With little more than a week until Election Day, affordability and public safety are taking center stage in the race for two seats on the nonpartisan commission that leads the Portland area’s purplest county.

In one of the two races for the Clackamas County commission, voters will choose between two Republicans: the moderate longtime incumbent Paul Savas and conservative firebrand Mark Shull, a former commissioner who lost re-election to Democrat Melissa Fireside two years ago.

Also on the ballot: Diana Helm, a moderate who was appointed to Fireside’s seat in 2025 following Fireside’s indictment on fraud charges, and Democratic challenger R.W. Smith.

All four candidates advanced to the Nov. 3 general election after securing places as the top finishers in May’s primary.

The primary also saw former commissioner Sonya Fischer, a Democrat, secure more than 50% of the vote to defeat Commissioner Ben West, a Republican who ousted her four years before.

West has since taken a job as the city manager of Junction City, a role he is serving in as he finishes out the remainder of his term.

Position 2: Savas vs. Shull

Incumbent Savas has served on the commission for nearly 16 straight years. He was first elected in 2010 and began serving in 2011. Shull was elected to the commission in 2020. Shortly after he took office in 2021, the rest of the commission — including Savas — called for Shull’s resignation when several of his bigoted social media posts resurfaced. Fireside beat out Shull when he ran for re-election in 2024.

In terms of campaign funding, the two Republicans could hardly be further apart. As of Oct. 21, Savas had raised more than $105,000. Shull had raised just $1,870.

Savas’ largest donations were $8,000 from Building A Stronger Oregon, the campaign funding arm of the North Coast States Carpenters Union; $7,000 from the political action committee of a local electricians’ union and another $7,000 from Cherrydon MHP, a mobile home park business with a corporate address in Vancouver, Wash.

Asked about the donation, Savas called mobile home parks a very affordable option for housing. He added that the company is based in Vancouver, but it does business all over the country.

Savas, the owner of an engine tuning business, told OPB the county’s biggest issue is managing economic inflation and “trying to figure out a way to help families make ends meet.”

He hopes to work toward this by spurring economic development to bring more high-paying jobs to Clackamas County. Savas’ campaign materials also mention his desire to expand essential services without raising taxes.

Shull’s largest contribution was $1,000 from Bryan Witt, the founder of a private security services firm. Shull, who declined an interview with OPB, stated on his campaign website that he does “not accept money from special interests.”

Shull said he would “consider answering specific questions” via email, but did not answer the questions OPB sent. Shull’s only response was to demand “empirical evidence” of the bigoted comments he made on social media prior to his election in 2020. That was in response to OPB asking, “Do you think the comments you made on social media in 2020 and 2019 that prompted calls for your resignation shortly after you took office will have any bearing at all on voters as you try and return to the commission?”

In addition to asking for “evidence” Shull said, “Hearsay does not deserve a response.”

The posts have since been deleted, but their content is memorialized in numerous stories by local media. When OPB pointed this out and included the text of 15 anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim posts he made between 2019 and 2020, Shull did not respond.

In response to questions from OPB ahead of the May primary race, Shull said “My approach is straightforward: keep county government lean, reduce the regulatory burden that drives up housing and business costs, and prioritize core services without raising taxes.”

Savas also said he’s focused on the sheriff’s office levy. In May, Clackamas County voters rejected a renewal and increase of the current levy which funds about 17% of the sheriff’s office operating expenses. The county plans to put the levy back before voters next May before funding expires in June.

“We need to work on that,” he said. “That was not promoted like it typically had been in the past [during previous renewal votes].”

Savas called himself a “coalition builder” and said his ability to build relationships with other leaders sets him apart from Shull.

Shull’s campaign website also mentions “resolving the drug and sidewalk camping crisis,” supporting local business, “stabilizing public safety,” and advocating for the repeal of Oregon’s sanctuary laws. Stretching beyond the Northwest, Shull’s website expresses opposition to the war in Iran and support for replicating the leadership of former authoritarian Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew.

Position 4: Helm vs. Smith

Helm, a former city councilor and mayor of the now unincorporated town of Damascus, was appointed to the Clackamas County Commission in early 2025 following the resignation of Fireside, who fled the country after she was indicted for fraud.

Helm’s opponent is a newer name for Clackamas County voters. R.W. Smith told OPB he “used to fly experimental aircraft,” then worked for the oil services company Halliburton. He said he opted to get his degree in environmental sciences after realizing Halliburton was “an evil corporation.” He said he has also volunteered with the city of Milwaukie and served on the county’s community action board and climate advisory committee.

Helm has the backing of two fellow commissioners on different ends of the political spectrum: Ben West, a Republican and Martha Schrader, a Democrat. Helm also has the endorsement of several county mayors and the union representing Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies. As of Oct. 21, she had raised about $30,000 in campaign donations since the May primary. Her largest contributions were $5,000 from the local firefighters union, $5,000 from the sheriff’s office union and another $5,000 from Cherrydon, the mobile home park company that also contributed to Savas’ campaign.

Oregon campaign finance records do not show Smith’s campaign. He told OPB he had raised $727 in donations as of Oct. 21, short of the $1,500 threshold that requires candidates to report campaign transactions. But Smith has some notable endorsements, including from the Democratic Party of Clackamas County, the mayor and city council president of Milwaukie, two former county commissioners and all five of the other candidates who ran against him and Helm in the May primary.

Smith has focused much of the campaign on opposing data center development. Clackamas County currently has one known data on the Siemens campus in Wilsonville, an area the county does not have land use authority over.

Smith described the growth of data centers — which in Oregon are prevalent primarily in Washington County, the Columbia Gorge and Eastern Oregon — as a “virus.”

He has also criticized Helm for calling for a moratorium on data center development after saying that Clackamas County “can and should have data centers.”

The commission unanimously approved a temporary moratorium on data centers in unincorporated Clackamas County on Oct. 22.

Helm told OPB that her stating the county “can and should have data centers” in a July 7 meeting was taken out of context. She said in that meeting that she wanted to “alleviate” the community’s fears about data centers but that she also did not want the county to be “blindsided” if tech companies began to show interest.

She told OPB that she was the one who wanted the commission to discuss data centers in the first place because the county did not have any policies or restrictions for the facilities.

“I’m just saying we need to walk into this with eyes wide open,” Helm said. “I’m not pro-data center. I’m not anti-data center.”

Like Savas, Helm said affordability is the most important issue facing Clackamas County right now.

“Unfortunately at the county level, I can’t affect the gas prices. I can’t affect food prices,” she said. “What I have been working on are things like speeding up our permitting processes so that we can build homes faster.”

Smith, who mentioned he is also concerned about rising costs for families, said he would like to offer rural communities a tax incentive to grow more local food to help address food insecurity.

Helm added she’s also hearing concerns from voters about public safety. To address that, Helm mentioned the county is working on a renewal of the sheriff’s levy, but at a different rate than the amount voters rejected in May.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/24/oregon-clackamas-county-commission-election/