UCC Chair Steve Loosely
In July 2026, local graphic designer, neighborhood leader, and Roseburg mayoral candidate Max Smoot started a GoFundMe campaign to support his Frog Legs Studio in downtown Roseburg.
The campaign raised a reported $2,500 in 24 hours.
The apparent wealth of goodwill that allowed Smoot to quickly reach his fundraising goal scared the pants off County Commissioner “California Chris Boice” and his political partner, Roseburg mayoral candidate Steve Loosely, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Umpqua Community College (UCC).
Max Smoot, a UCC alumnus born and raised in Roseburg, devotes much of his time and resources to Umpqua Basin Food Not Bombs, a local organization that feeds hungry neighbors in Roseburg.
Although Steve Loosely is County Commissioner “California” Chris Boice’s handpicked puppet candidate for mayor, Roseburg voters aren’t fooled by Loosely’s soft-spoken persona and outwardly calm façade.
They know Loosely will maintain the status quo, representing the logging corporations that have clearcut Douglas County, and the wealthy owners of the condemned Winchester Dam.
Readers will remember that on April 23, 2024, WinchesterDam.com reported on Umpqua Community College (UCC) President Rachael Pokrant’s termination of the popular and respected campus newspaper The Mainstream, which was founded in 1965.
Although Pokrandt vehemently denied that she was shutting down The Mainstream, the now defunct college newspaper hasn’t published a story in nearly two years and its URL, Mainstream.org, is presently for sale for $29,000.
The Mainstream newspaper is dead as a doornail. And the people who might have saved it made no effort because they believed Pokrandt’s apparent gaslighting.
Bringing an end to free speech on the UCC campus was just one facet of Pokrandt’s master plan. She’s also building student housing in downtown Roseburg, exclusively for out-of-state foreign athletes, at the exclusion of students from Douglas County families.
And UCC Chair Steve Loosely Pokrandt’s willing agent, committed to furthering her agenda.
Loosely and Pokrandt’s priority for UCC is to function as a feeder school, training and supplying future Olympian athletes to prominent American colleges and universities.
But Loosely and Pokrandt apparently cares little about serving the educational needs of Douglas County voters and their children, at her college where civics is not part of the curriculum.
To this end, on September 30, 2026, the Roseburg City Council approved a grant application of up to $1 million to transform the defunct U.S. Post Office on S.E. Cass Ave. in downtown Roseburg, into UCC student housing, purportedly “for students with families.”
Since UCC is not eligible to apply for the grant directly, the city itself applied on the behalf of the college, even though UCC is the main project partner and property owner. But the details about how many units will be constructed, or how long the construction will take, have not been disclosed. The city expects to find out if the grant has been approved by the end of October.
Roseburg mayoral candidate Steve Loosely is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of UCC. His father owned Beaver State Sand and Gravel in Roseburg.
And h is an integral part of Pokrandt’s Olympic athlete scheme.
Crucially, Steve Loosely is Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice’s handpicked choice for mayor of Roseburg.
The citizens of Roseburg don’t want yet another of “California” Chris Boice’s handpicked puppets.
After 28 years in office, Mayor Larry Rich, who chairs the city council, is retiring at the end of his term this year.
Max Smoot, Steve Loosely, and a real estate broker named David Bolhuis, are the three candidates running for Rich’s seat in the November 3 election.
Mayor Rich and his fellow council members are well aware of Pokrandt’s master plan to make UCC as a wellspring of future Olympians—and not the sons and daughters of Douglas County voters.
So, the assertion that the new student housing will be “for students with families” is questionable at best.
Most voters agree that the county’s homeless population has been grossly mismanaged for decades—especially by “California” Chris Boice.
This prompted Max Smoot co-founded the People’s Homeless Commission in April 2026.
There has been much discussion this year about the creation of a homeless camp in downtown Roseburg.
But Steve Loosely’s wife, Shelley Briggs Loosely, who sits on the Roseburg City Council, and is the chair of the City of Roseburg’s Homeless Commission, has stated emphatically that the new UCC student housing deal is dead-on-arrival if a homeless camp is green-lighted in downtown Roseburg.
Steve Loosely and Chris Boice scared of Max Smoot because Smoot comes from a long line of community activists. Smoots family is well respected in Roseburg.
But most importantly, voters know that it’s highly unlikely that Max Smoot will ever be a willing puppet, as so many county commissioner appointees have proven to be—like Rep. Virgle Osborne, State Senator David “Bejing” Brock Smith (who was found guilty of violating campaign finance laws) or County Clerk Dan Loomis (who is currently the defendant in an election fraud lawsuit).
Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice is now so unpopular; it’s unlikely he will be reelected. And no one is more aware of this than Boice himself; he’s desperately begging voters for campaign contributions.
Furthermore, Boice—alias Chris Todd McCaw—who is now posting on Facebook under the alias Lindy Lou Laterman, is apparently one IRS audit away from a felony conviction due to his acquisition of millions of dollars of property, sport cars, and airplanes, on a commissioner’s’ salary of $130,000.
In his desperation to get reelected, Boice has gone so far as to order county employees to remove the campaign signs of his political opponent, Steve Hammerson—a violation of ORS 162.415.
In this video, Boice’s county employees remove Hammerson’s campaign signs.
In this recording, Chris Boice admits to removing his opponent’s campaign signs.
Ironically, this has only increased Hammerson’s popularity.
For decades, Roseburg Mayor Larry Rich has been the commissioners’ lap dog. Boice and his cronies want Rich’s replacement to be just as easy to control and manipulate. That’s why the commissioners want Steve Loosely.
Boice handpicked Steve Loosely, Chairman of the Board of Directors at UCC, to run for mayor of Roseburg because he will toe the commissioners’ line.
Loosely endorses Boice; Boice endorses Loosely. So interwoven are their political campaigns, their campaign signs stand next to each other throughout the county.
If Loosely as elected mayor, Pokrandt and Boice can count on him to oppose a homeless camp in downtown Roseburg—and rubberstamp anything else the commissioners or the UCC Board of Directors desire.
October 13, 2026, is the last day for new Oregon voter registration.
Ballots will be mailed by October 20 for the November 3 election.
Voters are encouraged to vote early and to hand deliver their ballot to a county drop box.
The U.S. Post Office warns that it will take at least 14 days to deliver your ballot if you use the U.S. Mail.
