Republican HD 29 candidate Jeff Duyck: Out.

According to NW Republican, Republican HD 29 candidate Jeff Duyck will withdraw from the race due to a Secretary of State's ruling on Duyck's residency. Apparently, Duyck does not live in the district.

From NW Republican:

Secretary Election Blunder by Secretary of State and Washington County Clerk forces Jeff Duyck to Withdraw as Oregon House Candidate

Holy Smokes! This is a completely unacceptable action by the highly partisan Democrat Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.

What does this mean for the "party of personal responsibility"? Does this doom any remaining Republican hope of regaining control of the Oregon House?

Discuss.

  • (Show?)

    Sheesh. The Oregon GOP are so inept. Fielding a candidate that doesn't even live in the district???

  • Murphy (unverified)
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    This has got to be the worst collection of bunglers since Trentino tried to invade Freedonia.

    Of course, Republicans will blame every Democratic State official in Oregon, which come to think of it, is most of them.

    Hey -- Republicans, win an occasional election, and you wouldn’t have to put up with this.

    And for Republicans here’s another tip paraphrased from that great philosopher, Rufus T. Firefly: Remember, you're fighting for [your party’s] honor, which is probably more than [it] ever did.

  • where does he live? (unverified)
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    What district does he live in?

  • Shelly (unverified)
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    I am a Democrat. I want Chuck Riley to win this race. But if you look at the circumstances surrounding this case (with just a smidge of objectivity), it doesn't seem right. IF NW Republican info is correct, Duyck has always voted in that district. The county says he's in that district. The SOS says he's in that district. He files. SOS says okay. Then they review his residency at the request of a Democratic activist. Whoops. They had always counted him in the wrong district. What was he to do? He trusted the information from the very people who did a 180 on him.

    I want Chuck to win and think he will regardless. He represents his people well. But winning this way is a black eye on Bradbury (the SOS) and Democrats who defend him. Even if Duyck doesn't live in the district, the authorities have always told him he did. Just doesn't seem right to me (if the story at NW Republican is factually correct).

  • Alice (unverified)
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    This is very interesting. The republican in HD 18, Vic Gilliam, actually lives in Seattle. He apparently owns a house in the district, but almost never stays there.

  • Betsy O (unverified)
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    Frankly, the law is the law. Duyck clearly doesn't live in the district, and thus shouldn't be allowed to run.

    Just because certain agencies made previous errors, and said he was in the district, doesn't make it right. As someone who's taken legal opinions from city and state agencies in the past, I've learned to take those opinions with a grain of salt.

    Duyck's the fool for not looking at a map. I mean, really, who doesn't look at a district map before running for office? If I looked at a map and realized the district line ran through my property, I'd double-check what was up.

  • Shelly (unverified)
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    Betsy O, good point.

    Re: Gilliam. Does anyone know the regs for residency in a district? Does simply owning a house count? Or is there a percent of time test? It would be interesting to know if Gilliam also claims Washington residency for any tax purposes.

  • (Show?)

    So when Judge Schuman failed to place his voter's pamphlet statement before the deadline and the SoS decided that "the law" really didn't apply to HIM, because Schuman was relying on false information provided by the SoS that is OK?

    How do you spell duplicity?

    Did anyone ever look into the address that former Rep. Frank Shields provided as his residence?

    I did back when he first ran for his then district 16 seat. I drove right in fron of his offical residence address. It was a church.

    Let's just understand that the law is "grey" when it comes to Democrats running afoul.

  • Superwonk (unverified)
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    Coyote: No one cares about your history lessons. This decision was based around the facts of this case and this case alone. You can drag up the past all you want, but no one cares.

    You lose.

    Yap yap.

  • Mike Clark (unverified)
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    The state and the county certified his nomination. So, the sos can say oops and state certification is meaningless?

  • (Show?)

    I think, Coyote, that there is a difference between having your photo printed in a pamphlet - which the Secretary of State has statutory authority over - and determining residency, which the SoS does not.

    (Oh, and it hardly makes a difference anyway. Chuck Riley was set to beat Jeff Duyck like a drum.)

    I do agree, however, that this is a major black eye for the elections division. And really, if you did catch Rep. Frank Shields misrepresenting his address, you should have filed a complaint. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and all that.

  • Brainless Betsy (unverified)
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    BetsyO,

    Well go ahead and check out the f#$%ing map, from the SOS office. You would think that sometime in the past 7 years Bradbury could have updated the maps from his website.

    your a piece of work

    http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/DistrictMaps/HouseMaps/hd29.jpg

  • AJ526 (unverified)
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    From the press release:

    "For seven years Washington County Elections, using data from the Secretary of State's office, has listed Jeff Duyck as a resident of House District 29. For seven years, Washington County Elections has sent Duyck official ballots for House District 29 and he voted as a resident of that district. When Duyck filed to run for office earlier this year and listed his address, Washington County Elections qualified him to run in HD-29. Finally in June, after the Primary Election, Washington County Elections certified his nomination as the Republican candidate in HD-29.

    After months of hard work, significant community support and thousands of dollars raised, Washington County Elections is now essentially saying "Whoops! Sorry, you can't run."

    "This is a serious mistake, and it shouldn't be taken lightly," said Duyck. "My family has lived in this area for three generations, and this was my opportunity to give back. The chance to serve my friends and neighbors has been taken away from me. "

    As recently as June 26, 2008, a call placed to the Washington County Elections still verified that their records listed Duyck as a resident of HD-29. Additionally, the State's "Find Your Legislator" function on the Legislative website also returned notice that Duyck was a resident of HD-29.

    "This is an egregious error," said House Republican Leader Bruce Hanna. "Jeff Duyck and his supporters trusted the County and the State and that trust was violated. What more could Jeff have done? He checked his residency with the County, with the State and through the Legislature's 'Find You Legislator' search. Perhaps most troubling, he was qualified by the Secretary of State to run and then his Primary victory was recently certified by that office as well. The residents of District 29 are the real victims in this situation; they no longer have the opportunity to send Jeff Duyck to Salem on their behalf."

    Jeff Duyck is reviewing all his options and will keep both his supporters and the media up to date.

    Background: Duyck is a former farmer and former owner of Dutch Country Mercantile and Pacific Harvest Supply. Duyck is a long time member of the Forest Grove Chamber, the Corneilus Chamber (past president) and the Forest Grove Rotary. He grew up attending Forest Gove schools and has sent his own children through the same."

    This is just ridiculous.

  • (Show?)

    I live in the district and agree that the mistake is unfortunate and shouldn't have happened - regardless of political party affiliation.

    However, that doesn't change the fact that he doesn't live in the district.

    Two wrongs don't make a right. Which isn't the same as "no harm, no foul" by any means. Duyck has a legit reason to be upset. But the fact remains that he doesn't live in the district.

    Barring him from running is half of the correct solution to this problem. The other half would be for some feet to be held to the fire in a serious way to A. find out why it happened and B. make sure that it won't happen again.

  • (Show?)

    Kevin:

    Finding out why it happened is definitely something that needs to happen. I wonder if it could in any way be a problem that began with how the USPS assigned the address at the location? It wouldn't be the first time I've seen the USPS assign an incorrect address on a larger piece of property, which then led to a person being assigned to the wrong district.

  • Fair and Balanced (unverified)
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    How quick we are to place blame.

    I don't find blame anywhere here. It's one of those very low-probability events that crop up. The agencies who certified Duyck's residency in HD29 undoubtedly relied on a street address some computer identified as belonging there, which is entirely reasonable given that the parcel lies mostly in HD29. How often does a district line cut off a little piece of a parcel, that just happens to be the piece someone lives in? And how often does that someone just happen to run for office in that district? And how often would somebody else catch the mistake?

    It took somebody actually looking closely at a map, rather than simply checking the address, to figure it out. If the government agencies had to do that routinely, they wouldn't have time for anything else. No foul, just rotten luck.

  • Superwonk (unverified)
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    Per his press release bio: "Duyck is a former farmer and former owner of Dutch Country Mercantile and Pacific Harvest Supply"

    Can someone please contact the Duyck campaign and have them add "and former candidate for the Oregon House"?

  • Tom Civiletti (unverified)
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    If this were a case of individual rights, it would be governmental abuse to disqualify Duyck, but the interests of the voters of district 29 to be represented by someone who lives there trumps Duyck's right. Either way, this does not reflect well on the Elections Division.

  • (Show?)

    Here's what else is weird to me.

    Its my understanding that Jeff Duyck was one of the top recruits for the Oregon House GOP this cycle. Its also my understanding that checking the map for the candidate's residence is part of the due diligence for those overseeing the House elections for the caucus. It seems like this could have been avoided from the outset if the folks who recruited Duyck did their basic homework.

    Certainly, its a pretty big screw up for Washington County Elections too.

    I'm curious, does anyone know which body have oversight of the Washington County Elections division? Would it be the County Commissioners? Or is it the Sec of State's office?

  • Steve (unverified)
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    Isn't Bruce Hanna, who recruited Duyck to run, the real bungler. He doesn't have the R campaign machine check this stuff out under a microscope before committing. What an inept minority leader. October surprise early.

  • Linley (unverified)
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    I am all for the Democrat winning district 29. I have no love at all for Republican politicians. However, after applying the Golden Rule to this situation, it reeks of unfairness. Yes, Jeff apparently does not live in district 29, but only by a small bit. It was a settled fact that he lived just within district 29 until this came up.

    I have no idea if this is all on the up and up or not. It is agreed that he resides outside district 29. But, how did district 29 come to be defined?

    I looked at the available maps on the Oregon site. I could find none that had sufficient detail to note where on a given person's land parcel the boundary line lay. I therefore cannot tell if it is by chance, the result of a legitimate process, that the district boundary is where it is, or whether it was deliberately placed to just move Jeff into district 26.

    Does anyone have access to or have a URL to the written description of the district boundaries? (There must be some legal basis for creating the map.) Possibly reviewing the written description would shed some light on how the boundary came to be where it is.

    I am pretty much a Yellow Dog Democrat, but I would be in favor of a special session of the legislator to move the district 29 line sufficiently to bring Jeff's residence into that district. Then we will beat him in the election!

  • (Show?)

    The maps online are typically just there to get a general feel for where the districts are - they are not official maps. You can get the official maps from the SOS office or your county elections office.

    Some county elections offices have PDFs of the official maps online, but not all.

    District 29, along with all the other districts in the state, were defined after the 2000 census.

  • SuperWonk (unverified)
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    Bruce Hanna is two for two!

    First the child beater, Matt Wingard, then Dr. Rev. Tony Marino, now someone who doesn't even live in the district! What a moron!

  • bigredpen (unverified)
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    It's impossible to adequately respond to ALL of these ridiculous comments about this. The charges about Jeff not living in the district, while true, are a frustrating surprise to everyone. He lives outside of the district, LITERALLY by 30 feet. The line of the district goes through his property and his actual physical home happens to be on the opposite side of the line. We're not talking about living a few miles out or on a different side of town. We're talking about a line of the district that goes halfway through his yard and his house happens to be on the other side.

    The conclusions that everyone jumps to that the Republicans should have known better or that Bruce Hanna doesn't know what he's doing or that they're trying to screw with voters is just as ridiculous as if the Republicans were to come out and charge the SOS or Chuck Riley or some Democrat with intentionally messing up the district lines.

    There isn't anyone to blame, it was a simple mistake by 30 feet. The law is the law and needs to be followed, but it's not something that should be seen as some political character flaw.

  • Bert Lowry (unverified)
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    BigRedPen is absolutely correct. No one (not Bruce Hanna, not the SOS office, not Chuck Riley) knew that Jeff Duyck lived outside the district. I don't see how this paints Bruce Hanna as incompetent. He believed the information he was given by the SOS.

    Simliarly, I don't see that the SOS had any choice once the problem was brought to his attention. He is obligated to follow the law. When someone filed a complaint and further investigation showed that Duyck lived outside the district, the SOS hands were tied. It's unfortunate.

    Conservate conspiracy theorists seem to think this is all part of some big plan, or at least that the SOS should violate the law to save Duyck's candidacy because Duyck did nothing wrong. You guys need to realize that sometimes things don't work out, even when you haven't done anything wrong. That doesn't mean you are due special treatment or compensation.

    And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter. Duyck wasn't going to win any way.

  • (Show?)

    This stinks, and it reflects incompetence on the part of the government officials.

    The fact that the SOS has treated his votes in the district as valid for seven years has got to count for something.

    The fact that Duyck was certified and relied on that certification has got to count for something.

    The fact that his home lot is partially in the district ought to count for something.

    He should be allowed to put a bed in a small structure on the part of his property that's in the district and call it his residence. Or something.

    This just isn't right.

  • Marcos (unverified)
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    I am very upset and and anger is to calm of a word to use. I cannot believe how evil the liberals are and how they are literally destroying our laws and defrauding the public through the use of government, law suits,etc.. They now are nullifying our Candidates!

    With some of the Judges, Secretary of State, Governors, other Government officials denying and turning over the votes of the peoples, constitutional amendments, ballot initiative's signatures and all that is legal, and putting forth their own will and now nullifying Certified Candidates for office on BS! This is Tyranny! In the past for many, these kinds of things would be grounds for armed rebellion; a revolution! I mean War!

  • LT (unverified)
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    Some months ago, I had an indepth conversation with our local county clerk about maps. I'd been looking at the mapbook maps on the county clerk's website. These are amazing maps in pdf format which one can look at (with a high speed connection or they take too long to load) which show rivers, railroads, roads and highways, all sorts of boundary lines, which can be enlarged so details are easily visible. A friend was gearing up to run for office and we had a list of pcts. in his district, so I was looking at detail about those pcts--where they are, urban vs. rural, landmarks, etc.

    These maps have lettering in red which gives the pct. number, legislative district numbers, school district numbers, ESD, whether in or out of the nearest city limits, etc. I mentioned the level of detail, and he said the final authority were the people in his office whose only job was maps and gave me their names so I could contact them for more information if I wished to find out if a specific address was in a district. He said it was a real problem that sometimes the wrong ballot had been mailed to a particular address, and elections officials were on the lookout for problems.

    It may be the Washington County Commissioners have not worked with their county clerk on a similar system. If so, it is not a plot by the Sec. of State so much as it is a monumental clerical error. Like that judge in Portland who got thrown off the ballot by an opponent (referenced in one of the posts on this topic) or Kari talking about living on the street which is the dividing line of some sort of district in Mult. Co. I think the fault in this is at the county level, not the Sec. of State.

  • marcos (unverified)
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    Where does anyone live? It is their address. We all use an address to determine where we live. That address is given to us by our Government. We conduct business with that address, sign contracts, file documents, register to vote, file taxes, etc... The address legally identifies where one lives. Land attached to a home with an address that has been recognized by every level government throughout history is only changed when a liberal political party chooses not to play fair. A house does not float in the air and has an address all unto its own. It is part of the property in which it sits on, that has a legal address to identify that house and land. The Democrats are always looking for ways to win elections through litigation or what ever process to invalidate a result that they are unhappy with. They did it in the Bush; Al Gore Elections, and have filed suits against laws and amendments passed by the voters.

    The Democrats are on a road that will cause some to lose faith in our institutions and sense of fair play and justice. In my mind this will lead to anarchy. Where you live and your home is not part of the land it is attached to and is not the address that was officially assigned to it? How bone head do you have to be?

  • Bill Eagle (unverified)
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    Duyck knew that his property was in more than one district. I am amazed that he did not make an effort to be sure that he filed for the proper district.

    I have said this before, but I will say it again: personally, I would not want someone in our legislature who does not have a clue as to what district they live in... Shame on Dyke for not knowing any better

  • Sandra (unverified)
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    Bill Eagle is a blithering idiot!

    I suppose everyone who votes should go through and check the mapbook maps at their county clerk's website to see if the boundary lines splits their home from their property and address.

    Perhaps we should see who else is a victim a boundary line through their property.

    Do we now take those who may also have a District boundary line separating their house from the rest of their property and address and challenge their right to vote in that district and prevent them from voting?

    When you fill out forms for Candidacy, what are the questions? Bill Eagle you are as stupid as they come. They use your address as the place in which you reside.

    Sandra

  • (Show?)

    Bill Eagle wrote: "Duyck knew that his property was in more than one district. I am amazed that he did not make an effort to be sure that he filed for the proper district."

    For one thing, Eagle is NOT an idiot, blithering or otherwise. For another, it's very clear that Duyck knew enough to be on notice to exercise due diligence and thus make the necessary inquiries. The Republican Party should and probably does have a compliance officer whose duty is to make sure which district the party's candidates are entitled to represent. There was failure all along the due diligence chain.

    The price to be paid is a two-year delay for Duyck. He now has two choices: (1) to move his residence into District 29 or (2) to get the line re-drawn by the Legislature. In any case, we in HD 26 accept the burden of having another Duyck in our midst.

  • Robert A. Steinegger (unverified)
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    Why doesn't he just put a big Mobile Home on the part of his property that is in the "right" district, and just "rough it" for a while? I'd like to see Chuck whup his ass for real!

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