes County Inspector (obviously bought and paid for by Mike Daly). this very minute I’m looking at the tank just removed and it is a STEEL tank 🙁 🙁 If I could attach a photo believe me I would.. Tomorrow I’ll be taking a trip to the permits dept office and showing them the permit and the steel tank photo to see if I have any recourse!!!