Lane County commissioner candidate Jake Pelroy is leading county political campaign fundraising into a new era of big money.
To date, Pelroy has pulled in more than $522,000 to fuel his bid to oust incumbent East Lane Commissioner Heather Buch in the Nov. 3 general election, filings with the Oregon Elections Division show. Buch has raised $450,000 thus far. The amounts are stunning by county standards and would have seemed inconceivable a few years ago.
Their tallies are far and away records for a Lane County commissioner race — or any other local political race in the county. In prior races for county commissioner, a winning candidate typically raised and spent just $100,000 to $200,000.
By election day, the Buch-Pelroy showdown will likely easily top a joint $1 million.
The reason is simple: East Lane County District 5 is a political toss-up, a mix of conservative and progressive voters. Pelroy, with his experience as a GOP consultant, and with money from lumber-mill owners, senses a chance to seize the board seat, even as Buch and her liberal backers are desperate to keep it.
Fundraising is vital for digital and TV ads, flyers, lawn signs, billboards and campaign staff. It’s especially important in the far-flung East Lane district, which stretches from southwest Eugene to Cottage Grove, Oakridge and the McKenzie River valley.
Buch says she has no choice but to spend heavily against Pelroy.
“I cannot be in a position where I am not able to respond,” she says.
Pelroy declined to speak with Eugene Weekly.
Timber cash
Who’s providing the money?
Nearly $108,000 of Pelroy’s campaign money to date — or 20 percent of his total — is from McKenzie River-area resident Kathleen Jones-McCann or from companies Jones-McCann manages, state records show. Jones-McCann, heir to a wood-products-industry fortune, has been in the spotlight this year for the big home she covertly built on her riverside property without county land-use approvals or building permits. Another big slice of Pelroy’s campaign money — about $165,000 — is from owners of local lumber mills and gravel quarries, as well as a political action committee funded by lumber-mill owners. Other big contributors include real estate developers and Oregon GOP politicians.
“With the amount of money going into [Pelroy’s] campaign, it is hard for candidates like myself who don’t have large timber-baron heirs doling out over $100,000 to their campaign. I have to get out there and fundraise to meet the same level as my opponent,” Buch says.
Buch’s biggest backers include Eugene retirees Phil and Florence Barnhart, who have each donated $12,000 this election cycle, and rural Lane County resident and public-policy activist Tom Bowerman, who has donated $15,000, campaign records show. Phil Barnhart is a former Democratic state legislator.
Heading to a run-off
Buch and Pelroy launched their campaigns and fundraising last year, then faced off in this year’s May primary. Pelroy bested Buch 12,176 to 11,735 — a margin of 441 votes. Because of write-ins and a third candidate, Pelroy fell short of the 50 percent plus one needed to advance alone to the November ballot. Thus, a Nov. 3 runoff.
Since the primary, Pelroy has raised roughly $227,000, and Buch has raised $230,000, elections records show. Each candidate now has about $160,000 cash on hand.
Buch says nearly 1,000 individuals have donated to her campaign, and most give a few hundred dollars. Pelroy’s donors number a little over 300, with an average donation of $1,600 or more, she says.
“I am proudly supported by working families that don’t have that kind of discretionary money to put into races,” Buch says.
Buch favors Lane County capping the size of campaign donations. “Big money influences campaigns, then influences decisions made [by commissioners],” Buch says. “When you see $50,000, $100,000 going in, how can you guarantee that someone making decisions on behalf of the whole county is doing it in an unbiased way?”
Board vote
That issue is ongoing with Jones-McCann’s unpermitted 3,000-square-foot house and other structures, built in 2021–2023. County Commissioners Ryan Ceniga, David Loveall and Pat Farr last month voted to overturn decisions by the county planning director and hearings official, who had ruled Jones-McCann’s construction violated county planning rules, including rules protecting the McKenzie River. Instead, the three commissioners, who constitute a board majority, asserted those rules don’t apply to her structures, and they gave Jones-McCann time to seek approvals. The complex case is likely to remain before the board into 2027, when whoever is elected to the East Lane seat will take office.
Jones-McCann donated $46,716 to Ceniga’s May re-election campaign, and $42,215 to Loveall’s. The two deny the money sways their decisions.
With nearly $200,000 in donations to Pelroy, Ceniga and Loveall in a single year, Jones-McCann is easily the most generous donor to local politics in Lane County history.
Money in reserve
How high will the Buch-Pelroy spending go?
For the May primary, labor unions were big backers of Buch, providing her about $35,000. Since then, unions have anted up $12,000 for her.
Meanwhile, a Eugene-based PAC, Community Action Network, has $42,000 on hand, campaign records show. It may funnel some of that to Pelroy. The PAC provided his campaign $62,500 in the run-up to the May primary. The PAC raises money from local lumber mill owners, and funds campaigns of conservative candidates for Lane County commissioner.
This is Buch’s third campaign for a four-year term on the East Lane seat. In the previous two races, she beat candidates backed by lumber mill owners. But Pelory is more formidable. He “is well connected and well funded, much more so than the previous competitors,” she says.
Full disclosure: This election cycle, Christian Wihtol contributed $600 to the campaign of Heather Buch. He writes the regular Bricks $ Mortar column.