From a pair of contested judge’s races to a pool of three Republican Jackson County commissioner candidates, local voters will have plenty of decisions to make in this year’s May 21 primary election.

The filing deadline for Jackson County elected positions ended March 12. Although many races are uncontested, a partisan race for Jackson County commissioner and nonpartisan races for district attorney and two circuit court judges will be heated this year — regardless of whether a voter is filling out a Republican, Democratic or unaffiliated ballot.

Here’s a rundown of the local candidates registered with Jackson County Elections and the Oregon Secretary of State.

Jackson County elected positions

The filing deadline ends with three of the four elected positions in Jackson County — assessor, surveyor and Justice of the Peace — all going to the ballot uncontested.

Running unopposed for county assessor is Angela Stuhr of Jacksonville, who currently works at the assessor’s office as a valuation manager.

Unopposed seeking reelection for county surveyor is Scott Fein of Ashland, who has served in the role since late 2012.

And uncontested for Justice of the Peace is Joe Charter, a retired judge who previously served four terms in the role handling traffic court and municipal code violations.

A total of four candidates, however, are vying to be their party’s nominee in the November election to fill the seat being vacated by outgoing County Commissioner Dave Dotterrer.

Duking it out for the Republican nomination are current Medford Mayor Randy Sparacino, outgoing county assessor David Arrasmith and Logan Leverette Vaughan, who describes on his filing form a current occupation of “Ambassador of HIS GRACE / SLAVE.”

Democratic county commissioner candidate Denise Krause, a consultant at Health Data Analytics LLC and chief petitioner for the Jackson County for All campaign, will run on unopposed. A challenger, Eagle Point pediatrician Rebecca Mueller, withdrew from the race on Friday.

District attorney

A lead prosecutor under outgoing District Attorney Beth Heckert and a local public defender are vying to fill Heckert’s seat. Chief Deputy DA Patrick Green will face lawyer Alyssa Bartholomew in the race to be the county’s top prosecutor.

Green rose through the ranks at the Jackson County DA’s office, starting as an entry-level prosecutor before ultimately advancing to the role of Heckert’s second-in-command. Green has Heckert’s endorsement.

Bartholomew has been part of Southern Oregon Public Defender since 2005, and has prior prosecuting experience in Cowlitz County, Washington, and as the prosecuting attorney for a mental health hospital there, according to her candidate page.

Jackson County Circuit Court judges 

Eight candidates — four of whom are incumbents — are seeking one of six open judge seats.

The unchallenged incumbent judges are Jeremy Markiewicz, Laura Cromwell, Benjamin Bloom and Sara Collins, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Tina Kotek in June.

The races for positions 5 and 9 are both contested, but the race for Position 9 is the only one that challenges an incumbent.

In the race for Position 5, local divorce and family lawyer Joe Davis is facing off against criminal defense and juvenile law attorney Christine Herbert for the judicial seat vacated late last year with the retirement of Judge Timothy Gerking.

Challenging incumbent judge David Orr for Position 9 is Johan Pietila, a former deputy district attorney and Jackson County’s senior assistant county counsel.

Pietila carries endorsements from DA Heckert, Jackson County Sheriff Nate Sickler, former Medford police Chief and current Phoenix City Councilor Scott Clauson and the Southern Oregon Fraternal Order of Police.

Heckert had Orr disqualified from all cases prosecuted by her office in July 2021, according to earlier news reports. Orr now presides over family law cases.

Democrat Jackson County Commissioner candidate Rebecca Mueller withdrew from the May 21 primary race on March 15. This story has been updated to reflect that candidate Denise Krause is now running unopposed as the party’s nominee.