McHaddad: Supporting Commissioner Matt Scarfo for Another Term is Easy

I met Matt Scarfo 8 years ago when he was running for County Commissioner and I was the manager of a special district providing telecommunications services in Union and Baker Counties. As a candidate, Matt was heavily invested in understanding the region’s unique telecommunications environment. When the 2019 legislative session rolled around coinsiding with Matt’s first term, he and fellow Commissioners helped me pass two different telecommunications laws, one with unanimous votes in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Over more than a decade of going back and forth to the capital as a local government manager, lobbyist, activist, and legislative staffer, I saw Matt as a familiar face in the building. I witnessed first hand how hard he worked to get fairgrounds funding in the legislature.

One of Matt’s most agitating detractors, a retired activist who does not live in Union County and cannot vote here, wants to punish him for his perceived role in overturning an unconstitutional ballot measure. The detractor’s first act of vengeance was filing a spurious complaint against Matt with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, which should absolve him based purely on the facts of the matter. In a recent letter to the editor in the East Oregonian, this detractor cast doubt on the success of the Fairgrounds funding, making it appear that the process was for from a done deal because compliance steps remain and technically the State has not yet sold the bonds necessary to pay for this and billions of dollars worth of other programs. Sure, something might interrupt the bond sale, but these interruptions are not routine – COVID did not interrupt them, and it would probably take a nuclear war to cause such a disruption. Of course, if we see a mushroom cloud in the distance, we probably won’t be worrying about the fairgrounds.

Sad as we are about term limits leaving (I voted no), they are unconstitutional. If the measure’s supporters really cared, they would be organizing for a ballot measure to establish home rule in Union County. Instead they are tacitly acknowleding that their ballot measure was wrong by aiming for a statewide initiative to amend the Oregon Constitution to enable their term limit dreams. Friends, it’s already in there, but like most of the task of actual governance, getting term limits enacted locally is simple and tedious, making it wholly unpalatable to people who are in politics to get attention rather than effect change. I am voting for Matt for a third term as Commissioner because he has worked hard over the last 8 years without glamor or glory, and he will continue that path winning victories for Union County every day.