>Baker City Herald | Baker County Oregon's News Leader

Button, Bonebrake, Pope join incumbent Bass in winning Baker City Council seats, while incumbent Tim Kerns easily wins re-election to the Baker County Board of Commissioners

Clair Button, Aletha Bonebrake and Milo Pope joined incumbent Sam Bass in victory Tuesday night in the race for Baker City Council.

According to late-night results issued by Baker County Clerk Tami Green shortly after 10 p.m., Bonebrake garnered the most votes, with 2,550 votes, or 15.9 percent. Pope was next, with 2,448 votes, or 15.3 percent. Bass was third, with 2,074 votes, or 12.9 percent. Button’s 1,842 votes, or 11.5percent, earned him a two-year term on the council.

The others will receive four-year terms and will be seated in January.

Incumbent Baker County Commissioner Tim Kerns trounced challenger Randy Joseph, 5,288 (67 percent) to 2,575 (32.7 percent). Kerns, a farmer from Haines, will serve four more years on the county board.

Baker County voters supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in a big way. The senator from Arizona may have lost Tuesday night to Sen. Barack Obama, but in Baker County he won big, with 5,399 votes (64.5 percet) to 2,665 votes for Obama (31.8 percent).

Incumbent U.S. Senator Gordon Smith also won handily in Baker County, earning 5,407 votes, or 66.5 percent, compared to 2,088 votes, or 25.7 percent, for challenger Jeff Merkley.

U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, easily turned back his Democratic opponent, Noah Lemas of Bend, in the Baker County vote count. Walden won 6,140 votes, or 76 percent, compared to Lemas’ 1,576 votes, or 19.5 percent.

In statewide races, Republican candidates fared very well among Baker County voters. Former television newsman Rick Dancer easily defeated former Oregon Sen. Kate Brown, 5,086 votes (64.6 percent) to 2,596 (33 percent).

Among the Baker County electorate, Allen Alley, a Republican who served in Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s administration, defeated former Oregon Sen. Ben Westlund of Tumalo, 4,759 (61.6 percent) to 2,599 (33.6 percent).

Without a Republican opponent, Democratic Attorney General candidate John Kroger garnered 4,098 votes (61.5 percent). His closest challenger in Baker County was James Leuenberer, who received 1,301 votes, or 19.5 percent.

Ted Ferrioli, a John Day Republican and the Senate Majority leader, won 98 percent of the vote in his uncontested race. Ontario’s Cliff Bentz, appointed last year by county commissioners to serve the remainder of Tom Butler’s term, won 98.5 percent.