Wasco County Republicans Endorsement of Frank Polehn "An Error"
A screenshot of Wasco County Republicans prior endorsement. They have since removed their endorsement of Frank Polehn from their website.
UPDATED MAY 7th, 2021 to include comment from Wasco County Republican Committee Chair Betsy Hege
The Wasco County Republican Committee recanted their endorsement of a convicted felon for attempted sex abuse in the first degree, Frank Polehn for Columbia Gorge Education Service District Position #1, on Wednesday, May 6th.
The recanting of their endorsement comes after Teri Thalhofer a retired public health administrator, had called on Port of The Dalles Candidate John Willer to retract his FB comment endorsing Polehn in a letter to the editor on CCCNews.com.
John Willer, a registered Republican candidate then retracted his statement to “Vote Frank Polehn” on May 6th, saying “I had no idea who the guy was. My post on the FB page was uninformed and for that I apologize.”
Comments on social media subsequently called on the Wasco County Republican Committee to also retract their endorsement for Frank Polehn.
On May 7th Wasco County Republican Committee Chair Betsy Hege contacted CCC News and said they never intended to endorse Polehn.
“When I learned Frank had entered the race, I also learned he had a history that would not make him a good candidate, and I told him we would not be endorsing him,” said Hege. “And he was okay with it.”
“I put together a list of Republican candidates that were running and that list ended up on our website,” said Hege. “It was a factual list of Republican candidates running in contested races and was not intended as an endorsement,” she said.
“I deeply regret it (making the list) because of what happened. The list I made was picked up by the unsuspecting, who did not know about our decision not to endorse Frank,” she said. “I appreciate that folks look to us for recommendation and I did not realize the depth of their dependence on us to make recommendations. I hope this spurs people to look closely at candidates. CCC News has done a great service by providing candidate information for our community. We really appreciate that.”
The day before, in a brief phone call with CCCNews, John Grant, the Vice-Chair of the Wasco County Republican Committee, told CCCNews that their endorsement of Polehn was "an error.”
John Grant, Vice-Chair of the Wasco County Republican Committee
“We do not endorse him. We did not intend to endorse him. We are still trying to figure out how it happened and who put on there,” said Grant.
Hege owned the mistake and told CCCNews “I own it and I will be completely transparent about it.“
“We knew that he had a troubled past and we weren’t going to endorse him. His name getting on the page was a complete error,” said Grant. “I do not condone that behavior, I have children of my own. That is something we are extremely against. I support harsh penalties for such acts against minors and women.”
“We want to make sure that people know that was a mistake,” said Grant. “We didn’t mean to put out his name there as an endorsement.”
“We apologize for any confusion that this may have caused,” said Grant.
“We go out there and we try to make sure that people have made an effort in the community and they want to better the community,” said Grant. “We want people who are passionate about certain positions and boards and we want them to be passionate about that specific board that they are running for.”
Frank Polehn, a convicted sex offender, is running for Columbia Gorge Community College Board Position #1. He denies doing anything wrong in regard to his conviction of attempted sex abuse in the first degree. To read his running platform check out our Meet the Candidates voters guide.
