Lane County’s wood-products barons are filling a war chest to help politically right-leaning candidates in the May 19 elections for the Lane County Board of Commissioners.
The big donors to this political action committee are familiar names: Eugene businessman Dan Giustina; the Rosboro mill on Main Street in Springfield; Eugene plywood maker Murphy Company; and Sierra-Pacific Industries, owner of the former Seneca lumber mill on Highway 99 in Eugene.
But the committee itself is a little-known entity called the Community Action Network. It’s based in Eugene and run by businessman Dennis Morgan, at the same address as his water and soil testing company, Renewable Resource Group, Inc. The PAC’s main function is to raise a lot of money from Lane County wood-products companies every four years to distribute to the campaigns of conservative candidates for Lane County commissioner seats, state election records show.
The PAC has become the single biggest donor to Lane County commissioner races.
Thus far in this election cycle, the PAC has received $160,000 from wood products and other businesses, the records show. Morgan tells Eugene Weekly he thinks the tally will hit $300,000.
Morgan has not yet doled out any of the cash to commissioner candidates. But if history is a guide, he will soon give almost all of it to the three right-leaning candidates: David Loveall for the Springfield seat, Ryan Ceniga for the West Lane seat, and Jake Pelroy for the East Lane seat.
“We support candidates that bring business growth into the community,” Morgan says.
What exactly the wood-products companies might hope for from these candidates is unclear. Eugene Weekly contacted a number of them, but none responded.
Morgan, a former treasurer of the Oregon Republican Party, founded the PAC in 2011. Each election cycle, it has raised ever more from wood-products-industry donors. Initially, it distributed money to a smattering of conservative local and state candidates, records show. But from 2018 onwards, the PAC tightened its focus, giving almost exclusively to conservative candidates for Lane County commissioner races.
The PAC hit its highest fundraising point, $306,000, in the 2022 cycle. Morgan says the PAC will raise “in that ballpark” this cycle.
Here are the biggest 2025-26 donors to the Community Action Network:
• Dan Giustina (Eugene property investor and manager; timber company owner): $45,000
• Goshen Forest Products (lumber mill off Highway 99 in Goshen): $15,000
• Murphy Company (Eugene plywood manufacturer): $15,000
• Rosboro (Springfield laminated-beam maker, owned by a New York private equity firm): $15,000
• Sierra Pacific Industries (California lumber and logging giant): $12,000
• Marie Jones (widow of the late Aaron Jones, who owned the Seneca sawmills/forestlands business): $10,000.
Other donors include: Starfire Lumber in Cottage Grove and Eugene plywood maker States Industries ($7,500 each) and Springfield’s Roseburg Forest Products ($5,000).
Some of the wood products companies that donate to the Community Action Network have also donated additional money directly to Loveall, Ceniga and Pelroy this election cycle.
Lane County commissioners have input on logging policies as well as a hand in many other issues, from land use to tax breaks and air pollution regulation. Giustina is suing Lane County and PeaceHealth to try to stop them from building a mental health center/psychiatric hospital near land and commercial buildings he owns on International Way in Springfield’s Gateway area. Loveall last year voted against siting the center next to Giustina’s property. He was the sole “no” vote on the five-commissioner board.
In the 2022 election cycle, almost all Community Action Network’s $307,000 went to three Lane commissioner candidates: Loveall, who was running for re-election; Ceniga, running to replace departing commissioner Jay Bozievich; and Kyle Blain, running to oust incumbent Heather Buch from the East Lane seat. Loveall and Ceniga won. Blain lost.
Oregon sets no limits on how much PACs or individuals can give to a campaign. Democrats in the Oregon Legislature passed HB 4018 earlier this year to set limits, but critics say donors may be able to circumvent the curbs easily.
The Community Action Network’s funding ranks as big money in Lane commissioner races. Typically, a candidate needs $200,000 to mount a successful campaign.
The only other major funding bloc in Lane commissioner races is unionized labor. But each union gives separately to individual candidates, and the money is relatively small potatoes. In this cycle, unions have given Buch $35,000, Sean Van Gordon (who is challenging Loveall), $12,500, and Ceniga $2,000.
Sierra Pacific established itself as a major campaign donor in Oregon after buying the Eugene-based Seneca lumber mills and timberlands in 2022. Since then, Sierra Pacific has handed out $1.9 million to Oregon conservative political campaigns, including business, wood products and GOP PACs. Most recently, it gave $200,000 in December to the Bring Balance to Salem PAC, which funds GOP candidates. Other recent donors to that PAC include Murphy Company ($250,000), and Phil Knight ($3 million). Sierra Pacific did not respond to a Eugene Weekly inquiry.
Christian Wihtol is a columnist for Eugene Weekly. Last year, he donated $600 to Heather Buch’s campaign. He worked as a writer and newsroom manager for The Register-Guard in Eugene, 1990-2018, often covering election finance issues.