If you like Donald Trump, you will love Randy Sparacino.
Randy Sparacino is a Republican candidate for Jackson County commissioner. Currently the office is partisan.
It should be nonpartisan.
The placement of "field signs," those four-by-eight sheets of plywood on arterial streets, tell an unmistakable story of political affiliation. The signs in the photos below are placed on Biddle Road opposite the Rogue Valley International Airport, a county-owned facility.
Opponents of the ballot measure that would make the county commissioner job nonpartisan have only a single sentence explaining their reasoning at their website:
"Nonpartisan status decreases transparency, allowing candidates to hide their political beliefs and intent during campaigns."
I agree with that statement. Party labels do give voters a snapshot of the political associations of a candidate. Voters see a party label and make deductions.
My own sense is that this is a net-negative, a reason not to have partisanship. I prefer local candidates for offices that have negligible relationship to state and national issues be nonpartisan. I prefer that campaigns reveal the individual brand of the candidate based around local issues. I would prefer that local campaigns not involve local government in the fights that consume Washington, D.C.
Partisanship has advantages, though. It gives a candidate instant friends and an institution for raising money and getting one's name in front of the public. That comes with a price, the "transparency" of being attached to a nationally-known brand, with all its warts and wrinkles. Trump's brand eclipses everything. It bleeds out onto the people sharing his party label. Sparacino is being transparent. He stands with Trump.
The local GOP circled the wagons in opposition to the three ballot issues updating the county charter. These signs below are along Crater Lake Highway near Vilas Road. Bentz is the Republican U.S. representative. He endorsed Trump over Nikki Haley.
Alyssa Bartholomew is running for the nonpartisan district attorney office. She is running a "whisper-Republican" campaign, with signs clustered among GOP candidates. I believe that this will hurt her election chances. People do not want a district attorney to be wearing a partisan jersey, especially not someone being sneaky about it. We want crime prosecution to reflect fairness and even-handedness. She should not be a Republican DA. She should be the DA representing the whole of the people. That is why the DA office is nonpartisan. The more she continues her whisper campaign in association with a party, the worse for her. But Bartholomew and Sparacino have made their choices and will need to live with the consequences.
This one is off Foothill Road, inside Medford.
I think Sparacino would be a more electable candidate, and a better commissioner if elected, if he didn't associate himself with Trump. Sparacino had a long career in law enforcement. That implies to voters that he respects district attorneys and judges, that he cares about law and order, and that he would not appreciate tirades of the kind Trump is now publishing daily. Trump organized fake electors and his campaign lawyers urged them to swear falsely that they were "duly elected." He summoned Proud Boys to the Capitol to intimidate the Congress and vice president. He praises Capitol rioters. I realize that that was Trump, not Sparacino, but Sparacino's signs share the field with Trump's, publicly linking them.
"If you like Donald Trump, you will love Randy Sparacino," is the downside of partisan transparency. If Sparacino were smart, he would never allow his signs to be placed adjacent to a Trump sign. I have given Sparacino campaign unsolicited advice in the past when he ran for state Senate, and he ignored it. He spent $1.1 million of Republican donors’ money persuading people he was the wrong person for the job. It was crazy. I suggested he reverse course. He ignored me and lost an easily-winnable race. Once again he is letting his political party manage his reputation. Sparacino, Trump. Trump, Sparacino. I don't expect him to take my advice today, either. Call me Cassandra.
What is Sparacino's actual, deep-down "intent and belief?" Who knows? But he has signs next to Trump's, so we draw our conclusions.
By bolding going with the local Republican brand, Randy Sparacino appears to be signing on to the Republican Party of Oregon's extreme platform. Here's two examples: Voters can infer that Randy supports the Republican's plan to dismantle all Mail In voting in Oregon. We can guess that he also thinks all of us here in Jackson County who depend on getting our health insurance through the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA marketplace) or Obamacare or use the Oregon Health Plan for health care access don't deserve these resources. (The Oregon Republican party has also promised to dismantle the ACA which includes expanded Medicaid--what we call the Oregon Health Plan here.). Do we want another commissioner whose goal is to dismantle public health insurance programs making decisions about public health in Jackson County as a county commissioner? Do we want another county commissioner who will work to dismantle mail-in elections in our county? For most voters, the answer is NO!
We know Randy Sparacino is showing significant bad judgment by associating himself with Trump. We don't need to know anything else.