Some of Lane County’s conservative business owners dearly want to fire Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch. And, just as keenly, many labor groups want to keep her on the job.
Business interests poured money into trying to prevent Buch’s initial election in 2018 to the East Lane seat. In 2022, they poured more money into trying to stop her re-election. And this year, they’re pouring yet more money into her latest opponent.
This time around, Buch’s major opponent is Jacob Pelroy, a Eugene resident, political consultant and former Oregon GOP legislative staffer.
Their campaigns for the May 19 election have already pulled in substantial money. Buch has raised $135,000 to date, outpacing Pelroy’s $92,400. Buch, a rural Lane County resident, is backed by labor unions and environmental-oriented groups and individuals. Pelroy is the choice of wood products and mining companies. It’s a classic Oregon campaign fundraising battle.
The East Lane district stretches from southwest Eugene to Cottage Grove, Oakridge and the McKenzie River valley.
Pelroy’s campaign hinges in part on opposing the county’s planned center to sort recyclables from garbage, the CleanLane Resource Recovery Facility. Buch supports the project.
Pelroy did not respond to questions from Eugene Weekly.
Buch tells EW her campaign has raised funds from more than 330 individuals and groups. “We’ve been pretty grassroots in order to raise money,” she says.
“It’s still important to be out, knocking on doors, be at events,” she says. But “I do need to raise money for the campaign in order to be successful and reach everybody that I can’t necessarily door-knock.”
One of Pelroy’s biggest donors is the Richey family, which owns the Staton Companies demolition business in Goshen. Staton has opposed construction of the county trash-processing facility in Goshen. The family and company have given $10,000 to Pelroy’s campaign. The CEO of Bulk Handling Systems, the company the county chose to build the facility, has given Buch’s campaign $2,000. The county board late last year tentatively scrapped using the Goshen site, and decided the facility instead should be built at the county’s Short Mountain Landfill.
Here’s a rundown of donations of $1,000 or more (both cash and in-kind) that each candidate’s campaign has received.
Donors to Buch
• Lane County Employees AFSCME (labor union of Lane County employees): $10,000
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (labor union): $5,500
• McKenzie River PAC (political action committee headed by Oregon Rep. Val Hoyle): $7,500
• Oregon AFSCME Council 75 (labor union): $6,000
• Tom Bowerman (rural Lane County resident, environmental and planning advocate): $5,000
• Eugene Realtors PAC: $5,000
• Plumbers & Steamfitters union: $4,503
• Phillip (former Oregon Democratic legislator) and Florence Barnhart: $4,000
• Building a Stronger Oregon (carpentry workers): $3,000
• Steve Miller (CEO of Eugene-based Bulk Handling Systems): $2,000
• Lane Coos Curry Douglas Building Trades Council (labor union): $2,000
• Salem Building and Construction Trades Council (labor union) $2,000
• Hearthstone Real Estate (Eugene real estate broker) $1,350
The following each have donated $1,000: Jon Jaqua (rural Lane County rancher); Oregon AFL-CIO (labor unions); Jerald Welsh (Eugene resident); Jeannie Merrick (Cottage Grove area resident); Martha Dragovich (Eugene resident); Sandra Buch (candidate’s family); Friends of John Lively (retiring Springfield Democratic state legislator); Eugene Mayor Kaarin Knudson PAC; Jacqueline McDonald (Eugene resident); Bob Emmons (Fall Creek resident, land-use advocate); Laurie Trieger PAC (Lane County commissioner); Laura Parrish (Eugene resident); Dorothy Crafts (Eugene resident); John Dohrman (Eugene lawyer); Roy Nelson (Lowell resident); Kenneth Singer (Eugene resident).
Donors to Pelroy
• Kathy Jones (former co-owner of Seneca Jones Timber Co. and Seneca Jones Sawmills in Eugene, daughter of late Eugene lumber baron Aaron Jones): $15,000
• Wildish Land Co. (Lane County gravel mining/construction company): $7,500
• Ed King (owner of King Estate Winery, Oakridge gravel mine): $6,251
• John Murphy, Sr. (CEO of Eugene-based Murphy Plywood wood products company): $5,000
• Friends of Boomer Wright (PAC for Coos Bay area GOP legislator): $5,000
• Staton Companies (Goshen-based demolition business): $5,000
• Kathleen Richey (member of family that owns Staton Companies): $5,000
• Friends of Shelly Boshart Davis (PAC for Albany area GOP legislator): $5,000
• Rosboro Lumber Company (based in Springfield): $5,000
• McKenzie Feed & Pet Supplies (pet products store in Springfield): $3,000
The following have each donated $1,000: CrisDental Eugene (dentist); Matt Powell (Eugene resident, real estate financing business); Marquess Properties (Creswell mobile-home park owner); Michael Coughlin (Eugene real estate investor, developer).
Candidates have fought over the East Lane commissioner seat for years. In the 2018 campaign, Cottage Grove resident Gary Williams, who had been appointed to the seat, raised over $253,000 for his bid to hold onto the position. He was heavily funded by logging, mining and other businesses. But Buch, who raised $212,600, thumped him, 16,733 votes to 13,010.
In 2022, business interests supported Kyle Blain to oust Buch. But Buch beat him, 9,665 to 9,181.
In both campaigns, Buch was heavily funded by organized labor.
A third contender in this year’s race, Bob Zybach, a Creswell resident, researcher and author, has raised a little over $5,400.