There are people who don’t want you to cast a ballot, and that’s why you should vote at the top of your lungs.
Maybe our local postmaster will hear you – let us explain. Earlier this week we reported the Corvallis post office had delivered the wrong voter pamphlets to what is still an unknown number of folks in South Corvallis. And yep, this is the same Corvallis post office that earlier this year chose not to pick up a few hundred primary ballots around our fair burgh.
But nothing to see there, right. So we’ll just move along.
After all, this year’s general election has piqued the local electorate’s psyche. Six of Corvallis’ nine city councilors have declined to seek reelection. City officials have revealed they’re projecting an $8 million deficit. They’ve floated the idea of new taxes to bridge the budget gap. So now we’re not just talking about democracy, but yuh know, pocketbooks.
So, we’ve hosted debates for all the contested local races, and our endorsements are below. If you don’t agree with us, hey, YOU have a vote that’s all your own.
Before you start your read, a couple quick housekeeping notes. Like we said, democracy is on the ballot federally and locally. The locally part of that is Measure 2-159, a City Charter amendment that would dramatically reshape the City Council, which we’ve treated as a separate endorsement. It turns out we had a lot to say about that one.
Plus, in the coming days we’ll be offering tips for you, as a voter, to get around having to rely on our local post office.
So, without further ado, our endorsement for the 2026 general election…
U.S. Senate – Jeff Merkley because democracy
We strongly endorse Jeff Merkley. Even if democracy itself wasn’t on the ballot, we’d still like this guy. He’s lawyerly in his approach to questioning during committee meetings. He chases fairness with legislation that really is about protecting people, and when he talks foreign affairs it’s because he knows that landscape.
U.S. House, 4th District – Val Hoyle, also because democracy
Val Hoyle continues to be the exact kind of presence we want representing us. Down to earth, principled, and effective for the 4th District. Even in the current environment, she gets projects funded back here at home. In DC, she has pursued legislation to stop what has essentially become corporations practicing medicine and works to reign in corporations generally. Hoyle has been vociferous in her opposition to the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine our democracy – and we absolutely support that.
Governor – Tina Kotek is sooo NOT Drazan
Vote for Tina Kotek, because you really-really don’t want Christine Drazan to be your governor. We envision a Drazan administration like this: the phone rings, you only hear three words: Yes, Mister President. Hell, we know Republicans that don’t want that, and we sure don’t either. Oregon may not be running the exact direction y’all want right now, but Drazan is the opposite of a solution for that.
State Senate District 8 – Sara Gelser Blouin is good for kids statewide
Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin is all about helping Oregon’s most vulnerable kids, and we think she should continue being there for them. She has served since 2015, and before that she was in the Oregon House, and before that, unsurprisingly, she served on the Corvallis School Board. She’s seen legislation come and go and come back and has developed an intuitive sense for what works and what doesn’t. Our state’s kids benefit from Gelser Blouin being exactly where she is, you can vote for her knowing that.
Mayor – Andrew Struthers is our first choice
We strongly endorse Andrew Struthers as our first choice in this ranked choice contest. Struthers has the experience, sensitivity to voter sentiment and know-how to impactfully refocus our local government – to make the changes that need to be made.
He sees a need for new city facilities – he knows now isn’t the time. Not when the City is facing a projected $8 million budget deficit. He has committed to seeking voter approval before introducing new taxes to build new facilities.
We take Struthers at his word that he won’t use a mayoral platform to pursue his own activist agendas. We believe he’ll have the mindset to anticipate difficulties like the deficit further ahead, and keep the council focused on the bread and butter that is city governance.
While we believe a change would be best, our second choice would be incumbent Mayor Charles Maughan. He knows the basics of the office. Neither Kasey Haxton nor Kimi Gatherum have served as either a City Councilor or committee or commission member.
Plus, we know him to be honorable. He is open and forthcoming, and extraordinarily fair minded. When it’s his fault, when it’s his responsibility, he readily says so. He shows up and means it, loves this city like we do, and is open-minded.
We do not appreciate the folks that villainize Maughan just because they may have a differing viewpoint. We respect Maughan, our differences with him are about priorities and positions, and the last four years’ performance, period.
We think the effort to oust Councilor Charlyn Ellis from the Council was avoidable. It was a nonstarter with a plurality of voters and former city councilors from the get-go. The claims against her were plainly not supported by the evidence presented, rather the opposite, in fact. To Maughan’s credit, he took full responsibility for putting this matter on the agenda. Still, it took a federal court finding in Ellis’ favor to put an end to the effort to unseat her.
The $200 million civic campus proposal has also been a misadventure. The public is, charitably speaking, resistant to the idea. More time and money has been spent on this than should have been. Meanwhile, a long-coming projected budget deficit that’s been ignored for years has reared its head and there is no plan.
Likewise, time and money has also been squandered with councilors and the mayor chasing activist agendas outside the city’s substantive sphere of influence – sometimes in glaringly polarizing ways.
Maughan currently sees the civic campus as necessary and would support Council taxing and spending for it without going directly to the voters. Yet, the City’s workers are now striking, and they are not asking for more office space.
In short, Maughan is an honorable dude that we happen to like, but we also think the last four years have not been what they could have, and that Struthers is the best choice for the next four years.
As no small aside, Maughan and Struthers competed for this seat four years ago; the ultimate margin was only 34 votes. So, yeah, EVERY vote counts, and no, do not trust the post office. Use a County elections dropbox – nag complete, let’s move along.
To see The Advocate Cityspeak mayoral debate, click here.
Ward 1 – We can’t endorse Either Candidate
Well, we can’t endorse either of the candidates on offer here, and with that said, maybe hold your nose and vote for Steve Clark. Both he and opponent Bre Irish know how to politick better than anyone else running for local office this year – and there’s an ick factor to that.
During The Advocate’s Cityspeak debate we learned Clark would support taxing and spending for a new city hall without seeking voter approval if at some point he reckons the public won’t completely freak out. He’s thinking, maybe seven or eight years from now. And he believes downtown livability, vitality, and safety need to be addressed first. Okay, then maybe just say that. As is, one needs to listen to the whole debate to understand what he’s saying. He had to be asked the same things several different ways. And it’s not that he’s a disordered speaker.
He’s just really-really defensive, even when there is no need. Some of this may come from his long stint working in public relations. He probably thought, straightforward answer about taxes; bad. Lying; bad. So he didn’t lie, he was just unclear in a 1990s public relations shtick kind of way.
Irish also has a shtick. Her zeitgeisty campaign videos ooze indie vibe; but look underneath and they feel performative. She talks affordability and food trucks and whatever else, but there’s no deep policy prescription offered. She taps the hot-buttons, some aren’t even issues a city councilor can do much about. She touts her big-name politico endorsements – and trashes two of them at her convenience in one of her aforementioned video smacks.
But none of this should be surprising. She worked as an aide to Senator Ron Wyden for over eight years. She’s DC smart, but maybe more on the politicking side.
Clark, on the other hand, has spent his time on various local committees and commissions. In debate, Irish touts her having worked on federal budgets.
But when asked if income and payroll taxes are less regressive than a bond levy, she said, “Potentially yes if done correctly, but again, that would be a collaborative process, and I’m not a tax expert like Steve.” It’s like she gave a good answer and didn’t know it.
On the other hand, she was direct that she would seek voter approval for new taxes.
She also said she would be willing to bring resolutions to council on national and international issues even if they do not impact Corvallis in a direct way. Clark took the opposite position.
In short, Irish is a highly skilled campaigner with contemporaneous chops, she puts out a pseudo-indie DC vibe that’s pure politics.
Conversely, Clark has that whole mid-nineties public relations shtick going on. It’s almost cute in its outdatedness. He worked as Oregon State University’s obfuscator in chief for over a decade. His official title was Vice President for University Relations and Marketing. Reporters and editors at The Advocate had different words to describe him; forthright was not one of them.
He offers better local creds than Irish and buried somewhere in that defensive public relations heart of his, there may be some good intent. But he has baggage. Regardless of outcome, an eye will need to be kept on whoever wins this ward – maybe several eyes.
Ward 2 – Tarsa Weikert for a Change
We strongly endorse Tarsa Weikert for Ward 2. A current city planning commissioner with a masters in applied ethics that works in a legal environment; yes, please. But it’s more than that.
Incumbent Briae Lewis has had four years to grapple with a City budget deficit everyone has seen coming for more than a decade. But during The Advocate Cityspeak debate it was Weikert that offered the far and away most comprehensive answers on the subject. Throughout the debate it felt like Lewis, for lack of her own answers, would often echo Weikert’s.
Weikert’s view is the City can, at least partially, grow itself out of its current deficit if it stops shooting small businesses in the foot. Most candidates would’ve stopped there, but Weikert took on some of the complexity. She recognizes the need to still charge fees that pay for infrastructure, but she supports scaling and financing those fees so they’re affordable.
She also believes any growth plan will take time, and that adding new taxes will likely be a necessary bridge. Yes, a bridge. Weikert is the only candidate to talk about sunsetting new taxes once the City’s economic growth reaches a sufficient level – we think that’s an innovative approach that deserves exploration.
Weikert adds that while she believes the City needs to grow revenue instead of cutting services, she believes the City should be looking for efficiencies.
Throughout the discussion about budget and taxes, Lewis sort of flailed, saying what she could of or should have done, and essentially verbally nodding agreement with Weikert.
Both candidates would seek voter approval before implementing new taxes. Each supports taxes that are progressive, having a floor before they kick in.
Lewis has a record of supporting foreign affairs resolutions, Weikert said she could, but also said it would be best to concentrate on the City’s business.
In any event, we respect that Lewis has grown while serving, but already, Weikert seems to just know more. And at the moment, we think the City would be best served with that change.
Ward 4 – Paul Berg is badass nice
Paul Berg is a retired engineer with a laudable résumé, both professionally and in his life as a volunteer coordinating water projects in parts of the world that need them. He’s also a niceness badass, if that’s a thing, anyone we talk to about Berg says he is someone that’s deeply decent.
In debate, he’s both straight-up and gentle at that same time, and we can see why folks tell us that what you see is what you get with Berg.
But then, opponent Evrek Smith, an OSU student that is not so well known in the broader Corvallis community, also exuded a sort of inner kindness, including towards her opponent. But she was not quite as straight-up. When we asked the candidates to describe where they fall on the political spectrum, Smith initially answered “radical democrat.”
But Smith is not a Democrat. When directly asked if she is a communist, she disclosed that she is a member of the Communist Party of the United States. Okay, but tell us the first time we ask.
Both Smith and Berg generally agree the City needs to institute new taxes, and that they should be progressive. Smith doesn’t understand why both a payroll tax and income tax together are more practical and fairer than just one singularly, and we were surprised by that. Both candidates also say they would seek budget efficiencies and economic growth to minimize the need for increased taxes. Berg worries the public won’t be willing to make the tough decision to tax themselves more or differently and believes the council will need to make the decision. Smith would seek voter approval.
Smith is against the City Charter amendments on this cycle’s ballot, believing that reductions in the number of councilors, increased term lengths and term limits are separate issues. Berg supports Meausre 2-159.
Ward 6 – Greg Shiffer aligns with Corvallis values
Of the two candidates, Greg Shiffer best exemplifies Corvallis’ values, and he has our endorsement for City Council. He and opponent Brennan Colberg share common ground on multiple points, but where they don’t we mostly side with Shiffer.
Both believe the community may benefit from new payroll and income taxes, Shiffer would seek a progressive rate, the more you earn the higher the percentage you pay, with an earnings floor in the six-figure range. Colberg favors a flat rate approach, which most experts would agree to have an outsized negative impact on lower income earners.
When the debate we hosted turned to recent revelations that the Council did not fully understand the System Development Charge changes they approved earlier this year, the candidates also differed. Shiffer expressed the view Council should have insisted on clearer explanations from City staff. Conversely, Colberg believes staff was clear enough, and that the onus was on each councilor to do their homework. We tend to think both things are true.
Colberg seeks to cut, of all things, social service dollars to some degree as a means of coming closer to a balanced budget. He cites homeless services specifically. It’s not an approach that appeals to us, even if we think our community’s homeless services and prevention dollars could be spent in a more evidence-based manner. More people than will ever say so publicly probably share his views about the roles and expectations for the homeless in our community, and it may be those expectations deserve better attention, but we don’t think topline budget cuts will help.
Both candidates believe it could be okay for Council to approve payroll and income taxes without going directly to the voters. They also support the Charter amendments in Measure 2-159. Both say they will seek to stay away from national and international issues.
Ward 7 – Jerry Ingersoll is our first choice
We are endorsing Jerry Ingersoll as our first choice in this ranked choice vote. Our second choice would be Danielle Chambers. Either, in our estimation, would be an excellent Councilor.
Jerry Ingersoll is our top choice for Ward 7 because of the time our city finds itself in. As a former Siuslaw Forest Supervisor and youth program leader, he managed 1,000 employees, competing constituencies and constricting budgets – and was recognized for “keeping the peace” by the reporters that watched him. Impressive. And very much the exact skill sets our community needs in leadership at present.
Danielle Chambers is earlier in her career but has already served on the Corvallis Phase II Charter Review Taskforce and Corvallis Housing Operational Committee, and she is a Leadership Corvallis graduate. In debate, Chambers is a total badass in all the best ways – she offers layered considered responses and demonstrates more command of the issues than some of the Council’s current incumbents. She has that rare ability to juxtapose herself against her competitors; kindly. We found Chambers to be straightforward, even when it was difficult.
Chambers would support Council approving new taxes on its own, but she seems less inclined to build a new City Hall. Ingersoll believes that in the end, maybe in several years, the City will ultimately need a new City Hall, but he has pledged that he will not support any new tax that doesn’t go before voters for their approval. Neither Ingersoll nor Chambers would bring national or international affairs resolutions before Council.
Also running, Oregon State University student Asa Jorg. When questioned about where he stands on the political spectrum, he answered ‘radical democrat.’ Only on direct questioning did he finally answer, “I am a member of the Communist Party of the United States,” which he could’ve have done in the first place. Forthcomingness is basic to leadership.
Yes to the Corvallis School District Operating Levy because kids
We strongly endorse a yes vote on Measure 2-160. Technically it adds a tax benefitting Corvallis schools, but really, it just continues a tax everyone is accustomed to paying. Voters have been saying yes to this totally optional tax every five years for two decades. More than 70% of voters approved in the last go-around.
The tax, which adds $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value to property tax bills, pays for goodies that state school funding falls short of. It means Corvallis’ students get added teaching staff for elementary music, physical education and art. At higher levels it means vocational and technical programs that may otherwise go unfunded. And at all levels, this optional tax reduces class sizes and adds school counselors, coaches and extracurriculars.
For families in northeast Corvallis, we get it, you may be feeling like the Corvallis School District has been treating you like second-class citizens lately. That’s something you can effectively deal with during next year’s school board election. But this isn’t about that, when we interviewed the teacher’s union president and one of the school board members about this operating levy, they confirmed all the extras it pays for are doled out to ALL the kids in the District, period, full stop.
Click here to see our Q&A session about this local option levy. The session includes School Board Member Sami Al-Adbrabbuh, teachers’ union president Christa Schmeder and past union president Peg Cornell.
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