Commissioners Diana Helm, left, and Paul Savas are leading in their races for the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, according to initial election night results.
Courtesy of the campaigns
Commissioners Paul Savas and Diana Helm are leading in their races for the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, according to initial election night results.
In the race for Position 2, Savas held 64.5% of the vote to Mark Shull‘s 34.9% as of 8 p.m.
Early results show Helm with 58.3% of the vote and R.W. Smith with 41.2% of the vote in the race for Position 4.
The election pitted moderate incumbents Savas and Helm against Shull, a staunch conservative, and Smith, a Democrat. The county GOP endorsed Helm in her race and dual-endorsed Savas and Shull for Position 2. The Clackamas County Democratic Party backed Smith and Savas.
The two sitting commissioners who were not up for reelection this year, Martha Schrader and Chair Craig Roberts, are both registered Democrats. Commissioner Ben West, a Republican, was defeated in May’s primary by Sonya Fischer, a Democrat.
The three candidates who agreed to an interview with OPB — Savas, Helm and Smith — said that affordability was among the county’s top issues. Savas and Helm also mentioned public safety as a top priority and stressed the need to renew the county’s public safety levy in May. A levy renewal that would’ve increased costs to taxpayers failed earlier this year. In his campaign, Smith emphasized his opposition to the development of data centers in the county, where only one exists currently.
Shull did not agree to an interview with OPB.
