Tribal balloting wraps up Saturday

By LAUREN L. DILLARD

Of the News-Register

GRAND RONDE - Three seats on the nine-member governing council of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are being filled in mail-ballot voting wrapping up Saturday.

Up this year are the terms of Chair Chris Mercier, Vice Chair Angie Blackwell and member Westley "Buddy" West, all of whom are seeking re-election. Mounting challenges are Steve Bobb, June Sell-Sherer, Bernadine Shriver, Andy Jenness, Michael Haller, Loretta Knight and Dean Mercier.

Candidates run on an at-large basis. The top three vote-getters in each year's election are seated.

The tribe operates as a sovereign state. It has its own constitution and sets its own rules, regulations and laws.

Members of the governing council serve on a paid, full-time basis. They handle both administrative and policy matters.

Registered tribal members 18 and up are eligible to vote in council elections, even if they live across the state, country or world, as many do.

Blackwell, West and Chris Mercier were swept into office in a bruising 2004 election, campaigning as a reform slate determined to change the way the council does business. The reformers gained majority control in the 2005 election and maintained it in the 2006 election, but only by the slimmest of margins.

This year's election is seen as a referendum on their pledge to represent all members of the tribe openly and honestly, with a greater degree of transparency and egalitarianism. But at least some of this year's candidates are trying to claim a middle ground, complicating the picture.

Jenness, who served a three-year term on the council in the early '90s, termed the hard lines that have been drawn between the tribe's old guard and what he calls the "new council" a problem. "A lot of really important decisions are split 5-4," he said.

He said councilors should be able to "discuss and debate and still walk out of the room still being family."

The balloting is slated to wrap up 5 p.m.