Bend judicial candidate defends mailing

From the outside of a mailing by Deschutes County judicial candidate Beth Bagley, you might not think it’s a political ad — and some recipients say they didn’t, since it was addressed to them as parents, and otherwise blank.

Robert Tyler is a parent of a Bend-La Pine student.

But when Tyler was getting his mail Saturday, he says he got a curious piece of mail.

“From all outside appearances, it’s from the school,” Tyler said. “Apparently, endorsing a candidate is not the school’s function in life.”

The letter is addressed to a parent of a specific school and there are no political logos — or anything but the address to “a (school) parent” — on the front.

Inside, though, it’s a letter from Bagley, asking voters to elect her as judge.

“Had there been a Bagley logo up in the return address corner, that would have been different,” Tyler said. “But it had nothing but the address and postal mark on it.”

The Bagley campaign obtained voters’ addresses and school attendance areas from Bend-La Pine Schools in a public information request

Just about anybody can obtain that information, as it turns out.

The school district regularly receives requests from many organizations, including the military, Commute Options, driver’s education programs, parent-teacher associations — and also for candidates.

“Just like a reporter would ask for information from the school district,” said Julianne Repman, communications director for the school district. “Transparency is very important for us here at Bend-La Pine’s Schools, and also we are following the letter of the law by making this information available to the public.”

Bagley — who serves on the school board — says she doesn’t have any control over the address layout — that’s just how the computer spits it out.

The school board has not endorsed Bagley, or anyone, because they cannot. The letter was not prepared, nor mailed by the school board.

Bagley told NewsChannel 21 that she believes the letter is not misleading, but that she appreciated KTVZ bringing the matter to her attention.

She invited anyone to contact her directly if they have questions, and noted that out of over 3,000 letters that were mailed, she is aware of only four parents who have expressed concern.