MIKE MANNING of The Dalles drops off his ballot Tuesday with Rotary Club members manning a collection station on Fifth Street outside the county courthouse. The ballot return rate rose by more than 20 percent on the last day of the election, and Linda Brown, county clerk, credits the work done by Rotary volunteers to make the process of dropping off a ballot more efficient with a last-minute boost in the return rate. More than 73 percent of Wasco County voters weighed in on local, state and federal races, as well as seven measures.
MIKE MANNING of The Dalles drops off his ballot Tuesday with Rotary Club members manning a collection station on Fifth Street outside the county courthouse. The ballot return rate rose by more than 20 percent on the last day of the election, and Linda Brown, county clerk, credits the work done by Rotary volunteers to make the process of dropping off a ballot more efficient with a last-minute boost in the return rate. More than 73 percent of Wasco County voters weighed in on local, state and federal races, as well as seven measures.
Rod Runyon won a second four-year term as Wasco County commissioner, garnering 55.24 percent of the vote to challenger Bridget Bailey’s 44.27 percent.
“I feel humbled and positive this morning,” he said earlier today. “I’m glad people reinforced what I’ve been doing.
“I’m very grateful for all those folks that supported me,” he said. “They supported me in a lot of different and individual ways because I didn’t have a formal committee. That’s part of my thing, I’m independent and like to work that way, but people came to me and asked what they could do.” He added, “I want to continue to do the work I’ve been doing, which is serving the entire county. This is a non-partisan office and I think I work at it that way and I appreciate the support too. Very humble about the whole thing really.”
Last night was a working night for Runyon. He was at a museum commission meeting at 7 p.m., and then at 8 p.m. he started taking down his signs in The Dalles, only popping in to a party at Republican headquarters briefly.
He was out until almost midnight picking up about 80 signs, and this morning, he’s back in the office for meetings.
Bailey said last night, “I enjoyed meeting many people in this campaign. I deeply appreciate the hard work all my volunteers, friends and family did on my behalf.”
Runyon said, “I’m very glad it’s over, now I can get back to concentrate on my job and not take every waking moment for all the other stuff. Just really appreciative this morning,” he said.
Asked if he got certain clear messages from the electorate as he was campaigning, he said, “I think in south county they were very appreciative of my stance on the road district and so forth.
“They know I’ve been going out there and spending a lot of time in south county, over four years and not just recently.”
The county commission considered forming a road district that would levy a tax in order to fund the road department in light of disappearing federal funding. When The Dalles opted out of the district it put a high tax rate on county landowners. For that reason, Runyon opposed the district.
He said, “For future commissioners, they just need to listen. Doesn’t mean you always have to agree. You just need to listen and invite comment, and it’s ok to disagree as long as you pay attention and listen.”
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