Bacon winning; McBride takes slim lead in Newberg
In Newberg’s District 3, incumbent Denise Bacon was well ahead of challenger Adam McGuffie in early-morning returns, with 5,946 votes, or 64.32%, to McGuffie’s 3,257, or 35.23% of the vote.
Bacon has been twice elected and once appointed to the Newberg City Council, serving since 2009. She had argued that the council will need her institutional knowledge, as so many of the councilors are newcomers. She also pledged to help the city recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to keep the community "at the center of all the decisions we make."
Newberg saw a surge of candidates, after a tumultuous couple of years with infighting among its city staff. The city has a new city manager, who arrived in February.
In District 5, where four candidates are vying for a seat, Mike McBride took a lead of 32 votes over Maryl Kunkel in the 1:37 a.m. report, with 3,204 votes, or 33.20% of the total.
McBride has served for 35 years on the Chehalem Parks and Recreation Board, and said he was running in part to help keep costs down for city residents. McBride also argued that the city council should not have gotten involved in the city staff turmoil.
Kunkel, who led in early returns, had 3,172 votes, or 32.87%. There were 2,577 "undervotes" by voters who didn't select a candidate.
Kunkel said the city needs to be more inclusive of residents, including doing more outreach to Spanish-speaking residents, and providing Spanish translation in meetings and documents.
Trailing in the race were Nicholas Morace with 2,550 votes, or 26.42%, and Shy Summer Montoya with 693 votes, or 7.18%.
Last November, the city council released a report from an investigator that outlined internal conflicts among the city’s HR director, information technology director, Police Chief Brian Casey, a police captain, the city attorney and others.
Since then, Casey has retired and HR Director Anna Lee has resigned. Lee was placed on administrative leave in January and resigned shortly afterward.
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