Sen. David "Bejing" Brock Smith (left) is the Chairman of the Southern Oregon China Connection.
Term limits are so popular in Douglas County, Oregon, in the 2014 election, 70% of county voters endorsed Measure 10-134, establishing term limits for elected officials.
But Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman hates term limits. And Senator “Bejing” Brock Smith, who owes his political career to Freeman, apparently has no problem actively circumventing the will of the voters.
Freeman was elected to his second four-year term as Position 2 Douglas County Commissioner in 2022, garnering an alleged 55% of the vote in an election overseen by County Clerk Dan Loomis, who is now the defendant in an election fraud lawsuit.
Yet, Freeman sense of entitlement is so great, he thinks he deserves special treatment and should be allowed to serve a longer term without having to first have an election.
To this end, Freeman and “Bejing” Brock Smith tried to shanghai the state legislature to turn Freeman’s four-year term (to which he was elected in 2022) into a six-year term, without the knowledge or approval of county voters.
This is a big red flag for the more than two-thirds of county voters who endorsed term limits in 2014.
Known as Tim “No Term Limits” Freeman in the halls of the state capitol, many voters feel Freeman can no longer be trusted after such an unconstitutional and evasive backdoor action. Freeman, who is being investigated in a county election fraud lawsuit, is presently installing bulletproof glass in the county election office and confiscating cast ballots from prior elections.
Freeman’s credibility is now on the line. He apparently believes he is above the law and should be exempt from having to run for office at all, serving as county commissioner for as long as he pleases, like his predecessor, the infamous Doug Robertson who served 33 years as commissioner.
But Tim Freeman is a Republican in name only.
He actively supported a boycott on donations to his own political party—the Douglas County Republican Central Committee—effectively reducing contributions by 66%.
Freeman apparently models his leadership on Senator David “Bejing” Brock Smith’s hero, Xi Jinping, and embraces the Chinese president’s anti-constitutional policies.
In 2018, Jinping removed China’s presidential term limits.
Governing through “rule by law” rather than “rule of law,” Freeman has taken a very Chinese approach, appointing a dozen loyalists to key elected positions, intimidating journalists and publishers, stonewalling and/or grossly overcharging for freedom of information requests, pursuing unchecked election corruption, and legitimatizing market distortions.
This is why many county residents recognize that Tim “No Term Limits” Freeman is, in fact, and Enemy of the American Republic.
Although voters overwhelmingly endorsed term limits for elected county officials in 2014, county commissioners filed a lawsuit to overturn the will of the people. The court ruled that, according to Oregon statutory rule, term limits were illegal. That is to say, term limits were only legal under a Home Rule constitution.
But in 2017, when Douglas County citizens launched Measure 10-159 for a Home Rule constitution which imposed term limits, Freeman marshaled hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund a propaganda campaign that successfully defeated it. Ironically, the Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce was the largest donor to Freeman’s campaign to undermine the will of the voters.
Apparently, Tim Freeman doesn’t have much respect for Douglas County voters.
Just months after he was elected to his second four-year term as county commissioner in 2022, he marshaled his minions State Senator David “Bejing” Brock Smith and State Rep. Virgle Osborne to sponsor HB 2244, an unprecedented and novel law that would allow the state legislature to extend Freeman’s four year term to six years without knowledge or appoval of the voters.
But Freeman’s proposed extraconstitutional six-year term violated the rules of office clearly defined in ORS 204.010:
“(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the term of office of each officer mentioned in ORS 204.005 is four years.“
“(2) When two or more county commissioners are elected for one county at a general election and one of them is elected to fill a vacancy, as provided in ORS 204.005 (1)(f), one of them shall hold office for two years and the others four years.”
Paid for by the Republican Unity Caucus
Undaunted by the state constitution, Freeman and his partner in crime, Oregon Senator David “Bejing” Brock Smith, got themselves on the agenda for a January 31, 2023, meeting of the Oregon House Committee on Rules at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon.
“Bejing” Brock Smith who, according to campaign finance records spends a staggering amount of time in China, is recognized as the least articulate member of the state legislature. He told the Oregon House Committee on Rules that HB 2244 “is good governance legislation.”
But “Bejing” Brock Smith failed to disclose that all three Douglas County Commissioners now run for reelection on the very same day, just as Tim Freeman intended. This has created the widespread belief among county voters that the commissioners manipulate the election cycle by running for reelection on the same day, making them harder to defeat.
“The fix is this bill 2244,” Freeman declared. “We thought there must be a way to fix this problem through the [county] clerk’s office with legal opinions and different things. And there was not. We were told the legislature had to fix it in 2019.”
Members of the committee exchanged glances, wondering who in their right mind would have told Freeman such unconstitutional hogwash.
Freeman then attempted to describe the perfect storm that had created the so-called “problem” in the first place. Notorious for his complicated and poorly organized rants that leave listeners baffled and it was apparent that Brock Smith’s explanation just confused committee members.
But Republican Rep. Anna Scharf, who represents parts of Yamhill and Polk Counties, felt that Freeman’s explanation left much to be desired. “I’m trying to keep up with the math,” she told him. “Is there any potential repercussions on county commissioners where counties have term limits or unintended consequences that happened from this question?”
“I don’t think so, Freeman responded, “[W]e focused this narrowly here in Douglas County and there had been a term limit measure passed…and it was found to be unconstitutional…”
“So, the only term limits that are constitutional,” Freeman explained, “are in charter counties and I don’t think this would affect any of that.”
It was clear to the committee members that they were being played. If this were really about staggered terms, Freeman had numerous remedies available at the county level. So, why a would a twice-elected county candidate lobby the state legislature to overturn the will of county voters?
Committee vice-chair Rep. Jason Kropf, who represents Bend, Oregon, asked, if the commissioner Position 2 seat to which Freeman was elected, “will end up serving a six-year term there? Will be you’ll be adding two years to [the Position 2 seat term]?”
“Bejing” Brock Smith chimed in, “You’ll be adding two years to [the Position 2 seat term]. As the—as commissioner Freeman explained, the other two seats have already had two years added to their terms. which is why we got into this problem in the first place.
The committee now understood that HB 2244 sought extraconstitutional privileges for just one single, solitary county commissioner in just one Oregon county—namely Tim Freeman.
But Tim “No Term Limits” Freeman was desperate.
He told the committee, “So we looked at…just hav[ing] a six-year term for election. It turns out there’s a constitutional prohibition for the legislature to have a six-year term. So that was not a solution that we could do. But we looked at several different ideas. This one’s the one that made the most sense practically speaking.”
Committee Chair Julie Fahey, who represents western Lane County asked, “What would be the longest that someone could serve without an election with this bill?”
Freeman answered, “It would be six years.”
Freeman said, “Somehow taking two years away from that sitting commissioner didn’t sit well with really anybody, because that’s the only one that hasn’t been adjusted. The other two have [already] had two years added to them.”
Agitated and barely intelligible, “Bejing” Brock Smith added, “Hence the reason why. And the other issue is—is the—the three commissioners in Douglas County, again have won their races with 50% + 1% in a in a multi—multi run, if you will, with more than two candidates running for multiple cycles in—in—in—the county, so…”
But committee vice-chair Rep. Jason Kropf was genuinely concerned about defrauding Douglas County voters. He asked, “Let’s say…[Tim Freeman’s Position 2 seat] is going to get the two-year extension at the time that [the candidate] is elected. Under this bill, will the voters know that that person will be serving a six-year term?”
Brock Smith, blurted out, “So…all the commissioners, again because of the lack of stagger, were just elected, And—um —and the—the commissioner — this bill will adjust that to—for—for that and [Freeman’s Position 2] with two years added. Um, and so the voters will know because the other commissioners will be running for election and not that— and the—the media will know and and— and —and everyone else will know [attempts to laugh] I—So, I don’t quite understand…”
David “Bejing” Brock Smith and Tim Freeman knew something the members of the committee did not. There was a total media blackout in Douglas County, modeled after the Great Firewall of China. This media blackout —the brain child of Tim Freeman—was replete with online surveillance, heavy moderation, character assassination of dissidents, content blocking, and the destruction of large swaths of the paper of the public record, including the archive of the local newspaper.
The local newspaper and four radio stations are owned by one man, Patrick Markham, the longtime business partner of Tim Freeman’s lackey, County Commissioner Chris Boice.
The committee members knew ORS 204.010 clearly stated that the term of office shall be four years. From their vantage point, it appeared that Freeman would have extended his term by 20 years, if he thought the Oregon state legislature would fall for it.
Rep. Jason Kropf responded, “My question wasn’t about what the people would know. My question was, at the time that somebody was voting for [Freeman’s Position 2 seat], I guess they would not have known that this person would potentially be serving a six-year term at the time they voted for him?”
Brock Smith was about to blow up, “No, the people—the people that voted—again all three commissioners in Douglas County had the competitors in the race, some [had] three, some four, and all received three—uh—fifty percent plus one. And as you heard, commissioner Freeman say, we—they tried to do this locally at the county—uh—through a county connection and it was—um—they couldn’t and it had to be done here at the legislature.”
Then Freeman spilled the beans:
“In 2015 the commissioner that had been elected to two years; the voters had been told it was a two-year term and…had an additional two years added to make that a four-year term. So, that did occur already once…”
It was at this point that the committee members realized that the Douglas County Commissioners had already added two years to an elected candidate’s term, in direct violation of ORS 204.010. They understood that, by using a statutory loophole, the Douglas County Commissioners had already stolen two additional years from the same voters who overwhelmingly approved term limits.
Republican Rep. Anna Scharf stated the obvious, “Coming from a county where the last two county commissioners have been appointed midterm for various reasons, [I wonder] why was anything added? When my county commissioners in Polk County vacated a seat and then the appointment process was taken, those that were appointed finished that term and then ran, whether it was for a year, or two years, or three years, and we never got them off that cycle. So, I’m trying to wrap my head around why were years added, because you could have avoided this problem.”
But the reason it only happened in Douglas County and nowhere else is because Douglas County is the only county in Oregon, where the commissioners so fragrantly disregard constitutional law.
It was now apparent that the so-called “problem” was in reality, the intentional election manipulation of Tim Freeman. “That’s why we did the 10-year window for the bill taking effect,” Freeman explained. “In case it does happen again. And…if it happens again, the legislature may want to address the underlying bill.”
It was obvious that Freeman intends to manufacture the staggered term problem again in the 2028 election, so he can again add more years to his term than the voters allotted him.
But Rep. Jason Kropf admitted, “What I’m struggling with is the local elections are local, right? Local communities make decisions about who sits on the city council, or county commissioner, or sheriff, or school board, etc. It seems peculiar that we in Salem would be telling Douglas County: somebody you just voted for four years; actually. we’re going to have them serve six years.”
At this point, everyone in the room, including Freeman, recognized that HB 2244 was dead in the water. It was a clear, unconstitutional attempt to defraud the voters.
Everyone except “Bejing” Brock Smith.
Still tripping over his tongue, Brock Smith whined to the committee, “It would be unfair, to say the least, to cut two years out of a [four-year] term there and force them to only have a two-year term. So, this was the this was the—the—the—best way to go. I mean, you know, as far as, I mean, again these commissioners have—uh—have—have seen terms—have been reelected to terms—without having through the primary process. They’re ver—uh—ver—uh—very well respected. They are—uh—ver—very well liked, and—uh—hence the reason for this.”
But the committee members weren’t buying Brock Smith’s unconstitutional obfuscation.
If the county commissioners are so “well liked,” why did 70% of county voters support term limits?
If the county commissioners are so “well respected,” why do they need to ask the legislature—and not the voters—to add additional years to their elected term?
Chair Fahey thanked Freeman and Brock Smith for their time and moved on to the next item on the agenda.
Suffice to say, “Bejing” Brock Smith and Virgle Osborne’s HB 2244 died in committee and disappeared into obscurity.
Meanwhile, all three incumbent Douglas County commissioners were back on the ballot for reelection, on the very same day, May 19, 2026, exactly as Tim “No Term Limits” Freeman always intended.
But failing to receive more than fifty percent of the votes, Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice was not reelected in the May election.
Challenger Steve Hammerson gave Boice a run for his money.
Now both candidates will appear on the ballot in the November runoff election in the nonpartisan race for county commissioner position three.
