Lori Chavez-DeRemer was 150 miles from home on Thursday, marking Veterans Day in Bend and Redmond.

“I’m grateful to be over in Central Oregon to honor America’s heroes,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “I thought it was important that if I am running for Congress that it would be an honor to be there to honor our veterans.”

The former mayor of Happy Valley in Clackamas County and stalwart conservative is among potential candidates who aren’t waiting for the Oregon Supreme Court to rule for or against new political districts approved by the Legislature in late September and targeted with Republican-backed lawsuits last month. 

Chavez-DeRemer announced she would run for the 5th Congressional District seat held by U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, since the 2012 election. When redistricting pivoted the district to the east and over the Cascades, Chavez-DeRemer pivoted with it.

“Really, the only difference is the demographics,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “It’s a new chapter. The goals are the same for me — make the community whole.”

Less than 15 minutes away from the Redmond event, Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner of Crooked River Ranch is planning her own campaign against Schrader.

But where Chavez-DeRemer is a law-and-order Republican who finds Schrader too liberal, McLeod-Skinner is a Democrat who sees Schrader as too cozy with Republicans, siding with them on pharmaceutical price controls and limiting President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan.

Next door is the proposed 6th Congressional District awarded Oregon because of its 10% jump in population over the past decade. As an open seat with no incumbent, it’s a once in a generation chance for politicians to get in at the beginning and win jobs that can last for decades.

Under the redistricting plan approved by the Legislature and Gov. Kate Brown, the 6th district would include all or parts of Polk, Yamhill, Marion, Clackamas and Washington counties.

Former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith declared her candidacy for the seat. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, said last week that she was running for the seat too. 

A wrinkle shared by Chavez-DeRemer, McLeod-Skinner, Smith and Salinas: None live in the districts where they plan to run.

State lawmakers have to be a resident of their district — one of the main reasons most candidates for the Legislature are waiting for a decision from the Oregon Supreme Court that could order further revisions.

That’s not a problem for candidates for congress. The U.S. Constitution specifies that U.S. House members do not have to reside in their districts, just the state they will represent. While most end up living where they are elected, it’s not uncommon for candidates to run, then move.

Schrader considered the option until last week, saying that he was deciding whether to run in the 5th district, with the numeral that makes him the incumbent. Or the 6th district, where voters would likely be more familiar with him. His home in Canby is in the far western edge of the new 5th district. 

In the end, Schrader opted to stick with the 5th, even though it now included a swath that crossed the Cascades in Bend, Redmond and Sunriver in Deschutes County. 

“It’s going to be tough,” Schrader said told Oregon Public Broadcasting on Nov. 6. “I’ve lost half of the folks I used to represent — over half.” Schrader said the race will be an “opportunity” to win over new voters.

Schrader’s 2018 general election foe, Republican Amy Ryan Courser, had filed for a rematch against Schrader. When the new district maps came out, her house was in the new 6th district. On Nov. 1, she revised her statement with the Federal Elections Commission to switch from the 5th to the 6th.

It’s a move that Nate Sandvig made in mid-October. He had earlier filed to take on Schrader in the 5th district. That made sense when his home in Neskowin, north of Lincoln City, was part of the district’s 100-mile stretch of coast from Rockaway Beach to Yachats. The new map puts Sandvig in the southern end of Congressional District 1, now held by U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton. He’s about 20 minutes north of the northern border of the 4th Congressional District, held by U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield. 

The new 6th district is less than 20 miles to the east. To get to the closest point in the new 5th district would require a 70-mile drive over the coastal range to Macleay, just east of Salem. 

Sandvig opted to revise his FEC registration to run for the open seat in the 6th district. 

Ryan and Sandvig are now among 10 candidates to file for the 6th district, a list that includes Rep. Ron Noble, R-McMinnville — who lives within the new boundaries. 

The lists for both the 5th and 6th districts are expected to get longer. When the final approval of legislative maps comes either later this year or early in 2022, every lawmaker within the 6th district will weigh whether to jump in or stay put. 

In the 5th district, Chavez-DeRemer need only look across the crowd during the ceremonies at Veterans Village, the new homeless project in Bend, to see possible competition. One of the most active local residents on the project is former Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, a moderate Republican who lost the seat in her increasingly Democratic House district to Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend.

Soon after the Legislature approved the maps on a largely party-line vote, Helt called the design of the 5th district “ludicrous.”

“You have the largest geographical barrier in our state dividing a district that is united only because of political desire,” Helt said.

But she added she was interested in running.

Contacted again on Friday after the Veterans Day event, Helt said she was close to a decision.

“Soon,” she said.