Lindholm Company Blog

This is another post that looks both at the year in review and at the coming year.

There is an interesting pattern across the past three mayors: Ruth Bascom (1993-7), Jim Torrey (1997-2005), and Kitty Piercy (2005-present). Under Bascom the library lost narrowly … very narrowly. Under Torrey the library won in landslides … every win by more than double digits. Under Piercy the library won … but only narrowly. Both wins were solid, but not overwhelming by any stretch of the imagination.

Sources: Eugene Election History – 1896 to present; Lane County Elections.

Measures Included:
May 1994: General Obligation Bonds for new library, emergency equipment, facility repair – $56,207,287.
Nov. 1994: General Obligation Bonds for new library – $26,134,808
Nov. 1998: Four-Year Library Operations Serial Levy. $2,190,000 per year
May 2002: Four-Year Library Local Option Tax
May 2006: Four-Year Local Option Property Tax Levy for Library Operations. $2,687,500 per year for 4 years
May 2015: Five-Year Local Option Levy

This chart shows how much better the elected auditor measure did by ward than the appointed auditor measure.

As one would expect based on the geographic distribution of voting for the appointed and elected auditors there is not much variation. However, the least variation was in north Eugene. The greatest variation was in Ward 1 – in the area of the city where many of the leaders behind the elected auditor measure reside.

Compared to the appointed auditor there is slightly more regional variation, but still nowhere near most measures in Eugene.

A variation of 40% to 50% between north Eugene and south Eugene is very little.

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Compared to the parks measures, there is virtually no variation by ward. The appointed auditor measure placed on the ballot by the city council lost overwhelmingly everywhere.

This figure was left at standard XL layout just to point out that the variation among regions of the city was between 24% and 25%! This is probably the least variation by region in Eugene in decades.

The regional pattern is the same as the Parks Levy, only the voting by was lower in each region. South Eugene is the most favorable region of the city and Ward 6 is the least favorable.

The pattern is the typical pattern for City of Eugene measures. South Eugene is the most favorable region of the city and Ward 6 is the least favorable.

The measure started under 50% and roughly in a dead heat with no votes. After the ballots were mailed, however, it started to pull away.

There appears to be strong support for a Eugene auditor in some form. This blog has chronicled how Eugeneans see many problems in the city that remain unaddressed.

This  question was asked prior to the campaign and the collapse of the two auditor measures’ support. It is possible this is biased upward. However, a sizeable percentage of people voiced support here who supported neither measure.

Support for the appointed auditor, the city council proposal, never came close to 50%.