For the fourth straight election cycle, Philomath residents will have a choice to make when it comes to mayor. Incumbent Chas Jones will be squaring off against City Councilor Christopher McMorran for the position in the November general election.
It will be the third straight time that Jones has seen opposition with the same situation occurring in the 2020 and 2022 elections. Back in the 2018 election, Eric Niemann had to overcome a challenger to win the seat.
But prior to that, you have to go clear back to 2006 to find a contested race when Chris Nusbaum battled Jay Sexton. Ken Schaudt (2008, 2010) and Rocky Sloan (2012, 2014) were both elected to back-to-back two-year terms while running unopposed.
By the way, the last three-way race for mayor occurred in 2004 when Chris Nusbaum, Jay Sexton and Richard Matson were all competing for the seat. Nusbaum edged Sexton, 883 to 852 with Matson third with 257.
Following are the five most-recent contested mayoral elections in Philomath, a list that includes the one coming up in November:
1. 2024: Chas Jones vs. Christopher McMorran
Jones has the edge when it comes to city government experience with two terms as mayor and a term as city councilor under his belt. But McMorran proved to be a popular choice in the last council election by attracting more than 1,700 votes — a number not seen over the past three decades of council elections (and possibly ever) and notable with nine candidates on the ballot.
2. 2022: Chas Jones vs. Lawrence E. Johnson
Jones rolled to a decisive victory with 1,828 votes over Johnson’s 623. That comes out to 74.3% of the vote.
3. 2020: Chas Jones vs. Doug Edmonds
Jones and Edmonds were vying for the seat after the outgoing mayor, Niemann, opted to not seek re-election. Both candidates had served on the City Council and it was a close vote with Jones winning by just 52 votes.
4. Eric Niemann vs. Jerry J. Jackson Sr.
Niemann earned the title of mayor with a fairly comfortable margin of victory over Jackson. Niemann attracted 61.4% of the vote.
5. 2006: Chris Nusbaum vs. Jay Sexton
Nusbaum won his third straight term for mayor with 959 votes to Sexton’s 686. It was the second straight time that Nusbam and Sexton had gone up against one another for the seat. As mentioned earlier, Nusbaum won a three-way race with the victory over Sexton coming by a mere 31 votes.
(Brad Fuqua is publisher/editor of the Philomath News. He can be reached at News@PhilomathNews.com).
