Piercy and Handy lead in very early results, but too close to call

With about 20 percent of the ballots counted at 9 pm, the pivotal Eugene mayor and north Eugene county commissioner races were too close to call. Mayor Kitty Piercy lead Jim Torrey 51 to 48 percent. Rob Handy lead Commissioner Bobby Green 52 to 48 percent. “It’s too early to count any chickens,” Piercy said. Piercy figures she may need about 38,000 votes to be assured of victory. At 9 pm she had just 8,752. The Handy campaign said they might need about 17,776 votes to be assured of victory. At 9 pm Handy had just 3,503 votes. Continue reading 

How to follow the local election results tonight.

Lane County Elections will start reporting results after about 8:30 pm on their website. The pivotal close races to watch are the Democrat Kitty Piercy v. Jim Torrey mayor showdown and the close race for the north Eugene Lane County commissioner seat between conservative Bobby Green and progressive Rob Handy. The magic number for Piercy/Torrey may be 34,060. That’s 50 percent of those who voted in a city election in November 2004. Continue reading 

Umpqua Bank Takes Bailout it Doesn’t Need

Remember how George Bush, Henry Paulson and other supporters of the $700-billion bailout for banks swore up and down how the taxpayer money was desperately needed so that banks could lend money to main street Americans? Well, it now appears that’s not what the money was really for at all. The Bush Administration just handed Umpqua Bank, one of the Northwest’s largest financial institutions, $214 million in taxpayer bailout cash. Continue reading