How Boice and Freeman Manipulate Elections and Candidates

In Douglas County, Oregon, the only candidates who actually get the opportunity to run for office—and get elected—are the ones chosen by the three Douglas County Commissioners.

But first, they must appointed to office by the commissioners.

For years, the Douglas County Commissioners have engaged in an ongoing pattern of appointing desperate loyalist puppets to the lowly county parks board positions, where they remain corralled until there’s an open position the commissioners need to fill with someone who will unquestioningly rubber-stamp anything they place before them.

In this way, the Douglas County Commissioners control who gets elected to county, state, and federal office. In preparation for the May 19, 2026 county election, County Commissioners Chris Boice and Tim Freeman installed bullet proof glass in the Roseburg election office.

For example, the following individuals began their political careers by first being appointed to office by the three Douglas County Commissioners:

• In February 2018, Virgle Osborne was appointed to the planning commission. In November 2022, he was elected House District 2 State Representative.
  
• Ron Quimby was appointed County Surveyor on Aug 30, 2021, following the death of Kris DeGroot. Quimby was elected to that position in May 2022.
  
• Dan Loomis was appointed County Clerk on Oct 2, 2019, and was later elected to that position.
• Christine Goodwin was appointed interim county commissioner on Sept 19, 2018, to fill the seat vacated by Gary Leif. In 2022. She was elected House District 4 State Representative.

The following individuals began their political careers by being appointed to office by a consortium of county commissioners, which included the three Douglas County Commissioners:

• David “Bejing” Brock Smith was appointed to the Oregon Senate District 1 seat in January 2023. He was elected to that position the following year. He is currently running for Jeff Merkley’s seat in the U.S. Senate.

• Court Boice was appointed to fill the Oregon House District 1 seat in February 2023. He was elected to that position the following year.
  
• In 2018, Dallas Heard was appointed to replace Oregon State Senator Jeff Kruse.
  
• Gary Leif was elected Douglas County Commissioner in 2016. A consortium of county commissioners appointed him to the Oregon House District 2 seat on April 30, 2018, filling the seat left by Dallas Heard. Lief was later elected to that position.
  
• Leif died on July 22, 2021, and Christine Goodwin was appointed to fill his Oregon House District 2 seat in August 2021.

In 2022, the county commissioner seat previously held by Gary Leif was up for election. 

According to polling, the two top candidates for Leif’s vacated county commissioner’s seat were Tom Kress, a local firearms retailer; and Alek Skarlatos, a veteran endorsed by the Douglas County Central Republican Committee.

But Dan Loomis, a career U.S. Army warrant officer, unwittingly walked into the middle of this duel between Kress and Skarlatos.

Loomis was also running for Gary Leif’s vacated county commissioner seat.

Endeavoring to control the outcome of the election, Douglas County Commissioners Chris Boice and Tim Freeman were worried about getting the “right” candidate to fill Leif’s seat as the third Douglas County Commissioner

The commissioners wanted a candidate who, without question or comment, would rubber-stamp their pro-Wall Street timber corporation deals, their war against term limits, and their ever-increasing salaries and benefits packages.

Boice and Freeman—both Californians who are Republicans in name only—callously undermined the objectives of local voters, burning their bridge with Oregon’s Central Republican Committee.

Consequently, the Central Republican Committee backed Alek Skarlatos—a candidate who is not a member of the Douglas County commissioners’ rubber-stamp cabal.

This created a serious problem for Boice and Freeman. Months before the election, they had decided that Tom Kress, a gun salesman with no government experience of any kind, was their man—the puppet most likely to tacitly approve all of their decisions, however unadvised or unlawful. 

Since Skarlatos and Kress had the biggest campaign war chests and were then neck-and-neck in the polls, Freeman and Boice were terrified that Loomis, a veteran, would take votes away from Kress, whom Freeman and Boice publicly endorsed, allowing Alek Skarlatos to win the election for the vacant county commissioner seat.

And so, Boice and Freeman struck a quid pro quo devil’s bargain with Dan Loomis. 

Loomis agreed to withdraw his candidacy from the county commissioner election and drop out of the race in exchange for the Douglas County Commissioners appointing him to a paid position on the Umpqua Economic Development Partnership (UEDP), a nonprofit supported by Douglas County. 

On October 8, 2022, less than a month before election day, Loomis threw the election as per Boice and Freeman’s direction, dropping out of the race and endorsing Tom Kress, who went on to win the election. 

Three months later, Loomis thanked the commissioners at one of their public meetings, for his new job as manager at UEDP—a job for which he had no previous experience or training. Loomis claimed his $108,197 a year job—his payoff for his quid pro quo political cooperation—was not a “high paying” position, which affected his credibility with voters, most of whom make far less than half of Loomis’ salary.

But curiously, the UEDP position to which Loomis was appointed was created out of whole cloth specifically for Loomis and Loomis alone.

That is to say the position to which Loomis was appointed did not exist before he was hired in December 2018 and ceased to exist when he left—no one was hired to replace him when 10 months later in October 2019, the commissioners appointed him county clerk.

Like Tom Kress, Dan Loomis had no government experience of any kind.

Loomis readily admitted his considerable inexperience at an October 2018 League of Women Voters meeting, “As I became bored as a retiree, I…started attending County Commissioner meetings in March 2018.”

County Commissioner “California” Chris Boice is infamous for having granted free dump privileges to millionaire Bruce Hanna, resulting in a toxic leachate disaster that has cost Douglas County taxpayers nearly $10 million.

Boice, one of the directors of UEDP, is apparently responsible for Loomis’ unprecedent and unqualified career advancement.

It was a quid pro quo, both blatant and apparent. Loomis paid position on the UEDP is his payoff for stepping aside in the 2018 election allowing Tom Kress, a candidate with no government experience of any kind, to “win” the election.

Douglas County Clerk Patty Hitt, a lifelong Republican whose husband was killed by a falling limb during the February 2019 “Snowmageddon” storm, resigned as county clerk in August 2019, after serving seven years in that elected capacity.

Ten short months after Loomis was appointed to UEDP, apparently as part of the quid pro quo deal, on October 2, 2019, the three Douglas County Commissioners appointed Loomis—who had no qualifications for the position—to replace Hitt as county clerk.

Upon tendering her resignation, Patty Hitt had asked the commissioners to appoint her assistant, Deputy County Clerk Rosemarie Wess, to the county clerk position.

But when Wess learned that the commissioners had instead appointed Dan Loomis—a candidate with zero experience for the job—she resigned in disgust.

“I am extremely disappointed the commissioners did not accept my recommendation,” Patty Hitt told the News-Review newspaper.

But the county commissioners apparent manipulation of the electoral process had consequences.

Now Douglas County Clerk Dan Loomis is the defendant in an election fraud lawsuit (case #25CV37488) so radioactive, every judge in Douglas County has literally recused themselves from the case. 

The plaintiff, Todd Vaughn, alleges Loomis apparently agreed to the aforementioned quid pro quo, thereby proving he’d “toe the line” for the commissioners, keep their secrets, and rubber-stamp their legally questionable decisions. 

Vaughn’s lawsuit claims, “In 2018, Dan Loomis was running for Douglas County Commission when he suddenly withdrew from the race and was later appointed by the Douglas County Commission to be the county clerk with authority over elections in Douglas County. Loomis has no experience with elections. The resigning county clerk recommended her second in command, who she had trained, to take over as county clerk.”

One candidate who also ran for Douglas County Commissioner in 2022 observed, “Loomis appears to be the Commissioner’s inside guy to make sure the election vote count goes their way. Loomis has already demonstrated to the Commissioners he would do their bidding by taking money to throw the 2018 County Commissioner election for them. And now he’s in charge of counting the election… Free and fair election no longer exists in Douglas County as long as Dan Loomis is the County Clerk.”

This is how Douglas County Commissioners Boice and Freeman—both Californians—use their power of appointment to hand-pick unscrupulous members of their aforementioned “cabal” to county jobs, kickstarting their political careers. 

Although Dan Loomis was appointed to his position as county clerk, after serving his term, he ran for that office and was elected to the position.

This pathway from appointment to election is Boice and Freeman’s tried and true method for ensuring nobody gets elected who isn’t part of their cabal. 

This is the same political career pathway trod by Oregon Senators David “Beijing” Brock Smith and Jeff Kruse, as well as County Surveyor Ronald Quimby, and State Representatives Court Boice, Dallas Heard, Virgle Osborne, and Christine Goodwin.

Since Loomis’ former position at UEDP no longer exists, his payoff job and the quid pro quo that ties him directly to throwing the 2018 election is obfuscated.

Now Loomis is hyped as “grassroots veteran” and “community volunteer” who became a lawfully elected county clerk—when he is actually a candidate with zero experience who got his job in a backroom deal and a quid pro quo.

In this way the commissioners continue to control county governance through appointments and coalition memberships, while local watchdog groups criticize their considerable lack of transparency and prohibitively expensive records fees for public information requests.

In 2024, Todd Vaughn, the plaintiff in the election fraud lawsuit against Dan Loomis, ran unsuccessfully for the Oregon Senate in District 1 against incumbent Republican David “Beijing” Brock Smith.

But in his lawsuit, Vaughn alleges that members of the Oregon Legislature, and the Douglas County Commissioners and their cabal puppets like Dan Loomis, conspired against him, sabotaging his 2024 primary challenge of “Beijing” Brock Smith, a widely disliked candidate with an embarrassing voting record who spends a staggering amount of his time in China.

Yet Vaughn’s modest $25,000 campaign was such a threat to Brock Smith that the same county commissioners had to marshal the Douglas Timber Operators to spend $250,000 to defeat him—ten times Vaughn’s campaign budget.

Vaughn’s lawsuit asserts, “Vaughn was told that Dan Loomis and Tim Freeman (Chair of the Douglas County Commissioners) were not happy with their election integrity investigations. Vaughn and his colleagues on the Executive Committee were also very interested in the performance of Senator David Brock Smith. They discovered a number of disturbing issues including unsavory large donors and a horrible voting record. As a result, the America First group on the Executive Committee decided that Vaughn should run against David Brock Smith in the 2024 Republican primary, Vaughn was warned and threatened not to investigate David Brock Smith or run against him.”

Vaughn asserts that, “Loomis appeared at campaign events on behalf of Smith’s campaign against Vaughn. In one notorious case, Loomis was scheduled to appear along with Brock Smith, John Hanlin, and Virgle Osborne, at a voter event at a local nursing home with the specific intent to ballot harvest from the elderly patrons… This sparked outrage among many conservatives. Republican talk show host Rob Taylor excoriated Loomis and others in the cabal for “planning such an event to take advantage of frail seniors by helping them fill out their ballots in exchange for an ice cream soda.”

According to Taylor, “If you’re in the campaign and you’re running against David Brock Smith, Virgle Osborne, or [Sheriff] John Hanlin, do you feel secure knowing that the county clerk of Douglas County is not only campaigning for your opponent but harvesting ballots at a Senior Living Center where they have mentally vulnerable people?”

The trading of goods in exchange for votes is a felony under ORS 260.665 and ORS 260.715.

Vaughn alleges that Loomis actively campaigned for his opponent, Senator David “Bejing” Brock Smith, and worked with county commissioners to undermine Vaughn’s role inside the local Republican Party. 

According to Vaughn, the commissioners orchestrated a “recall vote” against him and his allies by quickly appointing 19 handpicked party members just days before the vote, blatantly “stacking the deck” to ensure the outcome they desired.

Loomis allegedly vetted these appointees late at night, approving only cabal members loyal to the commissioners, while blocking all other applicants.

After Vaughn’s senate campaign was defeated by the Douglas Timber Operator’s $250,000 spending blitz, Vaughn claims the commissioners and their allies moved to finish him off politically inside the local Republican party.

According to Vaughn’s lawsuit, county officials orchestrated a recall vote against him and other reformers on the Republican Party’s executive board.

The three Douglas County Commissioners signed a letter supporting the recall, joined by County Clerk Dan Loomis, District Attorney Rick Wesenberg, Sheriff John Hanlin, and Reps. Virgle Osborne, Christine Goodwin, and Court Boice, and State Senator David “Beijing” Brock Smith.

But witnesses described the recall as anything but organic, claiming that the county commissioners rushed through the late-night appointment of 19 loyalists, including paperwork signed by Commissioner “California” Chris Boice and his wife, to ensure the outcome. 

One candidate who ran against Dan Loomis in the disputed recall election claimed that she was physically “yanked” out of the line at the sign-in desk and threatened with arrest when she objected. 

Others pointed to the county sheriff, clerk, and commissioners standing watchfully by as the maneuver unfolded.

Vaughn claims county clerk Dan Loomis personally vetted these late-night appointments, approving only those aligned with the commissioners while ignoring other applicants.

Although recall coup was successful, Vaughn says the commissioners then used it as political ammunition to discredit him during his senate challenge against David “Beijing” Brock Smith.

Michaela Hammerson, a fellow board member and longtime Republican party activist, corroborates Vaughn’s account. In a sworn declaration, she describes noticing a sharp change in Loomis’s behavior toward reformers in late 2023, when lawsuits and ballot initiatives around election integrity were gaining traction. 

Hammerson also remembers Loomis signing onto a letter urging party members to support the recall of Vaughn and others.

She stated, “At the same time, Douglas County residents attempted to place a petition on the ballot to require hand-counting of ballots. Clerk Loomis denied this petition six times, including when I was chief petitioner on the sixth attempt.”

Hammerson adds, “I have observed that Douglas County elected officials often act collectively to support one another’s campaigns and appointments. I call them a cabal.” She included a copy of a letter to the DCRCC urging the recall of Hammerson and Vaughn, as well as others, signed by Loomis and the county commissioners, Senator “Beijing” Brock Smith, and Reps Court Boice and Virgle Osborne.

The effect was clear: anyone in the local GOP who pressed for transparency in elections or accountability for county officials found themselves targeted. For Vaughn, this wasn’t just party infighting, it was a coordinated strategy to silence him as a candidate and as a critic of the commissioners’ longstanding cabal.

In Oregon, tampering with a county election is a felony with significant penalties, such as imprisonment and fines.

Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Matthew G. Galli is presiding over the lawsuit.