Political Desk

Published: March 13, 2008

Kris Bledsoe (left) is a photography artist and chaplain. Curt Johnston is a Dayton farmer.

By DAVID BATES
Of the News-Register

The race for Position 1 on the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners got crowded Tuesday.

Previously, incumbent Leslie Lewis faced a single challenger - Yamhill County’s representative in the Oregon House, Donna Nelson. But two more candidates jumped into the nonpartisan race this week.

If one of the four claims a majority of votes in the May 20 primary, that will be the end of it. If not, the two leading vote-getters will square off in the Nov. 4 general election.

Filing just before the Tuesday afternoon deadline were Curt Johnston, 57, a self-employed farmer from Dayton, and Kris Bledsoe, also 57, a photographer and artist who volunteers as part-time chaplain at Willamette Valley Medical Center.

That’s a crowded field, but isn’t without precedent.

In May 2006, Commissioner Kathy George narrowly fended off three challengers in the primary. It ultimately came down to a recount.

George led her nearest opponent, Cassie Sollars, by more than 2,500 votes. But she was right on the edge of the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff.

A seven-hour manual recount put her over the top, giving her 50.3 percent of the vote.

Johnston filed Tuesday afternoon, saying he wasn’t happy with the choices thus far, which featured just Lewis and Nelson at that point. He also said he was troubled by the problems that have afflicted implementation of the county’s new emergency radio system, dragging the work our for several years now.

“I’ve been a little disappointed in that,” he said. “There doesn’t seem to be any accountability.”

After graduating from Woodburn High School, Johnston did coursework at Chemeketa Community College and the Oregon College of Education, now Western Oregon University. He has previously served on the Yamhill County Education Service District and McMinnville Rural Fire District boards.

Bledsoe is an Oregon native, although she spent much of her adult life working in bank management in Washington. She holds a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Washington and a master’s in pastoral studies from the Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry.

She and her husband, Stephen, an anesthesiologist at the Willamette Valley Medical Center, moved back to Oregon early last year to be closer to their daughter and son-in-law, who farm on Grand Island.

Bledsoe said she’d been considering the run for a while and had been encouraged to make it, particularly by people who saw a Measure 37 photo show she had on display at Currents Gallery in downtown McMinnville.

Intrigued by the continuing debate over a ballot measure she hadn’t been here to vote on, she took a camera into rural areas and shot many of the sites where property owners have filed claims.

“I think people really approved of the fact that I didn’t come to that as a warrior,” she said. “And that’s true. I really went out and studied it.”

The commission race isn’t the only one that drew additional last-minute candidates. Brian Owen, 40, of McMinnville, an agent with the Bella Casa Real Estate Group, became the fourth person to file for Yamhill County clerk.

Having previously worked in the title and escrow industry, Owen said he spent a decade or so going through mortgage and deed documents for a couple hours a day in the clerk’s office - the repository of such records.

He’s a past chairman of the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce and served on the McMinnville School District Budget Committee. He said he has strong community ties and wants to see a historically “positive outflow” from the clerk’s office continue.

Owen joins Rebekah Stern Doll, Kent Van Cleave and Jeff Doty on the May ballot. Their race is also nonpartisan.

Editor’s Note: Print editions of this article gave an incorrect first name for candidate Curt Johnston. We regret the error.