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Walker holds slight lead for commission Holt leads Wright, 59% to 41% By ALBERTO ENRIQUEZ County commissioner candidates Jack Walker and Jon Deason said they would give Jackson County voters a clear choice. It turned out to be a close one, too, when early returns Tuesday favored Deason, the challenger for Position 1, by 51 percent to 49 percent. "A large turnout helps me because that means more Democrats are voting," Deason said. "But it could turn around. If it were 50-50 at 11 p.m., I'd know I'd lost." The words proved prophetic when Walker and Deason switched positions before midnight, with Walker ahead 51-49. It happened four years ago, when Walker went to bed a loser but woke up a winner against Marjorie Overland. "I woke up 1,500 ahead, and by the time the votes were all counted I'd beat her by 3,500 votes," Walker recalled. The race for Position 3 often was murkier, with candidates Ric Holt and Cleve Wright swapping accusations about each other's campaigns. But voters clearly were favoring the incumbent Holt by 59 percent to 41 percent in early returns. "I'm ecstatic that I'm ahead," Holt said on hearing the news. A Walker defeat would leave Holt a one-man Republican minority on the three-commissioner board with Deason and Commissioner Sue Kupillas. He expressed amazement at Walker's relatively poor showing. "That's astounding," Holt said. "Well, I live with everybody, and I represent everybody. This job shouldn't be a partisan job anyway ... When someone comes in your office, you don't ask what party they're from. You help them." Walker, a Republican, sought a second four-year term. Deason, a Democrat, was a county commissioner for two nonconsecutive terms between 1973 and 1983. Walker campaigned saying Oregon's land-use laws are part of the problem. If land set aside for forest or farm uses can't be managed profitably, the state ought not deprive owners of other uses, he said. Deason helped write the county's land development ordinance and comprehensive plan during his previous terms. He supported updating and reworking those regulations to prevent urban sprawl. Holt, criticized during the campaign for not sticking closer to county business, said his substantial lead confirmed his work on alternative fuels, trains and getting rid of MTBE in oxy-fuel. "All of these were county programs approved by the county commissioners," Holt said, "with the exception of MTBE (a fuel additive) -- and I've been proved right on that." Like all candidates, Wright championed both the winning juvenile detention levy and the losing adult criminal justice levy. He took solace in the juvenile levy's strong showing, noting he opposed combining the two levies into one measure. "I think I was somewhat of service to the public in that way." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA