In the first general election since Deschutes County voters increased their local political representation, two more candidates are poised to join the county’s enlarged board of commissioners, while a controversial ballot measure proposing to tie these seats to geographic districts appears to be failing.

For the commission seats, Morgan Schmidt and Amy Sabbadini are leading in early returns. They both faced serious challengers in the primary and failed to earn the necessary majority vote to win seats in May.

If unofficial results hold, next year the newly created five-member board will be composed entirely of candidates backed by the local Democratic Party.

Though officially nonpartisan, the county’s three-member board of commissioners has been controlled by a conservative majority for at least the last decade, with many votes breaking 2-1.

Voters increased the size of the board to five seats in 2024. Now, the makeup is poised to completely shift in 2027 due to the added seats, the ouster of a long-time conservative commissioner in the May primary, and another open seat vacated by a commissioner who ran as a Republican for Congress this year.

The expanded board fueled competition this year, resulting in a record number of candidates and a sharp increase in campaign fundraising, which topped $1 million dollars for Deschutes County positions.

Position 5

Morgan Schmidt appears to be leading Rob Imhoff for one of the newly created seats in Position 5.

At an election watch party organized by the local Democratic party on Tuesday night, Schmidt spoke to a packed room of supporters. Her speech was punctuated with cheers from the crowd as a television behind her showed predictions rolling in from around the country indicating strong gains for Democrats nationally.

“This is a very exciting night and I am so thankful to be here with all of you,” Schmidt said to whistles and applause.

She said her campaign was not about partisan politics.

“It has been about housing that people can afford in this county. It has been about real health for people experiencing homelessness in our community. It has been about mental health care for everyone in this place on their hardest day,” she told the crowd.

Schmidt is the executive director of the Red Cross of Central and Eastern Oregon and an ordained pastor. She campaigned on the need for a data-driven approach to decreasing homelessness, more support for mental health services and has said she would like to see growth directed towards cities rather than rezoning farmland.

Her opponent in the race, Imhoff, owns a custom window treatment business in Bend. He has been backed by the local Republican party and conservative leaders in the region.

Last month Imhoff’s campaign put three provocative billboards around Bend attacking Schmidt for her opposition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in 2020 and tying her to higher taxes. Both ads disclosed using AI.

For her part, Schmidt said that she stands by attending a 2020 protest against ICE arrests in Bend and didn’t mind being painted as an activist.

Position 3

Amy Sabbadini appears to be leading Lauren Connally in the open race for Position 3.

The seat is currently filled by Patti Adair, a Republican, who did not seek reelection in order to make an unsuccessful run for the Democratic-controlled 5th Congressional District.

Sabbadini campaigned with backing from local Democrats. She has said she wants to lower the cost of housing, manage growth in rural areas and improve access to mental health services — particularly for youth.

On the campaign trail, Sabbadini leaned on her experience as a former county land use planner and high school social studies teacher. She taught locally for two decades and once chaired the region’s teachers union.

At the Deschutes Democrats’ party on election night, she said that if the commission race results hold, she will strive to represent everyone in the county.

“I know for me, it doesn’t matter what label someone has,” Sabbadini said. “I’m going to listen and attempt to meet their needs to the greatest extent I can given the budget constraints. We’re here to serve all of Deschutes County.”

As of the last campaign finance update before the election, Sabbidini had raised over twice as much for her campaign as Connally did.

Connally, a Marine Corps veteran who works as an administrator in a public defense office, has said she is a long-time nonaffiliated voter. She received endorsements from both the local Independent and the Republican parties.

Measure 9-185

A district map that would alter representation in the quickly growing, politically-diverse county is failing by a wide margin in early returns.

“I’m not surprised that folks looked at this map situation and said, ‘This isn’t right for our county,’” Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler said on election night. “I think people can understand the idea of districts, but can also understand gerrymandering and the fact that this map was going to take your voting power away.”

The map was approved to go before voters in February by the current Deschutes County Board of Commissioners. It seeks to carve the county into five distinct districts, so that each region would elect its own commissioner, rather than the current at-large voting system.

The proposed map designates two districts in the Bend area and one each around less populated areas of La Pine, Redmond and Sisters.

Champions of the map have said that distinct districts would ensure voters in the outlying, less populated communities are not overlooked.

Opponents of the map say that the boundaries would give too much weight to rural areas while disadvantaging tens of thousands of residents in Bend’s more populous areas.

The city’s population alone makes up roughly half of Deschutes County and is more politically left leaning, while surrounding areas have a higher percentage of conservative voters.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/03/deshutes-county-commission-politics-election-schmidt-imhoff-connally-sabbadini/