The controversial end of a local term limit law has become one of the top issues in a race for Union County commissioner. In the first general election without the eight-year term limit in place, both candidates who lead the runoff are seeking a third term.

Incumbent Union County Commissioner Matt Scarfo is facing a challenge from Donna Beverage, a former two-term commissioner, in Tuesday’s election.

Up until now, both Beverage and Scarfo would’ve been prevented from running again by a 2016 local ballot measure that prohibited them from seeking a third term in office. That measure was overturned by a judge in 2025, who ruled that the term limit law was illegal under the Oregon Constitution.

The judicial review came at the request of the Union County Board of Commissioners, which included Scarfo at the time, raising new ethical questions for the candidate ahead of the election.

The change has frustrated some Union County residents, who overwhelmingly passed the term limit ballot measure a decade ago. They argue these limits encourage new faces and voices in county government that are more responsive to constituents.

Beverage said some voters have also questioned why she’s running for a third term and going against the spirit of the term limits voters previously approved.

This year’s election in Union County is the latest chapter in a decadeslong debate over whether term limits should cap how long officials can stay in office, or if it should be up to voters to decide that question at the ballot.

The post-term limits landscape

Beverage said she can’t remember exactly, but she thinks she voted in favor of the term limit ballot measure back in 2016.

A farmer and a longtime community volunteer, she was making her first run for county commissioner that year. Beverage won her race and committed herself to serving just two terms.

“Never once did anybody approach me and say, ‘Hey Donna, could you check on the constitutionality of this?’” she said. “I just assumed because the voters had voted on it, it was constitutional, and I went with that.”

Beverage said she didn’t immediately begin plotting a political comeback after the ballot measure was overturned last year, but after receiving encouragement from voters she filed for Position 2 on the board of commissioners — the seat currently held by Scarfo.

Beverage said she filed for the position because the seat traditionally oversees public safety and public health issues, not to challenge Scarfo specifically.

“I’ve had nothing to do with thrashing my opponent,” she said. “I am running on what I have to offer.”

Scarfo was among the three commissioners who petitioned a judge to review the term limits law, and faced repercussions for his vote.

A Union County voter filed a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, and in August, Scarfo reached a settlement with the agency where he agreed that it was a conflict of interest for him to vote for an action that could result in him serving another term.

It’s become an issue for some voters. At a busy intersection in La Grande, anti-Scarfo campaign signs include a tally of how many people voted for term limits and the signature Scarfo used to sign the settlement with the ethics commission.

OPB reached out to Scarfo for comment, but did not receive a response before press time. At a candidate forum earlier this month, Scarfo defended his actions, saying that the commissioners didn’t vote to overturn term limits.

“We were asking for clarity on the legality of it,” he told the audience. “We know that it would be a judge’s decision, not a county commissioner’s decision to do so. I’m kind of like the sacrificial lamb. Everybody’s pointing fingers at me.”

The debate over term limits and Scarfo’s role in prompting the judicial review of them has spilled over into social media and the editorial pages of local newspapers. In a recent letter to the editor to the La Grande Observer, resident Mary McCracken wrote that Scarfo’s defense of his actions didn’t account for how overwhelmingly popular term limits were with Union County voters.

“Clearly Union County residents want fresh ideas, not entrenched Good Old Boys with their ‘connections,’” she wrote.

While nearly more than two-thirds of Union County voters supported term limits in 2016, the end of term limits has yet to sink the candidacies of either Scarfo or Beverage. In a three-way primary election in May, the pair collectively earned more than three-quarters of the vote. While neither received an outright majority to avoid a runoff election, Scarfo held a small lead.

A statewide debate

When Union County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Powers ruled against the term limit ballot measure last year, he had a long legal history to look back on.

In 1992, Oregon voters passed Measure 3, a sweeping set of constitutional amendments that placed term limits on the state Legislature, Oregon’s congressional delegation and every statewide office. But its policies were short-lived.

Three years later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not impose restrictions on federal offices, which invalidated the state’s congressional term limits. In 2002, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling overturning Measure 3 altogether because it combined multiple amendments into one measure. Ballot measures to reinstitute congressional term limits in 1996 and the Oregon Legislature’s term limits in 2006 failed at the ballot box.

Term limits have more recently resurfaced as a local issue as voters try to enact them at the county level.

In 2018, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that a Douglas County term limit requirement for its board of commissioners was unconstitutional because the state didn’t require limits for county commissioners. Judge Powers cited the Douglas County case when he made his ruling overturning Union County’s term limits.

Some academics have questioned whether term limits do encourage newcomers to run for office. A 2006 study that examined states with legislative term limits found that the rule actually made state lawmakers less beholden to their local constituents in favor of more statewide issues, and in some cases “lobbyists would stick around while legislators would come and go.”

Term limits vs. ‘Kitchen table issues’

Running as an explicitly pro-term limits candidate, Rosa Rice finished in third in the May primary.

A La Grande property manager, Rice said she was inspired to run because of the sense of betrayal she felt after the court overturned Union County’s term limit rule.

“I just think that term limits are good for democracy,” she said. “I think it’s part — or should be a part — of a healthy democracy and making sure that it’s about public service and not power.”

Rice thinks the primary race came down to name recognition. Plus, she said, term limits weren’t the only issue important to voters.

“There is certainly a group, a large group, that is very upset,” she said. “But there was also people that were like, ‘Who cares? Let’s talk about kitchen table issues.’”

Rice said she heard from Union County voters that were concerned that their children wouldn’t return to the county after leaving for college due to issues like a lack of housing or affordable childcare.

If elected, Beverage said she’d like to work on improving Union County’s housing. She said she supports an effort from state Sen. Todd Nash, R-Enterprise, to allow some rural communities to relax their urban growth boundary requirements to build more housing.

While Scarfo and Beverage are competing for a third term, the board of commissioners will get some new blood next year. In the election for the open Position 1 seat, Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative board member Cory Miller defeated former Oregon House Speaker Mark Simmons in the primary.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/30/union-county-commissioner-term-limits/