As recall campaigns were launched last week on Josephine County Commissioners Chris Barnett and Andreas Blech, a few supporters of the current commissioners have almost instinctually come out and said something to the effect of, “don’t believe the lies.” Several have said that after John West’s recall vote, West was “exonerated” of the charges. One person in yesterday’s County Weekly Business Session even said this during the public comment time. However, the truth is almost the polar opposite.
Former Commissioner West has brought a lawsuit against five people now as a result of the recall. One suit is against the County Clerk for the method of verifying recall signatures, but the other lawsuits are all against leaders of the recall campaign that ended with nearly two thirds of County voters saying last December they want him out of office.
West’s entire anti-recall campaign strategy, including what in my opinion are several frivolous lawsuits against those that were supporting the recall, was to say all the recall petition points are lies. One circuit court judge and now the Oregon Secretary of State (SOS) Elections Division have said otherwise.
In a letter dated September 4, 2025, delivered by email to both John West and the local citizen that initiated the investigation, the SOS Elections Division finally ruled on a campaign finance violation report that was submitted all the way back in January 2025. The letter’s Determination section stated, “Based on the information and statements obtained by the Elections Division, we find there is sufficient evidence that you violated Oregon election law by failing to file campaign finance transactions. Specifically, you failed to file a transaction for the print advertisement that appeared in the Sneak Preview which was paid for by your committee, and you failed to file the in-kind contribution for the advertisement that appeared in the Oregon Eagle which was paid for by you separate from your committee.”
This will likely prove very costly for former Commissioner West, given this was a subject of one of his several lawsuits against local citizens that supported the recall campaign. The citizen that initiated this investigation was Jay Meredith, one of the Grants Pass Tribune’s investigative reporters.
Jay Meredith was also one of two people who West recently sued for his participation in the recall campaign. West alleged in his most recent lawsuit that Jay Meredith and JJ Scofield conspired to file a whole bunch of frivolous ethics charges and campaign finance violation reports just for purposes of making him look bad and recalling him from office.
West’s newest lawsuit against Meredith and Scofield, which he waited seven months after his recall from office (July 29th) this year to file, is already off to a very rocky start before the two defendants even file their first response to the suit. West said in this lawsuit that a total of 20 frivolous ethics charges were filed against him and that Meredith and Scofield conspired to file them. Except Scofield told the Grants Pass Tribune that he only filed 4 of those 20 cases, and he stated the investigator in 3 of the 4 cases recommended a formal investigation move forward.
Meredith tells the Grants Pass Tribune that he only filed this one single campaign finance violation report with the SOS Elections Division in January 2025 and didn’t file any of the ethics cases. And the SOS Elections Division has now ruled that West violated campaign finance law.
And Josephine Circuit Court Judge Bain also ruled that West violated campaign finance law in West’s lawsuit against recall chief petitioner Lily Morgan. The recall petition language for former commissioner John West mentioned a pattern of violating state laws including campaign finance regulations. This was included in the recall petition language because of the large amount of unreported campaign spending done by West in opposition to the County charter change ballot measure in May of 2024.
Meredith tells the Grants Pass Tribune that he only filed the campaign finance violation report in January this year, after West was recalled, because West insisted repeatedly during the recall campaign that he didn’t violate any laws and that it was his personal right to spend money opposing the charter change ballot measure and that it didn’t need to be reported as campaign spending to the Secretary of State Elections Division.
State law clearly states that any individual that spends more than $250 to support or oppose any candidate or ballot measure needs to file campaign spending reports with the State ORESTAR campaign finance system. But West kept insisting that since it was his personal spending he didn’t need to report it. West admitted in several video interviews during the recall campaign that he had spent thousands and thousands of dollars opposing the County charter change ballot measure last year.
And now both a local judge and the SOS Elections Division have proven West was in fact guilty of violating state campaign finance laws. The local judge in West’s case against Lily Morgan ruled that West violated campaign finance law during the charter change campaign, and the SOS Elections Division ruled that West violated campaign finance law during his recall campaign.
Earlier this year Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Bain also ruled that most of the other fact-based points in the recall petition for former commissioner John West were true, in the case West brought against chief petitioner Lily Morgan. Judge Bain first sorted out which statements were opinions, and which were a statement of fact, then ruled on those statements of fact. Most were ruled true, but two of the many statements are awaiting appeal because at the circuit court level not enough information was submitted to the court for the judge to rule that they were true.
The bottom line – the next time you hear a current commissioner or a supporter of our current commissioners say that former commissioner West was “exonerated” after his recall, call them out for making a false statement. Commissioner Chris Barnett has recently posted pictures on several of his Facebook pages that say, “Don’t Sign Another Lie, No To Commissioner Recall.” This of course implies that the last recall was a lie.
The truth where we stand today is that voters saw through the false statements made by former Commissioner West and kicked him out of office by nearly a landslide vote. The truth is, West has been found guilty in the court of public opinion, the court of law, and now by the SOS Elections Division.