Springfield City Councilor Sheri Moore and Licensed Practical Nurse Charmaine Rehg are challenging the current Lane County Commissioner Sid Leiken for the Springfield district seat. Both Moore and Rehg say the current commissioners are not responsive enough to the public’s concerns.
“I was seeing that the county really does have a lot to do with the lives of the people of Springfield,” Moore says, “and I’m not happy about the way they’re doing the job.”
Sheri Moore, a retired schoolteacher, has been a Springfield city councilor since 2010. In her four years on the council she has served on the Lane County Human Services Commission, the Lane County Housing Policy Board, the Lane Workforce Partnership Executive Board, the Springfield Finance & Judiciary Committee, the Springfield Budget Committee, the Springfield Economic Development Commission and the Bike and Pedestrian Committee. She completed the Emerge Oregon program, which trains Democratic women to be in office. She says she will be more receptive to concerns raised at public meetings than the current commissioners.
Moore says she doesn’t have one particular area of focus.
“We need to develop our economy and our businesses and bring people to the area because of this beautiful environment we live in,” Moore says.
Rehg says she will push for more progressive environmental policies. Leiken’s support of Sen. Ron Wyden’s O&C Bill, which puts 1.67 million acres of Western Oregon lands on the chopping block to be logged, motivated her to run for office.
Leiken declined to answer questions for this story. In 2009, while running for Congress, he admitted to improperly documenting $2,000 in campaign funds that went to his mother. In February, he testified before a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing in support of Wyden’s bill. He says jobs have been lost and Oregon has seen an increase in forest fires that have strained the economy because of a lack of logging.
Rehg says she wants to create environmentally friendly manufacturing jobs.
“I think we need to get beyond the whole cutting down trees as a job-maker,” she says.
According to Orestar, as of May 2, Leiken had raised $18,762 for his campaign and spent about $12,000 this year. His contributors include members of the construction and resource extraction industries such as Delta Sand and Gravel ($1,000), Wildish Land Company ($2,000) and Papé Group ($1,000). He also got a large donation from Lane County Association Local 626 ($3,000).
Moore has raised $5,510 this year, mainly from contributions less than $100, and spent a little over $4,000. Her largest contributions are $500 from unions — AFSCME Council 75 and $2,500 from the Lane County Employees Organization-AFSCME #2831.
Rehg has not raised or spent enough money to require reporting.