Elections have consequences, they say. Josephine County Commissioner John West is also about to find out that making false statements while campaigning during elections also has consequences.
As one of the original authors of the Recall Petition for Josephine County Commissioner John West, filed on August 2, 2024, I can honestly say I’ve been shocked about all the false statements made about the petition by Commissioner West and the Central Committee of the Josephine County Republican Party. And before reading on, let me say that I’m a lifelong conservative and also a registered Republican. And despite what West and other West allies have said lately, all the original “founding” members of what is now called the Committee to Recall John West were Republicans when the idea was in its formation stage. We just wanted to hold one of our own accountable.
West’s bad and costly behavior is part of why we filed the Recall Petition, but the bold and brazen nature of the false statements since the filing of the petition has taken us by surprise. After all, the business of serving the public is well, public. Our Recall Petition points can be easily proven by some combination of simply watching public meeting videos or filing a simple public records request.
Commissioner West must be operating on the assumption that citizens won’t call him on the false statements or won’t take the time to research the truth. If so, that’s a bad assumption and yet another costly decision for West. It would also explain why West and political ally Commissioner elect Chris Barnett both filed what I personally believe are ridiculous lawsuits against John Oliver Riccio, founder and editor of the Grants Pass Tribune.
West has a history of using lawsuits to attempt to intimidate and silence anyone that gets in the way of his agenda. As just a few of several recent examples, West filed a lawsuit for millions against the State of Oregon and certain employees of the State for not approving a mining permit. West recently filed a lawsuit against the Grants Pass Tribune and owner for $500,000 for false statements, and now last week filed another lawsuit against the Josephine County Clerk for the manner in which Recall Petition signatures were verified and approved. Commissioner Elect Chris Barnett, who West has done real estate business with for 15 years and donated thousands to his campaign, also used the same attorney and filed a similar lawsuit against the Grants Pass Tribune after the Tribune started publishing less than flattering information about then candidate Chris Barnett.
I’ll mainly let the court of law speak for itself on these lawsuits, but my personal opinion is that all three recent lawsuits from West and Barnett are a mistake. After obtaining a copy of West’s lawsuit against the Grants Pass Tribune through a public records request, I especially think West’s lawsuit is a big mistake given that a part of West’s lawsuit is arguing the truth of the points listed in the Recall Petition. As a contributing journalist for the Grants Pass Tribune long before the Recall Petition was filed, I can also say that while the Tribune was being kept informed of our progress on the recall initiative, the Tribune did not initiate this recall as suggested in West’s lawsuit.
The Committee to Recall John West spent almost two months from the idea stage to the filing of the Recall Petition on August 2nd making sure every petition statement presented as a fact is true and that we had documentation to back up every fact-based statement in the Recall Petition. We knew from the start that West might threaten and intimidate using his attorney, and of course a recall as with any election measure is a very serious undertaking.
Recall ballots started arriving in mailboxes on Friday November 29th and votes are due by December 17th. When voters review the recall petition statement and then the statement of justification filed by Commissioner West which both appear on your ballot, you can’t help but notice that West didn’t refute any of the specific recall petition points.
Making matters even worse for Commissioner West, last week West changed his mind and backed out of a proposed debate he previously agreed to do with certain leaders of the Committee to Recall John West after this Recall Committee requested that he bring facts and documentation to back up public statements he has made against the Recall Petition points.
The Recall Committee has been as transparent as possible since the filing of the Recall Petition and the beginning of gathering the nearly 6,500 verified County voter signatures required to bring this to a vote. Spokespersons for the Recall Committee have done interviews with all local media that requested it, including a new local podcast on YouTube called The Oregon Grape (TOG). While former Commissioner and State Rep Lily Morgan and I went into a lot of topics on the TOG not directly related to the Recall Petition, at the end of the podcast we mentioned that we would welcome a debate with West on the podcast as long as we gathered enough voter signatures to bring this recall to a vote of the people in Josephine County. This was before West sued The Grants Pass Tribune for $500,000 and used some of the recall petition points as reasons for the lawsuit.
When TOG came back to us saying West agreed to debate, we said we would debate with West but only if the debate was limited to and included all points we listed in our Recall Petition, West had to agree not to bring a lawsuit against the Recall Committee or any volunteer/member of the Recall Committee for exercising our State Constitutional rights to file a recall petition and gather signatures for a recall, and West had to bring factual information or documentation concerning a few of the false statements West has made about the Recall Petition and be prepared to talk about those statements.
And that’s when West backed out of the debate. Now we have West’s official Statement of Justification elections filing form that you’ll see appear on your special election recall ballot that just arrived in the mail that doesn’t dispute any of the specific points in the recall petition. And we also now have West backing out of a debate he previously agreed to when asked to provide proof of some of the false statements he made against the Recall Petition points.
The number of false statements West and certain leaders of the local Josephine County Republican Party have made and published since the filing of the Recall Petition are too great in number to list in this article and keep it readable, so I’ll have to mention a few more of them ever so briefly and come back next week with a more detailed list. West and political allies have been wrong about who is behind the formation of this Recall Petition, wrong about the motivations of individuals involved in the Recall Committee, and as West has done throughout the first two years of his 4-year term as Commissioner he threw out several rebuttals to the Recall Petition points quickly after the recall was filed without investigating the recall points and without thinking through the consequences of the false statements.
In my opinion, West (and the local Republican Party leadership) is just digging a deeper hole for himself the more time that this recall campaign goes on. And wow there sure are some significant false statements from the West campaign. Stay tuned this week as we dive into some of those West false statements in more detail.
If you’re the type of person that wants to dive into the details behind the Recall Petition points, see the fact sheet posted at www.RecallJohnWest.com and feel free to reach out to the Recall Committee with any questions.
