QuickTake:

Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch has a six-figure war chest for the final week of her campaign. Meanwhile, opponent Jake Pelroy has burned through money more quickly to reach voters.

Lane County’s only remaining county commissioner race is burning through campaign cash in the final week of the campaign. 

With about one week until Election Day, the two candidates for the East Lane District of the Lane County Board of Commissioners have drastically different outlooks. 

Lane County Commissioner Heather Buch is running for a third four-year term and is facing challenger Jake Pelroy. With no candidate receiving more than half of the May vote, Buch and Pelroy advanced to a November runoff election. 

Buch has about 10 times the cash on hand that Pelroy does. (Cash on hand measures how much money a candidate has remaining in the bank.) Buch reported $119,609 cash on hand, while Pelroy reported $11,036.

In the waning days of the campaign, that difference potentially gives a candidate the means to reach more voters before Nov. 3. But voting has started, and the pool of voters that candidates can reach is shrinking every day.

County commissioners are nonpartisan elected officials who vote on a variety of matters, proposals and ordinances, including land use, public works, human services and zoning. Lane County has a five-member board of commissioners. 

The East Lane District 5 commissioner represents Cottage Grove, Creswell, Oakridge, Lowell, Westfir, Coburg, portions of west Eugene, and numerous unincorporated communities, such as Goshen, Pleasant Hill, Dexter, Walterville, Vida, Blue River, McKenzie Bridge and Marcola.

Here are details about how the two campaigns are doing in the money race:

Buch campaign details

Buch reported $470,850 in contributions in 2026. She carried over a balance of $72,274 from 2025.

Her campaign has spent $422,665.63 so far, campaign filings show.

Top donors to Buch’s campaign include:

  • $33,286 worth of in-kind services from the Democratic Party of Lane County. These services include canvassing, mail and postage.
  • $16,000 from the Oregon AFSCME Council 75, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. 
  • $15,000 from Tom Bowerman, a local activist involved in various causes, including helping put together the McKenzie River Trust.

Pelroy campaign details 

Pelroy reported $510,281 in contributions in 2026. He carried over a balance of $29,503 from 2025. 

His campaign has spent $529,048 so far this year, campaign filings show. 

His largest contributors include: 

  • $66,000 from Community Action Network, a political committee that, in turn, gets its donations from industries that include timber, construction and fuel companies like Sierra Pacific Industries, Wildish Land Co., Goshen Forest Products and Swanson Brothers Lumber Co.
  • $57,656 from Kathy Jones-McCann, a timber heiress who has business before the county. 
  • $27,500 from Wildish Land Co., a construction services company. 
  • Pelroy also has received $25,000 each from Gerking Ranch LLC and Weiser River Paradise LLC.
  • Pelroy has received $20,000 each from Swanson Group Inc., Sierra Pacific Industries and Murphy Plywood.

For Pelroy and Buch, the CleanLane project has been an issue on which the two disagree strongly. Buch has supported the planned county recycling facility, along with Commissioners Pat Farr and Laurie Trieger.

Before entering the race, Pelroy’s public affairs company provided publicity for a local haulers group that opposes the CleanLane project.

Both campaigns have received donations from the waste and recycling industry. 

Texas-based Waste Connections, which owns hauler Sanipac, has donated $6,000 to Pelroy’s campaign.

County officials pushing for the CleanLane project have criticized Sanipac for hauling much of its trash collected in Lane County to a landfill it owns in Jackson County rather than Lane County’s Short Mountain Landfill.

That move has stoked concerns that the CleanLane project may not have enough tons of material to pencil out, though county officials also have said they expect to have enough trash. 

The county has contracted with Bulk Handling Systems, a Eugene-based company, to run the facility if it’s built.

Steve Miller, the chief executive officer of Bulk Handling Systems, donated $2,000 to Buch’s campaign, records show.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.