Jackson County Elects First Woman D.A.
Paulie Brading
Beth Heckert is the county's first female district attorney. She defeated Rob Patridge, a three term state representative who served as majority whip for the GOP in the Legislature and served on the Medford City Council. Patridge, currently serving as district director for U.S Rep Greg Walden came in far behind Heckert who had a commanding lead in the race with 55% at 10:15 pm last night.
Patridge was endorsed by Walden, numerous current legislators, Medford City Council members, Jackson County commissioners and Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters and the Medford Mail Tribune editorial staff.
In this election, a career politician with little prosecutorial experience was soundly defeated. Beth Heckert's extensive trial court and administrative experience as Chief Deputy District Attorney won the day. In a column a few months back I wrote that Patridge was an opportunistic candidate seeking another "job hop" to return to Salem. For now, it seems Patridge will continue to serve as Walden's distict director.
Kudos to the Heckert campaign team for running a great campaign!
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8:47 a.m.
May 16, '12
I am encouraged to see that Jackson County citizens voted with their brains and not their ultra-conservative hearts. The better candidate won. (Hoppe didn't stand a chance.) Rob Patridge came across as an impulsive job-hopper. Very glad the voters saw through his being endorsed by so many entities in Jackson County.
11:41 a.m.
May 16, '12
Wow. That's huge news. So much for any hope that Rob Patridge had of succeeding Congressman Greg Walden.
Good to see the good people of Jackson County spot political opportunism when it's presented to them.
1:55 p.m.
May 16, '12
how can the folks in Oregon's 2nd Congressional District move forward from this win in Jackson County and work together to recruit a serious and credible candidate to run against Walden in 2014? and what support can DPO provide in such an effort? or have we been written off by DPO?
11:38 p.m.
May 17, '12
If there's a serious and credible candidate with a plausible chance of winning, I am confident that the DPO, the DCCC, and many others will be right there with you.
The challenge is finding a serious and credible candidate with a plausible chance of winning.
11:00 a.m.
May 24, '12
So how do the geographically and politically diffuse democrats in cd2 start working together now to create an infrastructure that can identify, encourage, and support such a candidate in 2014? And what can and should CD2 dems expect from DPO in the way of support and guidance in such an effort ?