Your Voice: Sept. 30, 2026

Vote for transparency, honesty, and true representation. Vote for Josiah Dean for Oregon House District 57! 

Mike Holeman

The Dalles

Another for Dean

I have known Josiah Dean for more than ten years, as my business coach through the Small Business Development Center, as the (now former) owner of the historic Balch Hotel in Dufur, and as a friend.

In every one of those roles, his character has been the same: honest, ethical, and focused on doing right by the people around him. You learn a lot about someone when they help you.

Josiah has never given me a reason to doubt his word.

His character matters, because House District 57 needs a representative voters can trust.

This year the Oregon Government Ethics Commission fined Rep. Greg Smith $12,000 for using his position at a public development authority to give himself an unauthorized $66,000 raise. That’s the second time this year the commission has given him a penalty for ethics violations. I live in Hood River, so I can’t vote for Josiah. But, I have seen firsthand what Josiah brings to Eastern Oregon. I urge voters in District 57 to choose Josiah Dean.

Heidi Venture

Hood River

Sanders inspires

I’ve lived in the Gorge for nearly 20 years. Like many of you, I raised my children here and care deeply about the well being of our communities,

The campaign that Hank Sanders has built has galvanized people of all ages and backgrounds. My daughters are excited and inspired to see someone of their generation running for office.

I am also, like many of you, concerned about data centers. The data center deal in The Dalles is terrible. It uses millions of dollars in tax breaks, millions of gallons of water, and increases utility bills. Hank’s opponent, Scott Hege, was an architect of that deal. Hank is calling for a data center moratorium so that Scott can’t build another data center in our community. I encourage you to join me in voting for our future. Join me in voting for Hank Sanders to serve as our representative in HD 52.

Vicky Stifter

Hood River

Why negativity?

It should be acceptable and desired for civic leaders and politicians to have evolving positions on the major issues of the day, especially when conditions and information change. We all experience changing attitudes in our lives. During last year such transitions have been occurring across the nation regarding data centers. This evolution of views is good if done for the right reasons and in a proper manner. When done for cynical political reasons, there can be dangerous and/or counterproductive results. Desirable transitioning should be based on research, discourse, and communication. Lacking these qualities, the transition could be greeted with varying levels of suspicion, skepticism, disbelief, and mistrust, oh it’s just political posturing.

Scott Hege and Christine Drazen have for years been a part of push to build data centers as a means to strengthen Oregon’s economy. They have years of governing experience. Now in the midst of a political campaign, they both have expressed reluctance to build more data centers, but we know little about their reasons for this flip of viewpoint. It’s becoming more apparent that both candidates have been inadequate in explaining their transformation. Rather than explaining their new position, both have chosen to take the low road — attack their opponents with negative TV ads which, at best, are deceptive and distracting. Why don’t they share with us their core values, their primary goals, and their specific action plans to accomplish the goals? Why rely on negative campaigning? Voters want to hear of plans to improve their lives. We want problem solvers, not finger pointers. We’ve had far too much distortion and distraction.

The outcome of the election depends on the decisions of the non affiliated voters. They must exercise their great electoral power. I encourage these voters to send a strong message — end negativity, begin building a better future.

Robert Haechrel

The Dalles

Climate vote

Climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is a crisis, and Rep. Jeff Helfrich’s voting record shows he has chosen to look away. On three recent bills he voted no every time, and each no sided with business as usual over the future of Oregon’s children.

He voted against HB 3546, the POWER Act, which made large electricity users, including massive data centers, pay their share of the growing demands they place on our grid. Without it, residential and small-business customers keep shouldering costs they didn’t create.

He voted against HB 3365, which gave K-12 teachers the access and autonomy to teach climate change and sustainability. Our kids will inherit this crisis, and denying them the knowledge to understand it is indefensible.

He voted against HB 4031, which expedited permitting for clean energy projects. How can we build a sustainable future while red tape stalls the very projects that would power it?

Three votes, one pattern: protect entrenched interests and leave the staggering climate bill to everyone else, especially generations not yet born. We deserve a legislator who treats an emergency like an emergency.

As a 21-year-old, it is crucial for me, and for many of my peers, that our politicians care about, and vote for, policies that not only address the climate crisis, but also support our community members who are impacted by or spreading awareness about one of the biggest threats to our and future generations.

Rep. Helfrich, your constituents are watching, and we will remember these votes at the ballot box.

Melanie Glatter

Hood River

Gambee ready

Lisa Gambee is qualified. Qualifications for Wasco County Commissioner: truthful, willing to work hard, listener and understands the needs of the constituents. Lisa Gambee fits all these qualifications and more. She has experience in leadership for nine and a half years as Wasco County clerk.

As county clerk, Lisa has dealt with the difficulties surrounding COVID issues during an election year in a very professional manner. I was a poll watcher during that election. Lisa used Zoom to train and communicate with her volunteer poll watchers. She also posted a video on the Wasco County website to inform her constituents how the ballot is processed. It is still on the site. I also had a daughter that was living in England at the time. Lisa and her office were extremely helpful in assisting her, giving her the ability to participate in the election. Our elections were and are secure as a result of the leadership of Lisa Gambee.

As a community member, Lisa is committed to keeping our towns and outlying areas safe from wildfires. She lives in Tygh Valley and knows first-hand how devastating a fire can be after the Larch Creek fire changed the landscape of their property and those around her. Living in a rural community, Lisa listens to community members and understands the importance of working together and volunteering in community organizations. She will work to keep those volunteer organizations, such as fire and ambulance, functioning by seeking more stable funding. It is important to the rural communities to know those organizations will be there when needed.

There isn’t any candidate that is more qualified. Please join me. Vote for Lisa Gambee for Wasco County Commissioner on the November ballot.

Bev & Doug Froemming

Tygh Valley

Dean for change

It is time for a change in State District 57. We need someone who will respond to the needs of the people both in small towns and rural areas. Josiah Dean is running against Greg Smith to make sure residents get the representation needed.

Josiah will listen to concerns. He has listed what he will work on for the benefit of our communities. They are wildfire resistance, community needs over data centers, resilience of family farms, water quality, and investment in rural communities.

He vows to be accountable, answer every constituent, and hold regular town halls. I am looking forward to a change. Please vote for Josiah Dean.

Kathleen Kelsay

Maupin

Gorge Tax Aide

Tax filing season may be months away, but Gorge Tax Aide is already seeking volunteers who want to serve their community through the AARP Foundation’s Tax-Aide program. Tax-Aide focuses on serving older adults with low to moderate income and helps them secure much-needed tax refunds. Dating back to 1968, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is the nation’s largest free, volunteer-based tax assistance and preparation program. Volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds and range from retirees to college students.

Gorge Tax Aide is currently seeking volunteer Tax-Aide Counselors to provide tax preparation and filing services to taxpayers within the scope limits set by Tax-Aide and IRS certification.

Tax-Aide Counselors are trained, with classes generally in December or January for the upcoming tax filing season. As part of our Gorge Tax Aide team, you will be supported throughout the certification process. Then during tax filing season, February through April, you’ll assist taxpayers with your team at a local site. Chromebooks are provided.

Additionally, greeters are needed to perform check-in duties and make appointments during the season. Greeters do not prepare taxes. Training for this position is in January.

Tax-Aide volunteers make a meaningful difference in the lives of vulnerable older adults right in their own communities. Even modest refunds make an impact on the lives of older adults, especially those living with low incomes. You can help make sure they don’t miss out on the credits and deductions they have earned and need.

For the 2025 tax season, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide and our grantees helped more than 932,000 older adults with low incomes to secure $578 million in tax refunds and credits.

Gorge Tax Aide helped a total of nearly 900 clients at our sites in The Dalles, White Salmon and Hood River and have been serving clients for more than 45 years. We have a dynamic, warm team of volunteers who are pleased to welcome more. You can make a remarkable difference.

Interested? Go to aarpfoundation.org/taxaidevolunteer for information about the program.

Sandra Camillucci

District 16 communications coordinator

No data centers

Hank Sanders wants a moratorium on data centers and he knows that’s what the majority of voters in House District 52 want. Scott Hege ushered Oregon’s first data center into the Mid-Columbia as director of the Port of The Dalles and granted a 15-year tax abatement as a county commissioner. We need new leadership!

Hank Sanders said he has personally knocked 14,000 doors,introducing himself and his priorities to constituents and listening to their stories. Many speak of the increase in prices under the current president and of their fear that data centers will continue to raise their energy costs and put their ground water at risk. Hank Sanders understands the challenges that face us and coming generations and will help protect our communities from Hege’s data centers.

Please join me and vote for Hank Sanders.

Rebecca McQueen

Mosier

Hege a leader

Hank Sanders is the current recipient of an effort to turn his youthful lack of experience into a story of impressive achievement and deep experience. Hank is a good guy. I encourage him to pursue his interest in politics. We need more young people like him to get involved. But enthusiasm is not experience.

Right now, Hank is like a promising young baseball player asking us to fund his tryout for the Boston Red Sox before he has proven himself in the minor leagues. I admire the ambition, but Oregon’s District 52 State Representative seat is not a training ground.

Hank’s professional background includes two journalism fellowship programs with respected media organizations. Those are worthwhile experiences, but fellowships designed to develop young journalists are not the same as a full time job and years of professional, managerial, or governmental experience his opponent has.

It also appears that Hank has never supervised employees or held political office. Yet, from day one, a member of the Legislature faces enormous responsibilities involving staff, legislation, state agencies, budgets, constituents, and difficult policy decisions.

His recent campaign material also identified the Friends of Tina Kotek PAC as a significant source of financial support. Oregon voters can decide for themselves if we need to increase Tina’s super majority in the legislature and how well that has gone for Oregon.

This is not about bashing a young man with ambition. It is about whether his experience matches the responsibilities of the office he seeks. Oregon faces serious challenges. We need young people preparing themselves to lead. But we also need substantial experience in positions carrying enormous responsibility. I encourage Hank to get involved in the community, build his knowledge base, gain experience, and keep pursuing public service. For District 52, with over 30 years of qualified experience, Scott Hege will have my vote as a proven leader. Oregon does not need to take chances right now.

Terry Turner

The Dalles

For Gambee

Lisa Gambee understands Wasco County. She understands that although our large county appears to be home to very different and unique towns (incorporated or not) there are, nonetheless, similarities that connect us. We have similar priorities and concerns and I have often heard Lisa address those issues and concerns with members of our different communities.

Lisa has a natural ability to speak and listen to each of us, whether we are in agriculture, small business or large business. She listens, whether we work at any level of government, or perhaps work in the recreation or service industries. She hears us if we are working or retired or searching for employment. Or perhaps we are struggling with increased insurance payments, looking for child care or concerned about the changes in our own community. Lisa listens to understand, doing so without judgment.

Lisa thinks clearly and has the ability to form a plan and execute it in ways that matter. And that is why I feel hopeful when I think about Lisa Gambee. She is that rare combination of a “people person” as well as being an organized, research-focused and detail-oriented Wasco County leader who loves our county and will work for us all.

I will feel honored to vote for Lisa Gambee for Wasco County commissioner. Please join me. Thank you,

Jane Van Vactor

Tygh Valley

New energy

We have an opportunity to do something right for our community. We have a chance to have a voice in the State Legislature that will make our community safer and healthier for each and all of us. How a candidate campaigns reveals everything about how they will conduct themselves as a political representative. Taking the time to listen and to join with folks eager to share their vision for our future is a step that Hank Sanders takes to make us all more connected and better prepared to responsibly participate in state public policy.

I see in Hank Sanders someone who will fight for us. Whether at a political gathering or at a community event, Hank has become a fixture in our local community. Knocking on every door, talking to every voter.

For the past several years, we haven’t seen our state representative. This is not acceptable and we can change that! New energy would be welcomed and useful in our community. New energy is within our power — it invites us to vote for Hank Sanders.

We also need Hank because his opponent brought data centers to our community. That opponent, Scott Hege, is responsible for increased utility rates, water pollution, and tax giveaways for trillion-dollar corporations. Scott worked for the company that built the data centers AFTER voting to give those data centers millions in tax breaks. Conflict of interest, much?

Vote for new. Vote against corruption. Vote Hank.

John Boonstra

Hood River

Against burn

The Forest Service this fall is planning a prescribed burn on 120 acres of the spectacular Memaloose wildflower area west of Marsh Cutoff Road. There is very little fuel buildup, which is the normal reason for a burn. The burn could be very damaging to the wildflowers, because fire-loving weeds could take over. Also smoke can damage lungs and grape crops, and the fire could escape as it did at Catherine Creek two years ago. If large weeds come in as they did at the Discovery Center after the fire, that would be an increase in the fuel load that prescribed burns are supposed to decrease.

The spring wildflower display in the oak woodlands of the Memaloose Area is something rarer than old-growth forest. There are beautiful oaks from California to Washington, but grazing and weeds have taken out the native grasses and flowers under oaks almost everywhere. The Memaloose area west of Marsh Cutoff Road was saved from grazing because there were a few plowed fields there, and the pioneer family that owned the land since the 1870s kept the cattle on the east side of the road until the crops were harvested.

Memaloose is the closest you will ever see to the flowers the settlers first saw under oaks in the Willamette Valley. This beautiful wildflower display is an historic remnant and should be treasured and preserved.

Fire-loving invasive weeds are a problem for prescribed burn theory. Historically, when fires were more frequent, these weeds were not here yet. If we return to frequent fires now, will that select for the fire-loving introduced species and eliminate our native plants? In the Great Basin a vicious cycle is happening where flammable cheat grass increases fire frequency, and frequent fires kill the native sagebrush and bunch grasses, leaving a cheatgrass monoculture. In the Willamette Valley there is nothing native left under the oaks so prescribed burns are fine. But at Memaloose prescribed burns could help invasive weeds crowd out our beautiful native wildflowers, and that would be a terrible loss. It should not be done.

Source: “Cheatgrass, Threatening homes, Stealing Rangelands,” Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, by  Habitat Conservation Coordinator John Fairchild.

Barbara Robinson

Lyle

Politically lazy?

Another election season is here. One of its nobler purposes is to serve as a celebration of our democracy at work. Is that how it feels to you? Maybe, 250 years after our country’s inception, we’ve become politically lazy. The only national candidates we know anything about are the ones who have been skewered by our favorite political provocateur, a “celebrity” who’s growing wealthy based on our willingness to become outraged.

I recall earlier years when I considered those with whom I disagreed politically to simply be wrong in their opinion. These days, I’m informed that those folks are not simply ill-informed, but also stupid and, most likely, evil.

It’s easy to become addicted to confirmation bias and to seek out only those opinions toward which I’m predisposed. Furthermore, brain research has demonstrated that negativity bias is real — that negative attacks stick with us longer than positive comments. I guess that’s why some local candidates whom I’ve supported have taken the low road with some of their campaigns. I get it, but I find it lacking in virtue.

An antidote to citizenship laziness is curiosity. We simply need to be genuinely curious about any claim that really fires us up emotionally. We have tools at our fingertips that allow us to explore multiple points of view. In addition, we have family members, neighbors, friends, and work associates who hold views different from our own. All we need do is to become curious and give them an honest chance to explain their position — while we listen in silence. They may even return the favor.

Doug Roof

Hood River