Senate District 29 candidate Jim Doherty is confronting two bumps on the road of his campaign.

Doherty, of Boardman, has come under fire on social media after Holly Miles, a member of the Uncensored Boardman community group on Facebook, posted screenshots showing the Oregon Pro-Life Caucus endorsed Doherty. The group has the same director — Chuck Adams — as New Media Northwest, the political consulting firm Doherty has paid tens of thousands of dollars.

Doherty also talked about clipping a fence Monday, May 6, in his Ford Bronco as he passed the Marker 40 Golf Club at the Port of Morrow in Boardman and knocked off the passenger side mirror.

Doherty at first declined to comment on either matter but he later agreed to interviews.

Mailer raises eyebrows

Miles said as a monetary supporter of Oregon Right to Life she has gotten many pro-life mailers but had never heard of the Oregon Pro-Life Caucus.

On May 7, Doherty said he hadn’t seen Miles’ Facebook posts and wouldn’t comment on something he hadn’t seen.

“I don’t get on those social media sites,” he said, “and I certainly have no comment on anything that’s on social media or anti-social media, frankly.”

Then, on May 8, he did give a comment.

“I first and foremost stand behind the message, which is pro-life, and secondly, I took it at face value, the endorsement of the Pro-Life Caucus,” he said. “These things, I guess, are a little bit less understood by a layperson making a run at this level and leaning on your campaign team.”

Pro-life as marketing tool

Adams, who is working on Doherty’s campaign, said he created the Pro-Life Caucus PAC because of other situations he’s been in as a consultant in which it would have helped to have a third party deliver a marketing message.

“I’m already a paid strategist for him and it just happened to be a tool that I had in my toolbox,” he said. “He didn’t even know I had it, by the way.”

“I said, ‘Who is this and what is this,’” Doherty said, “and (Adams) said this is a PAC that he formed before he met me and he had read my responses to the pro-life questionnaire and was comfortable having his PAC endorse me as the candidate.”

The PAC has not had any financial activity since it was established in 2019. The organization lapsed in late 2021. Adams submitted the paperwork on April 11 to reactivate it. Oregon Pro-Life Caucus has no social media presence, and no website for it comes up on an internet search. Adams and its treasurer, Steven Mabry, are the PAC’s only members. Mabry is the owner of SAM Media LLC.

“My anticipation was periodically this entity would be utilized for exactly this kind of a situation, where you have a 100% pro-life person, and it’s a filed DBA (doing business as), and you deliver the message through that medium,” he said. “It happens all the time. I mean, there’s groups that are formed all the time just for, you know, specifically marketing purposes.”

On Facebook, people said they were concerned about a $25,000 expenditure from Doherty’s campaign to New Media Northwest just a few weeks after Adams reestablished the caucus.

Adams asserted that payment was not in exchange for the endorsement. Instead, it was part of the consulting company’s normal work of paying for advertisements, media time and mailers.

Susan Myers, executive director of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, said the relationship between Doherty’s campaign and the endorsement does not appear to violate any rules for candidates to follow that are within the commission’s purview.

Lack of disclosure a ‘complete oversight’

One of Oregon Pro-Life’s mailers, though, lacked disclosure of who paid for it, as Oregon law requires. Adams said that was a mistake.

“I called the secretary of state on Monday morning (May 6) once I found out about it, and that is that it should have the disclaimer on it, paid for by Friends of Jim Doherty, and I thought it did,” Adams said. “That was a complete oversight, so I literally self-reported on Monday morning.”

Laura Kerns, communications director with the Oregon Secretary of State, confirmed Adams reported a violation.

“We are reviewing the complaint to determine if an investigation is needed. If an investigation is opened and a violation found, there may be a civil penalty imposed” she said.

Regulations on elections law fall under Oregon Revised Statues Chapter 260, including violations. If Adams’s complaint leads to an investigation, which Kerns said is determined on various criteria such as jurisdiction, statute of limitations and amount of evidence, the civil penalty would possibly be 150% of the total cost of the communication that failed to disclose who paid for it. That cost includes printing, transmitting or distributing the communication.

Adams said this kind of mistake happens, especially with changes to disclaimer laws in recent years. But otherwise, he said, everything is as it should be.

“It’s a hundred percent accurate, and it was just meant to deliver the message,” he said.

Oregon Pro-Life Caucus vs. Oregon Right to Life

The Oregon Pro-Life Caucus PAC is not the same as Oregon Right to Life PAC, which is part of a statewide organization founded in 1970 and focuses on electing pro-life officials.

“We have heard of Pro-Life Caucus PAC,” Sharolyn Smith, Oregon Right to Life’s political director, wrote in an email. “As far as I know it’s just a PAC registered with the state of Oregon with no activity.”

Adams said he advised Right to Life for 25 years and has a proven track record in the pro-life community. He said he is thinking about formalizing the Pro-Life Caucus PAC with a board and “have it be a complement to what Oregon Right to Life does.”

Doherty’s campaign Facebook page on May 9 posted the following quote from the candidate: “I’m not seeking endorsements from PACs or big money interests.”

But he tried to.

Oregon Right to Life backs Nash

Doherty faces Todd Nash, Dave Drotzmann and Andy Huwe in the Republican primary election May 21 for the Senate seat. In February, Oregon Right to Life endorsed Nash, a Wallowa County commissioner. Doherty also interviewed for the endorsement and said he met with representatives twice.

Nash said the interview with Oregon Right to Life before his endorsement required travel to Salem and lasted hours, going over information about his background it had gathered before the interview.

“It’s one of the endorsements that I’m proudest of, because they were so thorough in what they did,” he said. “They were really well researched, and I was really impressed with how politically savvy they really were, one of the smartest organizations that I’ve dealt with as far as how deep they looked into the candidates and who they were and past history.”

Adams said Nash and Doherty have the “exact same record, they’re both 100% pro-life,” and Oregon Right to Life has done dual endorsements in the past.

“Which is actually what I think they should have done this time,” he said.

Nash said he had never heard of the Oregon Pro-Life Caucus PAC before receiving one of Doherty’s mailers.

“I think it probably has some impact (on voters) because he sent out flyers that are really confusing and has the appearance that he was endorsed by Oregon Right to Life, rather than what he was actually endorsed by, which seems pretty empty,” Nash said.

Adams said he does not believe the mailer misleads people at all.

Clipping the fence

Beyond the controversy surrounding Doherty’s pro-life endorsement, he may be in search of a new passenger side mirror.

The Port of Morrow owns the Marker 40 Golf Club in Boardman, and on May 6, Andrea Orcutt, a club employee, called the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office at 5:19 p.m. to report a hit-and-run. She said she believed the person who hit the fence was Jim Doherty, driving his light blue Ford Bronco, according to the incident report from the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office.

Doherty, whose wife, Kelly Doherty, is a port commissioner, said the fence is near the road and adjoins the fence on his own property. He was driving home, he said, and got too close and clipped the fence. He said he pulled over to check for damage to the fence and found none.

A deputy arrived at 6:42 p.m. and reviewed video of the incident. The deputy reported he found no apparent damage to the fence.

Doherty said he arrived home and found his Bronco was missing the passenger side mirror, so he went back to look for it. When he arrived law enforcement was on the scene and directed him to the club house where staff had placed the side mirror.

Doherty said he asked about reporting the collision and an Oregon State Police trooper at the scene told him because there was no damage to the fence, there was nothing to report.

According to the incident report, Orcutt on May 7 reported there may be minor damage to the fence and she had the passenger side mirror of Doherty’s vehicle.

Doherty also said while this was a minor incident, he realized he is under a microscope while running for state Senate and should have commented sooner.

Oregon Senate District 29 candidate Jim Doherty explained why he did not report the Monday, May 6, minor collision he had in his Ford Bronco with the fence at the golf club in Boardman.