Two Bend area state House seats are the latest battleground in Democrats’ push to create a larger toehold in the traditionally Republican areas east of the Cascades. 

After winning House District 54 in 2020, Democrats are aiming for House District 53.

Republicans want to hold House District 53 and try to flip House District 54 back to the GOP side.

The 2020 US Census required redistricting legislative and congressional districts to balance population sizes, a process completed by the Oregon legislature in September 2021. The new districts go into effect with the 2022 election.

Democrats currently hold a 37-23 majority in the House and 18-11-1 majority in the Senate (One senator elected as a Republican has changed to the Independent Party).

All 60 House seats are up for election in November. Sixteen Senate seats are on the ballot. Senate District 27, which includes the combined area of House District 53 and 54 won’t be up for election until 2024. Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, won re-election in 2020.

The legislature does not have a scheduled session until January 2023, with lawmakers elected in November taking their seats. 

Booming Bend lifts Democrats

Deschutes County and suburban Portland recorded booming population growth in the 2010s. The demographic shifts ensured the Bend area would have more compact legislative districts.

Higher percentages of new residents in the Bend area have tended to vote Democratic, a departure from the long history of Republicans winning all or most of seats east of the Cascades.

The trend toward Democrats that began in Bend has shown up more recently in the election of Democrat Phil Chang to the Deschutes County Commission and the county voting for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Biden was the first Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to win a majority of the county vote (Bill Clinton won a plurality in 1992 in a three-way race with President George H.W. Bush and independent H. Ross Perot). 

House District 54 in Bend was represented by Republicans for 18 of the first 20 years of the 21st century. Moderate Republicans Jason Conger, Knute Buehler and Cheri Helt won the seat despite increasingly larger Democratic voter registration margins. Incumbent Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, defeated Helt in 2020 and is seeking re-election against Republican Judy Trego. The district has a strong Democratic voter tilt.

House District 53 has been represented by Republicans for all of the 21st Century. It was significantly realigned by redistricting.

Nicknamed “the doughnut district” to describe how it wrapped around Bend, it took in Redmond, part of north Bend, and swung around to pull in Sunriver and La Pine.

The solidly Republican seat was long held by Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, who retired in 2018. Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, won the last two elections. While often working with their Republican colleagues in House District 54, both Whisnant and Zika compiled more conservative voting records than the Bend moderates.

Redistricting cleaved the bottom of House District 53, with Sunriver and other areas now mostly in House District 55, centered around Klamath Falls.

The more compact House District 53 is centered on Redmond and northern Bend and has a Democratic voter registration tilt. Zika has opted not to seek another term.

The November election is between two northern Bend residents, Democratic attorney Emerson Levy and Republican businessman Michael Sipe.

House District 53

Emerson Levy

Democrat, Independent

Attorney, Bend

Michael Sipe

Republican

Businessman, Tumalo

House District 54

Jason Kropf

Democrat, Independent, Working Families

Attorney, Bend

Judy Trego

Republican

Non-Profit Leader, Bend

Campaign finances – 2022

Emerson Levy

Raised: $53,034

Spent: $35,653

Cash on hand: $42,173

Levy rolled over funds from her 2020 campaign and contributions in 2021 to have the current cash-on-hand balance.

The largest donation to Levy’s campaign is $10,000 from Local 48 Electricians PAC of Portland. Future PAC House Builders, the PAC backing Democrats running for the Oregon House, has given $8,600. She’s received $2,500 each from the Oregon Firefighters Councils and from the Citizens Action for Political Education, a PAC of the SIEU public workers labor union.

Levy has spent $7,380 with Bend-based Run for Oregon, for management services. She paid Alexandria, Va.-based Pivot Group $3,691 for 10,000 pieces of literature for door-to-door campaigning.

Michael Sipe

Raised: $280,742.00

Spent: $194,131.30

On hand: $89,578.06

Sipe’s largest amount of incoming funds was a $50,000 loan from Cross Pointe, a Bend private equity and business development company Sipe founded and serves as president.

Contributions include $15,000 from Sunriver property company owner Robert Bennington, $10,000 each from Bright Wood Corporation of Madras, Lake Oswego investor Dale Stockamp, Norkote Branch Manager Dana Gillet of Bend, Jon Tompkins of Bend.

Pahlisch Homes co-owner Joanna Palisch of Bend has given $10,000, while co-owner Dennis Pahlisch has contributed $5,250.

Sipe also received $17,000 in in-kind contributions for polling from Evergreen Oregon PAC, the Prineville-based PAC backing GOP legislative candidates.

Sipe’s largest expenditure has been $34,000 with Max Marketing of Bend for radio and television advertising buys. His largest single expenditure was $25,000 to be a title sponsor of the Deschutes County Fair.

Jason Kropf

Raised: $41,965

Spent: $48,190

On hand: $6,334

Kropf rolled over funds from his 2020 campaign and 2021 contributions to have the cash on hand total listed.

The largest contribution is $2,500 each from the Oregon Soft Drink PAC, and the Oregon Hospital Political Action Committee.

The largest expenditure was $30,716 to Future PAC House Builders, the fund for Democratic candidates for the Oregon House. No expenditure for his 2022 campaign is over $2,000.

Judy Trego

Raised: $33,643

Spent: $14,841

On hand: $13,152

The largest contributions to Trego are $5,150 from Lake Oswego investor Dale Stockamp, $5,000 from Eugene Family Flying manager Kathleen Jones McCann of Springfield, and $2,350 each from Greg and Sharree Strausbaugh of Sunriver.

Trego’s largest expenditures are $4,700 to Carlson Sign Company of Bend for billboard advertising, and $1,552 with Minuteman Press of Bend for campaign literature printing.

— Gary A. Warner