HOOD RIVER — On Jan. 12, Hood River County District Attorney Carrie Rasmussen announced that she would not be seeking reelection. Furthermore, she said she would be supporting Wasco County District Attorney Matthew Ellis’ in his candidacy for the seat, which he also announced Jan. 12.
Rasmussen was a Hood River County deputy district attorney from 2005-2020, when she was elected district attorney. Before she became district attorney, her main caseload was focused on child abuse, domestic violence and other person crimes, which she maintained after stepping into the position.
Rasmussen said she was proud of what she had achieved while in office, particularly her work with SafeSpace Children’s Advocacy Center, which she noted she would like to stay involved with.
“Some health issues have come up in my family’s life and I need to step back and prioritize my family right now,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve been doing this work for a long time and I’m ready to take a break. A break doesn’t necessarily mean I’m fully retiring. I may explore some other avenues and I’ll likely be involved still in the various boards and commissions that interest me.”
In a press release from Ellis, he explained that rather than running for reelection as Wasco County DA, he would be campaigning to be the DA for Hood River County, where he has lived for more than a decade.
“I am immensely proud of the work I and my team have done in Wasco County,” Ellis said in the press release. “But as Dorothy said in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ there truly is ‘no place like home.’”
In an interview with Columbia Gorge News, Ellis said he would be supporting Kara Davis, former Wasco County deputy district attorney and current Gilliam County District Attorney. Like Ellis, Davis would be seeking to return home with this election, as she was born and raised in Wasco County, Ellis said. It was Davis’ desire to run for Wasco County DA that cemented his decision, he said.
“I would not have run for Hood River without knowing that Kara was going to run for Wasco, just for my staff and for all the things that Kara helped me create when we were working in Wasco County, such as getting the restorative justice program going and the treatment court and the mental health court and those types of things,” he said. “I don’t want to see those things go because somebody else stepped in, but I know that with Kara, it’ll be a fairly seamless transition.”
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