New PAC funding school board campaigns

A new political action committee has raised $11,500 with expenditures so far going to support three candidates running for the McMinnville School Board.

Town and Country PAC was formed at the beginning of March with directors Kathleen Sitton of Carlton, Tom Hammer of Salem and Forrest Peterson of McMinnville. The nature of the committee is “Financial support for candidates and measures in Yamhill County,” according to its statement of organization.

The PAC spent $4,218 with Bridgeview Press, a Cave Junction business that makes campaign signs, in early April. The transaction is filed with the state as three in-kind contributions of $1,416 each for candidates Anita Humlie, running for Position 4 against incumbent Larry Vollmer; Audrey Aase, running for Position 5 against incumbent Gerardo Partida; and Shellie Reyes, running for Position 7, an open seat, against Doris Towery.

Town and Country lists Jessica Miller of Independence as its treasurer, who also is serving as treasurer for the candidate committees of Humlie, Aase and Reyes.

Sitton and Peterson each gave $1,000 to the PAC, while Hammer, secretary of the Yamhill County Republican Party, has contributed $4,000. The YCRP also gave $2,500 to the PAC, and Craig Pubols of McMinnville donated $1,500.

The PAC also spent $1,500 on April 12 to ECMO Mail Print for a mailer sent to local residences that states McMinnville School District science assessment scores dropped from 70.7% proficiency in 2015 to 37.3% in 2022. In 2018, the state science assessments were changed to the Next Generation Science Standards, a more rigorous set of testing that pairs with the state’s Smarter Balanced tests for English language arts and math. McMinnville students’ science proficiency scores have been above the state average every year between 2015 and 2022; there were no scores reported for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years due to the pandemic.

The mailer directs voters to “vote for a change on May 16” and includes photos of and the campaign websites for Humlie, Aase and Reyes. There currently are no in-kind contributions listed on ORESTAR by any of the three candidates for the campaign piece.

Towery, whose candidate committee was transferred from her 2022 run for county commissioner, has received $3,360 in contributions and spent $1,050 this year, according to the latest filings on ORESTAR, the state’s campaign finance website. Her largest contributors are Steven Rupp ($1,000), Patricia O’Leary ($1,000) and Russell Mark ($500).

Both Lu Ann Anderson and Todd Hyder, running for Position 6, created a candidate committee and listed themselves as treasurer, but neither has filed any campaign finance activity.

State law says a candidate is not required to form a candidate committee if they serve as their own treasurer, do not have an existing committee and do not expect to receive or spend more than $750 over a calendar year.

Partida also has a committee filed without any finance transaction listed, and Vollmer does not have a candidate committee filed.

Committees must file all transactions with ORESTAR if they expect to receive or spend more than $3,500 in a calendar year. Otherwise, a candidate can file a Certificate of Limited Contributions and Expenditures, and maintain its own records of contributions and expenditures. Campaign transactions completed after the 42nd day before the election must be filed within seven days of the transaction.

Aside from the in-kind contribution from Town and Country, Humlie has received $360 in miscellaneous cash contributions and $68.10 in miscellaneous expenditures.

Aase contributed $300 to her campaign along with a $500 loan, and received small donations from John Cramer ($140), Jennifer Malo ($110) and Greg Susmilch ($150). In total, she’s received $1,160 in cash contributions and lists $141.80 in expenditures on her finance filings.

Reyes received $1,000 from Yvonne Davis and $335 in miscellaneous expenditures, and has spent $129 in miscellaneous expenditures.

[Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed a $952.50 contribution from Paul Horton to Doris Towery's campaign. The amount was a cash expense made by Towery's committee.]