A Monmouth city councilor and longtime legislative staffer are vying to fill the Polk County Board of Commissioners Position 2 seat, following Commissioner Craig Pope’s retirement after 15 years. Roxanne Beltz, a city councilor since 2017, wants to bring her background in communications and loc al government to the board. John Swanson, a Rickreall resident and chief of staff for state Sen. Bruce Starr, is ready to translate his legislative background to local government. Beltz previously challenged Commissioner Lyle Mordhorst in 2024 for his Position 1 seat. She lost the primary election with about 45% of the vote.  Pope has endorsed Swanson. Commissioners are nonpartisan and serve a four-year term. They are paid a salary of about $88,000.  The May 19 election is a primary, but it’s likely to decide the race because only two candidates are running. If one candidate gets more than 50% of votes cast, they will be elected. This is your guide to the race for Position 2 race for the Polk County board. Background Beltz Beltz, originally from California, moved to Oregon in 2004. She now lives in Monmouth with her husband, a retired educator, and has three adult children.  A self-proclaimed “transportation nerd,” Beltz has worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation and spent 16 years at Cherriots, primarily as the Transportation Options program coordinator. Her role involved outreach and education around the mid-Willamette Valley, including in Polk County, about transportation options. She also managed a multi-million dollar budget. Before working at Cherriots, she managed a transportation program at Stanford University, where she oversaw a budget of over $2 million.  Beltz retired from Cherriots in 2022 and now spends her time serving on council and running her marketing and graphic design business, Robixy Creative Services. If elected, Beltz hopes to spur greater communication and transparency with the public, taking from her background in communications.  Her top priorities are affordability, housing and homelessness, and public safety.  Swanson Swanson grew up in Jacksonville, Oregon. He lived in West Salem for about five years until 2020, when he moved to Rickreall. He now lives there with his wife and two kids.  While earning a degree in politics from Willamette University, he entered the legislature as an intern under state Sen. Jason Atkinson.  After college, Swanson moved into long-term staff and campaign roles for multiple senators, becoming more familiar with the legislature. He’s worked for former state Sen. Daniel Bonham and spent over a decade working in former state Sen. Chuck Thomsen’s office.  During his time in the legislature, he has worked closely with several county commissioners statewide on transportation and funding issues, including Mordhorst.  John Swanson Age: 41 Education: Willamette University, bachelor’s degree in political science Occupation: Chief of staff for state Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee; business owner, Holmes Gap Group  Prior governmental experience: Chief of staff for State Sen. Bruce Starr Roxanne Beltz Age: 64 Education: Marylhurst University, bachelor’s degree in communications and art Occupation: Business owner, Robixy Creative Services; retired Cherriots Transportation Options program coordinator Prior governmental experience: Monmouth city councilor since 2017 “Name a county, I probably know a commissioner, because I’ve helped advise them on funding or had an in-depth conversation with them about some state program that’s impacting them,” Swanson said. With over two decades as a legislative staffer under his belt, Swanson is ready to use his experience and relationships to address the issues facing Polk County. He also runs a consulting business.  Swanson previously ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for state representative district 51, which includes Canby, Estacada and Sandy in 2010, and for a Clackamas County commissioner seat in 2012. His top priorities include economic development, public safety and transportation and infrastructure.  Budget and Polk County Fairgrounds The Polk County Fairgrounds have been operating at a financial loss in recent years and are now at risk of closing by the end of this year. Voters rejected a levy on the May 2025 ballot that would have raised property taxes to pay for fairground upgrades. Commissioners are mulling putting a similar levy back on the ballot in November as a last resort to save the fairgrounds, pending voter approval. Beltz With years of experience managing multi-million dollar budgets at Cherriots and Stanford, Beltz says she is well-positioned to step in as commissioner.  If elected, she plans to do a deep dive to understand “each different department, what their needs are” and how each “bucket” works. Beltz wants to save the fairgrounds. She believes her marketing background could have a valuable role in that.  “We have some issues with our fairgrounds, but I believe my marketing communication skills can really come in handy to help get the word out about the value of our fairgrounds so that we can get funding to save it,” she said.  Beltz calls herself a “fiscal conservative” and says she is not advocating for more taxes on citizens.  Swanson Swanson wants to remove red tape for new business and open up more forest land to logging to spur economic growth in Polk County.   Swanson pointed to Polk County’s permanent property tax rate being set when timber revenue in the county was helping fund roads and schools. Now, he says, “the entire western half of Polk County is forest … and we can’t access it right now.” He says if those forests are opened back up for timber harvest, that activity could funnel dollars back into the county.  “I really do see the opening up of our forests as the best opportunity we have to achieve that level of parity and just get those dollars,” he said.  Oregon has one of the strictest regulatory environments in the country. Swanson would work with the legislature using the relationships he has built to advocate for lifting regulations that hold back timber production and businesses, he said. While Swanson also wants to see the fairgrounds survive and stabilize, he says taxpayers are already “overstretched.”  He is cautious about the idea of another fair levy. “If the county were to ever go back and ask for levy money for the fair, I think the public would want to see that they’re also exerting effort finding funds through other sources,” he said. “Taxpayers just want to be reassured that they’re not the only ones being asked.” One avenue of funding he wants to explore for the fairgrounds is business partnerships.  Homelessness and housing Beltz Beltz draws a contrast between homelessness in West Salem versus in rural Polk County. “The challenges that the houseless face in West Salem tends to be untreated mental health, addiction and criminal activity that needs to be addressed a certain way, that needs to be addressed aggressively, with services. And if law enforcement needs to be involved, they need to be involved in that,” she said. Beltz supports expanding existing homeless services as commissioner, but doing that “comes down to funding,” she said. For rural residents, the issue often boils down to the finances, Beltz said.  “Homelessness in rural Polk County tends to be economic. It tends to be families that they’ve lost a job or they have been forced out of the place that they were living because of medical expenses,” she said. Beltz is focused on connecting people with existing programs like rental assistance to help keep them in their homes.  She wants to create more entry-level housing options so that “people that want to live here can live here.” She also wants to streamline the permitting process to ensure there are “as few barriers possible” for potential new developments.  Swanson Swanson wants to spearhead more intergovernmental collaboration between Polk and Marion counties, the cities and both sheriff’s departments to discuss homelessness.  Like with the fairgrounds, Swanson sees room for the private sector to contribute to homeless service programs through investments and partnerships.  He backs preventing homelessness before it happens through food assistance and other programs, especially for youth, families and seniors.  “Anything we can do to help provide assistance, food, anything to help keep these on-the-cusp families from becoming homeless is such a massive win,” he said. “Once you are homeless, your likelihood of continuing to be homeless, it just exponentially grows.” Transportation and infrastructure Beltz Beltz commends the work that the current board of commissioners has done with the Oregon Department of Transportation, and says she “can see my experience with transportation options just layer right on top of that.” For West Salem, traffic congestion is a prevailing concern for locals. Beltz said she supports the development of a third bridge across the Willamette River, and says she will “continue to support Representative (Paul) Evans in his plan” to create a bridge district. She also sees walking, biking, carpooling and working from home as viable options to reduce demand for the existing bridges.  She points to Highway 22 and 51 as safety corridors that need to be evaluated.  Swanson Swanson plans to use his legislative relationships and budget experience to help Polk County maximize what it gets from a future transportation package. He sees himself working closely with Mordhorst to secure money for roads, safety projects and congestion relief. He wants to shift road work projects from ODOT to the county.  He said the work gets done faster and costs less when kept inside the county.  He called Polk County a “lean, mean machine,” compared to the state. Swanson also said there needs to be a third bridge, and identified the intersection at Highway 51 and Highway 22 as “the most dangerous intersection in the state.” He wants to push to elevate the intersection as a safety priority.  Campaign finance and endorsements Campaign finance data is from the Oregon Secretary of State as of Friday, May 1. Beltz Total raised: $3,982 Total spent: $5,084 Cash on hand: $385 Top five donors:  Democratic Party of Oregon, $650; Karen Frascone, $527; Roxanne Beltz, $516 cash, in-kind and loan; Polk County Democratic Central Committee, $400; Susan Graham, $317 Major endorsements: State Sen. Deb Patterson, state Rep. Paul Evans, Salem city councilors Micki Varney and Vanessa Nordyke, Working Families Party, Polk County Democrats and UFCW Local 555. Swanson Total raised: $42,969 Total spent: $61,304 Cash on hand: $5,586 Top five donors:  John Swanson, $6,046 cash and in-kind; Marion Polk First PAC, $3,385 cash and in-kind; Starr Leadership Fund, $2,500; Setnicker Trading Co, LLC, $2,500; $2,000 each from Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, George Packing Company Inc., Northwest Hazelnut Company and Heard Leadership PAC. Major endorsements: State Rep. Kevin Mannix, state Rep. Ed Diehl, state Rep. Anna Scharf, Marion County Commissioners Colm Willis, Kevin Cameron and Danielle Bethell, Polk County Commissioners Lyle Mordhorst and Craig Pope, Chairman of the Polk County Fair Board Tim Ray, Home Builders Association of Marion and Polk Counties and Marion Polk First PAC. Have a news tip? Contact reporter Hailey Cook: [email protected] . SIGN UP: “Thank you for your fair, thorough, and fearless reporting.” Subscribing to Salem Reporter helps sustain in-depth, local reporting that Salem depends on. 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