Results in the May 2024 primary election began to come in Tuesday night. In early returns, Janelle Bynum bested Jamie McLeod Skinner for the Democratic nomination for Congressional District 5, and in Congressional District 2, Cliff Bentz won over Republican challenger Jason Beebe.
For the seat on the Deschutes County Commission, Phil Chang was re-elected to his seat. If a candidate in that race earns 50% or more of the vote, they win the seat without the need for another vote in November. At over 60% of the vote, Chang won.
Meanwhile, the levy to support Bend-La Pine Schools appears poised to fail, with a majority of voters saying “no.”
More results in contested races as of 2:30 pm Wednesday:
U.S. Representative, 2nd District (Democrat)
Dan Ruby – 85.03%
Steve Willam Laible – 13.35%
U.S. Representative, 2nd District (Republican)
Cliff Bentz – 81.49%
Jason Beebe – 18.07%
U.S. Representative, 5th District (Democrat)
Janelle Bynum – 68.51%
Jamie McLeod-Skinner – 30.85%
County Commissioner, Pos. 2
Phil Chang – 61.02%
Rob Imhoff – 26.42%
Judy Trego – 9.95%
Brian Huntamer – 2.38%
Measure 9-167 – Bend-La Pine Schools 5-year option levy
No – 57.34%
Yes – 42.66%
9-168 City of Redmond
No – 15.96%
Yes – 84.04%
9-169, City of Redmond
No – 36.21%
Yes – 63.79%
9-170, City of Redmond
No – 21.64%
Yes – 78.36%
See more election results from the Oregon Secretary of State and Deschutes County Elections.
This page will be updated.
This article appears in Source Weekly May 16, 2024.
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The recent failure of the Bend-La Pine (B-LP) School District Levy can best be described as voter pushback against the recent Bend city council actions. Usually when a funding levy fails, the most common explanation put forth by elected representatives is to decry “voter fatigue”. Yet, the voters in La Pine willing passed a fire department levies on the same ballot day so that explanation holds very little water. Taxpayers in the B-LP school district have traditionally supported the levies in support of the school district, however, their levy request was ill-fated once the Bend city council provided a $10.5 million gift to the developers of Jackstraw Project which is overwhelming market priced housing (not-affordable housing). The loss on the school district levy was sealed once the city council chose not to seek additional fees from a very robust tourist environment in Central Oregon to include changing city code to redirect increasing hotel/short-term lodging taxes/fees to remedy transportation issues. Instead, the Bend city council pushed these transportation costs on the small number of homeowners/small-businesses in Bend to fund. Unfortunately, the city council once again neglects to realize the job of governing includes seeking options not just on the back of local homeowners and left the future students at Bend-LaPine schools in a far less better place.
Bend-LaPine schools can pound sand. You want to take money from developers for your campaigns and give them tax breaks and screw residents? We aren’t taking this anymore, Bend. You listening?! Get the money from tourists and developers and leave residents alone with these money grabs.
Why do we need more money for schools? Newsflash! Out of control development.