Document text
Holston runs again for District 51 seat By PETER WONG Lon Holston of Central Point has made it official that he will run again for the House District 51 seat he lost two years ago. Holston announced his candidacy Friday night at the 49th annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Dinner of Jackson County Democrats. "We are the party of yes -- yes to common sense, and yes, there is a future for you," said Holston, who after his defeat for the Oregon House last year became chairman of the Jackson County Democratic Central Committee. "So count me in." Holston, 47, works in the shipping department at the Medite division of Sierra Pine Ltd. He was a lobbyist for the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers in the 1997 and 1999 legislative sessions, commuting home to Central Point on weekends. Holston said many of his issues remain unchanged, such as adequate state aid for schools, medical care for children and the elderly, economic development that creates family-wage jobs in rural areas, and environmental protection including farmland, parks and clean water. He said one issue he will stress in this campaign is "tax fairness" -- reducing or eliminating tax breaks that benefit limited interests. He and his wife, Janet, live just outside Central Point. They have two children at home and two college-age children. Holston is the only announced Democratic candidate in a largely rural district that has never been won by a Democrat during its almost three decades of existence. District 51 covers southwest Jackson County, including Central Point and White City, and a small part of Josephine County. In 1998, seven of every eight votes cast in the district were from Jackson County. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats, 43 percent to 33 percent. The seat was held by Republican Eldon Johnson of Central Point for 21 years until Oregon's term-limits law required him to vacate it in 1998. Republican Jason Atkinson of Jacksonville defeated Holston for the open seat last year, 59 percent to 41 percent. Atkinson is running for an open seat in Senate District 25. Two candidates have announced for the Republican nomination in the May 16 primary election. They are Larry Frank of Jacksonville, a real estate broker who lost the nomination to Atkinson by 122 votes in the 1998 primary, and Cherryl Walker of Murphy, a retired hearings officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA