Wasco County Circuit Court Judges Race Heats Up, Next Public Q&A Session is May 5th
Pictured right to left: Judge John Wolf, and Attorney Caleb Berthelsen
On April 28, 2022, Judge John Wolf and attorney Caleb Berthelsen spoke before the Hood River Rotary Club at a forum moderated by Senior Judge Paul Crowley. Both are candidates for judicial position 4 in Oregon’s Seventh Judicial District, a position held by Wolf since 2011.
The position is on the May 17th ballot.
It is a nonpartisan position, and voters will choose whether incumbent Wolf will get another term or put Berthelsen on the bench for a first term.
Incumbent judges for Oregon Circuit Court are rarely challenged, however, in this case Berthelsen is seeing opportunity as he states Wolf is hamstrung by his inability to hear criminal cases.
Most districts are one county. The Seventh District is unique. It is five counties: Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam and Wheeler. Whoever wins will be elected to a six-year term beginning in January 2023.
During the forum, Rotary followed the format it has used for election programs for the last few years. Both candidates were allowed to make an opening and closing statement. To add some levity, the candidates participated in a game of Rochambeau, also known as rock, paper, scissors, to determine who would go first. Berthelsen won.
During his opening and closing comments, Berthelsen focused on the fact that Wolf’s spouse, Leslie Wolf, is a prosecutor and, therefore, John Wolf has a conflict of interest and cannot preside over the vast majority of the district’s criminal cases.
In turn, Wolf focused on the fact he otherwise carries a full case load and his career as a lawyer and judge spans more than 25 years, compared to Berthelsen’s two years of work as a lawyer.
During the question segment of the program, the candidates responded in an alternating order. Questions were designed to allow each candidate to respond. Some questions were pre-submitted. Others were taken from the floor.
The candidates did not substantially differ in responding to questions ranging from the propriety of our current bail system to their views on psychedelic drugs for treatment of mental health issues. Their greatest point of agreement was that the Seventh District should remain a five-county district.
“I thought the Rotary meeting went well and I’m looking forward to getting out to share my message with Kiwanis on Thursday.” said Wolf.
According to one attendee of the meeting, who wished to remain anonymous said that the meeting was heavily attended by Wolf’s supporters.
“The audience at the Rotary meeting was stacked with Wolf supporters. I don’t think Judge Wolf had anything to do with that though,” said Berthelsen. “There were some snide comments from Wolf supporters but nothing too unexpected. So, yes, it was a very hostile environment, but I’ve been through worse.”
“Stacey McCarthy particularly was making a big deal about the requirements to be Judge only being that you have to have passed the bar and insulting that I didn’t have enough experience. Which seems to be the campaign tactic that Wolf and his supporters have chosen,” said Berthesen.
Both candidates encouraged the public to take interest in the Judges race and to attend their final Q&A session with The Dalles Kiwanis at noon on Thursday May 5th at Spooky’s Pizza located at 3320 W 6th St, The Dalles, OR 97058.
Those who can not attend are welcome to tune into the CCCNews facebook livestream of the Q&A session.
To learn more check out our Meet the Candidate interviews with Wolf and Berthelsen.
—
About Hood River Rotary Club
With about one hundred members, the Hood River Rotary Club is large for a small, rural community. It also has a large impact. For example, during the pandemic members have donated over 3,000 hours of service to the FISH Food Bank. The club will give over $40,000 in college scholarships to graduating high school seniors later this month. And, on May Day the club conducted an Adopt-a-Highway cleanup of I-84.
On an international level, there are over 46,000 Rotary Clubs with a total membership of 1.4 million Rotarians. Its most notable project is PolioPlus, a program to eradicate polio through vaccinations. Largely due to Rotary’s efforts, today polio is limited to three countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
To learn more about the Hood River Rotary club visit www.hoodriverrotary.com
