QuickTake:

Tommy Gong, who succeeds Dena Dawson, comes to Eugene from California with 22 years of experience as an elections administrator — and he also once wrote a book about the movie star-martial artist Bruce Lee.

Tommy Gong has started work as Lane County’s new clerk, bringing two decades of California elections experience and an affinity for the martial arts to the region.

Lane County officials announced on Monday, Aug. 11, that they hired Gong, who started his job in July. They chose Gong after a competitive national search to replace Dena Dawson, who left the county after three years to work for the Oregon Secretary of State elections team.

Lane County Clerk Tommy Gong started working for the county in July 2025. Credit: Lane County

The Lane County clerk’s office runs elections, records real property transactions, issues marriage licenses and domestic partnership registrations and coordinates the Property Values Appeal Board.

“We are so pleased to bring an experienced elections administrator and a passionate advocate for building public trust in elections to our community,” Lane County Operations Director Lorren Blythe said in a statement. “Elections are a cornerstone of our democracy, and we value the ability of all eligible voters to participate. Tommy holds the same value, and we look forward to continuing to enhance our service to the community with his help.”

His annual salary is $153,462, a county spokesperson said. 

Gong has a 22-year career in elections administration, previously working in Contra Costa, San Luis Obispo and Stanislaus counties in California.

“I am honored to serve in beautiful Lane County and the great state of Oregon,” Gong said in a statement. “I am committed to upholding the accessibility, integrity, impartiality and transparency of our elections for every voter in our county.”

He is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Task Force on Elections. Gong also led efforts to start the Coalition of Bay Area Election Officials, a project for neighboring counties to collaborate and build public trust among shared media markets. The National Association of Elections Officials – The Election Center awarded the coalition the Democracy Award for best practice of 2022.

For Gong, martial arts are a passion when he’s off the job. He has more than 40 years of experience practicing and teaching martial arts. Gong’s instructor learned from the Hong Kong-American actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. That experience paved the way for Gong’s service as a board member on the Bruce Lee Foundation.

Gong also wrote a book, “Bruce Lee: The Evolution of a Martial Artist.”

In a January 2025 interview with Issue One, Gong said he’s been practicing martial arts longer than he’s been running elections.

“This book was a passion project of mine,” Gong said in the piece. “It chronicles Bruce Lee’s life and how he developed his martial art when he was in America. It gets into not only his technique, but his philosophy. I’ve had election officials who have purchased the book for a loved one — I sign it and I seal it with my Chinese chop.”

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.