Embattled House Dist. 54 candidate staying in race

(Update: La Bell talks with NewsChannel 21 about developments)

Embattled House District 54 Working Families Party candidate Amanda La Bell, faced with a state elections complaint and loss of two top Democrat endorsements, told NewsChannel 21 late Tuesday she won’t withdraw from the race and hopes to move on from the setbacks.

“Given the situation we would rather just put it all out there, here’s what it is, here’s the situation behind it,” La Bell said.

“I am not a perfect being, I have a past, I have a background, I’ve learned from those,” she said. “I’ve been able to pull myself out of those situations and kind of really come out stronger on the other end, and be a better person for it.”

A political action committee helping Republican candidates running for the Oregon House filed a state elections complaint Tuesday against La Bell, the Working Families Party candidate for Bend’s Oregon House District 54, noting she falsely claimed in the state Voters’ Pamphlet to have a degree from a Georgia university.

The complaint was filed with the Oregon Elections Division by Preston Mann, executive director of the Promote Oregon Leadership PAC.

It noted state statute ORS 260.715 (1), which says that “a person may not knowingly make a false statement” in election material. The statute also says such a violation would be a Class C felony, punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

La Bell is the House candidate for the Working Families Party but also had been backed by several prominent Democrats due to issues that arose in recent months with Democratic Party nominee Nathan Boddie, who has rejected calls to withdraw from the race amid allegations of sexual harassment.

The quick turn of events also cost La Bell at least two endorsements Tuesday. A spokesman for Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., told NewsChannel 21 the senator was withdrawing his support. Willamette Week got a statement from Gov. Kate Brown that she, too, was pulling back her endorsement.

“It’s important to me that Oregonians know who they’re voting for and that candidates are honest about their history,” Brown said. “Based on this new revelation, I am withdrawing my endorsement of Amanda La Bell.”

La Bell posted a note to her campaign’s Facebook page Sunday night, pointing people to her Voters’ Pamphlet statement as having “a lot of great information about why I’m in the race.”

But she also noted it includes her mention of getting a bachelor’s degree from Valdosta State University, which she said was “an error due to an oversight during the rapid launch of my campaign.”

“My campaign reached out to the secretary of state’s office to try to correct it, but the deadline to do so had already passed,” La Bell wrote. “I take complete responsibility for not catching this mistake.”

She went on to explain that she attended Gulf Coast Community College for two years, then transfered to Valdosta State University to pursue a BA in music.

“However, after one semester at Valdosta State University, I had to enter the workforce,” she wrote. “Through the years I tried to re-enter college but, like many working families, I faced significant financial barriers to completing my degree.”

The Elections Division’s Election Law Summary gives an example of “false statements in material required by election law” as “stating the candidate has a college degree when the candidate does not,.”

Mann said the Voters Pamphlet statement “is clearly in violation” of the state statute and asked the Elections Division to “investigate this matter and seek appropriate correction to ensure the integrity of our elections.”

La Bell also issued a two-page letter to supporters Tuesday, saying she’d felt “a deep sense of guilt and shame” for not receiving a college degree, and that led to a LinkedIn profile claim about the BA “many years ago,” repeated in her online work profile and Voters’ Pamphlet statement.

She also noted shared other parts of her past, including twice being arrested as “the result of an abusive relationship, and each time the charges were dropped.”

(We have a link to the full letter below.)