Douglas County Commissoner Race, Round 2

     TWO New Commissioners To Take Office January, 2015

     Now that Oregon's longest-serving county commissioner has announced that he'll retire in the middle of his term, effective July 31st, there will be another election for Douglas County Commissioner this November. Doug Robertson is stepping down after serving 33 years as a Douglas County Commissioner.
     No, I don't expect to file again for the office, even if people approach me again and offer me the money to file for the office. My stage four cancer, barring a miracle, will keep me out of commission for awhile. Two candidates...2008 candidate Rich Raynor, and 2014 candidate Dale Rogers...have already announced they will run to serve the remainder of Robertson's term. Other potential candidates have two months to file for the job; the winner takes office in January.
     I would like to see all of the candidates who ran in May, 2014, file to run for the new position: Rogers, Monte Smith, Mick Fummerton, Mark Vincent, and Alan Nielsen. It would be great to see a race where everyone basically enters the race on a level playing field, unlike the May, 2014, election where one candidate had already amassed more than $100,000 in special interest PAC money before the election was even underway.

Can A Candidate Win With Less Than 50 Percent Of The Vote?

     One interesting question that I would like to see answered: Will the one candidate who receives the most votes in November, 2014, automatically win the election, even if they don't receive a majority (50+%) of the votes?
      The May, 2014, election would have sent the top two vote-recipients to advance to the November, 2014, election, if the one candidate had not received more than 50 percent of the votes.
      So what happens when the November election is the FIRST election for a particular race? Is there no run-off election between the top two vote-recipients?
    

Oakland Democratic Precinct Person

     Perhaps the biggest surprise or shock for me during the past month came to me this past week. It had nothing to do with the Douglas County Commissioner's race, my stage four cancer, or the Medford teachers strike. It came from the Douglas County Clerk's office:

     I have been nominated/elected to be the Democratic Party precinct person for Oakland.

     The Douglas County Clerk's office sent me a letter, stating I had received the most write-in votes for the Democratic position. I am currently registered as a Republican, so I had no idea that there were no Democratic candidates on the Democratic ballot to represent the Oakland voting precinct. What makes this even more incredulous is that four years ago, I received the most write-in votes on the Republican ballots to be the Republican precinct person for Oakland. I was the Republican precinct person for two terms/four years until this year. I am no longer holding that position, because I did not file for the Republican precinct position, but someone else did this year.

     Similar situation in Douglas County Commissioner's race of 2000.

     I learned years ago that when nobody files for a partisan position...whether its Douglas County Commissioner (back when it was a partisan race) or a local party precinct person...voters can nominate whomever they want from any party to represent them. Republicans can elect Democrats and Democrats can elect Republicans. But only if nobody has filed for the position. A Republican, for example, can not file to run as a Democratic candidate. Only someone from their own party can file for a partisan office.

I appreciate the bi-partisan support that I've received over the years.

     When I've run for Douglas County Commissioner in the past, I've often said that I have support from different parties and sectors of the public. I base that statement on the outcome of the 2000 commissioner's race. There were four Republican candidates and no Democratic candidates in that election. The incumbent, Joyce Morgan, won. While I came in third from the Republican votes, I came in SECOND with write-in votes from the Democratic voters:

Republican votes
1. Joyce Morgan
2. Bob Free
3. Monte Muirhead
4. Terry Westfall

Democratic votes
1. Joyce Morgan
2. Monte Muirhead
3. Bob Free
4. Terry Westfall

     During the primary election, Joyce Morgan publicly solicited Democratic write-in votes, even though she was a Republican candidate! That's because she knew that if one of her opponents received more Democratic write-in votes than she did...then that Republican opponent would go on to the November general election, and be on the November ballot as the Democratic candidate, even though the person would be a registered Republican! As it turned out, Morgan's strategy worked. She received the most Democratic write-in votes, automatically assuring her name would be the only candidate's name on the November ballot.
     It's nice to know that people still support me enough to write my name on the ballot and elect me to a position, Republican or Democratic.

June 8th Entry

     Today, I attended the high school graduation party for my niece, who will be attending Northwest Christian University in Eugene this fall. I can share in her excitement, having graduated with a diploma at three different points in my life (1984, 1989, 2012).
                       ===================================
     With no rain this past week, and no rain forecast this coming week, it looks like I'll have to start watering plants again. (Sigh!) Oakland has the highest water rates around, so that's not a pleasant prospect. But some of the plants need to have that extra attention:
* Pink rhododendron bush purchased at Wintergreen Nursery in Winston April, 2013, when my Mother was in physical rehab.
* Dark Purple rhododendron bush purchased at the 2013 Douglas County Master Gardener's plant show at the fairgrounds. My older sister planted three rhodies decades ago, but they all died out. I vowed that I wouldn't let that happen to THESE rhodie plants.
* Pink Dogwood tree purchased in 2013 from the Arbor Day foundation. We've already lost one pink dogwood, one of my Mother's favorite trees, so I can't let that happen again!
* The free Red Maple seedling that the Arbor Day foundation sent with the dogwood tree. Hey, it's free, so I might as well try and salvage it!
* Huckleberry bush purchased at the Master Gardener's show. I got it because, how many other people can say they have a huckleberry bush?
* Yellow rose bush. We have red ones and pink ones that have endured for decades, but we've had tough luck trying to get a yellow (my Mother's favorite color) rose bush growing strong.
     So, if anyone sees me bending over in the yard, you'll know I'm moving the garden hose to a different location. I initially got the plants this past year to cheer up my Mother, but now that I'm facing a terminally ill disease with perhaps only a couple years to live, helping make sure these plants stay alive and flourish has taken on new meaning for me.

Monte's Manic Medical Monday

     I do not make it a practice to post personal information about me on the world wide web. However, I am making an exception this weekend, giving a sample of what my current "work" schedule is like.

     People ask me how I feel, and most of the time, I honestly feel fine and energetic...as long as I don't move faster than a walking pace. A person would HAVE to feel fine, in order to keep the rigid medical schedule that I sometimes have.

     Driving myself to the emergency room because a tube has fallen out my back, or visits to multiple doctors' offices on the same day, are routine for me. Below is an example:         

 

MONTE'S MONDAY ITINERARY
 Just another routine day at the office for me...

*      9:00a.m.--Call Northwest Surgical Specialists in Eugene-Springfield to arrange replacing the  

        nephrostomy tube that FELL OUT of my back early Saturday morning.
*      10:30a.m.--PTScan at Harvard Avenue imaging that was ordered three weeks ago by my Eugene

        surgeon. (These life and death tests take time to schedule.)
*      11:30a.m.--Blood work at Mercy Outpatient lab.
*        1:30p.m.--Appointment with medical oncologist to review blood lab work.
*        2:00-4:00p.m.--Chemo infusion at Community Cancer Center.

        No, I'm not disillusioned YET. I'm just fed up with being a full-time patient.

A Person Only Needs One Kidney

     This is one short story that could be part of an entire book of the medical experiences I've endured the past 21 months. I can live with pain, healing, challenges, sacrifices, and other setbacks in life. But I'm getting fed up with medical equipment that doesn't do what it's supposed to do, or a lack of medical equipment to address the needs of certain medical conditions. Case and point:
      I'm writing about last night's incident, not because it has any significant impact on my overall medical treatment, but because it's yet one more surreal moment that occurred, where one has to ask, "Is this really happening to me?"
      I drove myself into Mercy Medical Center at 3:00a.m. Saturday, because my nephrostomy tube had fallen out of my back! Yes, one of the two tubes connecting my internal kidney to an external drainage pouch, FELL OUT! Does anyone have any idea of what it feels like to know that something critical for your body's performance is suddenly dangling along your leg..??...
      With the straw-thin tube in one hand, I drove to the Emergency room in Roseburg. THIS time, I came prepared. I brought my cell phone charger with me! It had only been three weeks ago that I had visited the Mercy E.R., where they had diagnosed a pelvic tumor, and whisked me away by ambulance to Riverbend hospital in Springfield. I spent three days at Riverbend, without my cell phone charger, while they installed the nephrostomy tubes. (The tumor was blocking the tubes connecting my kidneys to my bladder, so the nephrostomy tubes provided a temporary bypass around the blockage.)
      Well, THIS TIME, I brought my cell phone charger with me to Mercy, "knowing" that they would immediately transport me to Riverbend (again) so that the disconnected nephrostomy tube could be replaced.
      Silly me, I forgot that a person can function with only one kidney. The Mercy E.R. doctor told me that the hole in my back had already closed off in the hour and a half since the tube had come out. Long story short, I was able to return home for the weekend. BUT, I will need to call Eugene Monday morning, anticipating they will want to schedule an appointment right away for me to have the tube put back in. I'm hoping that it can be a one-day visit.
      So WHY did the tube fall out to begin with? That remains under investigation.

The Blog Continues

     I've been dead to the world this past week, so it's been somewhat difficult to take the initiative and resume my blog after the May 20 election. After all, there's a certain expectation that once I begin the blog, I will be making contributions of some sort on an ongoing basis.

     Part of the problem is, that prior to my "campaign" entries that were posted March-May, I was transcribing previous weekly newspaper columns that I had written. I have a few newspaper columns left at my disposal...but the big cache of newspapers from all five-plus years of my work...still hasn't been found. When I find it, I'll have a lot more entries to post on a daily basis. But in the meantime, I'm kind of dry on material. I'm not sure if my current chemo-filled, oxycodone-induced mind is capable of writing something relevant (not!).

     What I've decided to do in the interim is not write "columns" that focus on a particular topic...but rather a journal, or "diary" type entry profiling my thoughts for the day. Granted, it may not be as whimsical as some of my columns, but I'm hoping that my stash of newspapers shows up soon, anyway.

IT'S NICE TO HAVE FRIENDS!

     One of the American missionaries whom I met while I was an exchange student in Brazil, is now retired in Eugene. He found out through the gravevine that I had cancer, and he's meeting me for lunch in Sutherlin on Saturday.
     Other friends from my high school days have recently initiated contact with me. I hope I can stay awake long enough to converse with them all! I'm looking forward to being in the Oakland Community Theater melodrama the last two weekends in June...and right now, that is as far out as my "long-range" plans take me.