Commissioner fights for seat.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

ROSEBURG - Late Monday night, Douglas County Commissioner Marilyn Kittelman appeared to be narrowly surviving a recall attempt. With an unknown number of votes still to be counted, the Yoncalla horse trainer was hanging onto her seat by 212 votes out of the 31,362 ballots counted as of 10:45 p.m.

The turnout represented about half of the county's eligible voters - 20 percent more than cast ballots in the May state primary.

Kittelman was reserving comment until the final results were in, but her campaign manager, David Jaques, said they were "cautiously optimistic" that the margin would hold.

Recall committee spokesman Bill Cook said he and others who had worked to remove Kittelman from her office were surprised and disappointed when the balance shifted from early returns in favor of a recall.

"It looks like the rural areas voted in Marilyn's favor and the metro areas for recall," he said. "But it's so close, it may be a week before we know for sure."

The recall vote was seen by some as a bellwether for efforts by a national group, One Nation United, to build support among local jurisdictions for curbing tribal land rights.

A key issue for many recall proponents was Kittelman's work to cap the number of acres Indian tribes can move into tax-exempt trust. Last year, she opposed efforts by the local Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indian Tribes to place in trust land it wanted to develop in downtown Roseburg. She pushed unsuccessfully this year for a countywide advisory vote on capping tribal trusts.

Jaques, Kittelman's campaign manager, recently became ONU's president, and Kittelman lobbied on behalf of the group during a trip to Washington, D.C., this spring.

The Cow Creeks' chairman, Sue Shaffer, called ONU "an anti-Indian hate group."

Kittelman disputed Shaffer's charge, saying ONU recognizes tribal sovereignty but wants to "reform" federal policies because tax exemptions give tribal businesses an advantage over nontribal competitors.

Tribal spokesman Michael Rondeau said late Monday that he didn't believe the results amounted to countywide endorsement of Kittelman's position on tribal land rights.

"There were a lot of issues involved," he said. "And recalls are hard. We would just hope that we can proceed in a cooperation relationship with the county now that the election is over."

Recall organizers also alleged that Kittelman improperly intimidated county employees, impeded a county museum exhibit on a historic Roseburg statue of the Greek goddess Hebe, and pushed to fire a museum director who recently won a $450,000 settlement from the county after filing a wrongful dismissal lawsuit.

Kittelman said during her campaign that she believed her positions reflected the will of county residents.

She pointed to her support for a county law forbidding the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private property owner to another in the interest of economic development. She said she is also proud of successfully pushing for live and archived Webcasts of all commission meetings.