At five minutes to 8 p.m. on election night, December 17, 2024, a videographer asked John West how he thought his recall vote would turn out. West confidently predicted the “no vote” would be “two-thirds.” Moments later, the results appeared: 62.5% voted to recall him. He was almost right about the percentage; he just read the entire room backwards. That wasn’t a simple miscalculation; it revealed a candidate profoundly out of touch with the voters he claimed to understand.
His grasp of basic campaign finance law wasn’t any better. When asked whether he was violating Oregon’s rules on personal expenditures over $250, West immediately said “no,” insisting that spending his own money exempted him from filing with ORESTAR. He went further, claiming ORESTAR told him his personal spending fell under “freedom of speech,” and arguing that if he were in violation, someone would have filed a complaint and ORESTAR would have contacted him.
That explanation showed a fundamental misunderstanding of Oregon’s campaign finance system and how complaints are handled in Salem, and the process eventually proved it. After several months, ORESTAR found he had unlawfully used personal funds for campaign expenditures. That episode is documented on video.
When asked why he lost the recall election, West offered another flawed explanation. He claimed he was elected by “over 22,000 voters” (the actual number was 21,298). He then argued that the signatures collected to recall him represented only 35% of the votes he received when elected. Convinced something suspicious must have occurred, he sued the Josephine County Clerk, essentially accusing her of deliberately miscounting recall signatures. He lost that lawsuit.
Over the last 15 years, Oregon has seen 16 county commissioners recalled each requiring enough valid signatures to send the recall to a public vote. Josephine County conducted three of those 16 recalls, and history shows the county holds the state record for the highest percentage of voters recalling a commissioner:
- 70.9% – Sandi Cassanelli (2011)
- 62.5% – John West (2024)
- 61.8% – Chris Barnett (2025)
Josephine County currently holds the first, second, and third highest recall percentages in Oregon. By percentage of recall votes, John West is the second most strongly rejected commissioner in the state over the last 15 years. (Recall information from Ballotpedia.org.)
There is another troubling issue with West’s leadership style. In my opinion, he seems to have found success in his early business dealings by behaving like a bully. Prior to West’s arrival on the county political scene, commissioners rarely filed lawsuits. When they did, it was usually related to personnel matters. We certainly didn’t see commissioners suing, or threatening to sue county clerks, media outlets, writers, or citizens. Lawsuits breed fear and silence voices, and they appear to be a time-honored tactic in West’s business approach.
Examining West’s past reveals a long history of litigation. One of his longest-running lawsuits began more than a decade ago, involving disputes with forest management representatives over mining and forest issues. West filed suit, lost in Circuit Court, appealed to the Court of Appeals (lost), then to the Oregon Supreme Court (lost), and finally to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (lost again). The last rumor I heard was that he is contemplating taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A candidate who can’t read the room, can’t follow the law, and can’t stick to verifiable facts has no business in county leadership. As West loudly proclaims that he’s the only “experienced” commissioner running this November 3rd, remember he is also the only candidate who has been soundly and decisively recalled by the second-highest percentage of Oregon voters in the last 15 years.
History warns us that his inability to read the room will continue.
Vote “no” for John West.