Anna Williams pulled off a victory and earned a second term for the House
District 52 (HD52) seat by defeating Jeff Helfrich in the November election.
Results posted by the Oregon Secretary of State on Wednesday, Nov. 25
showed Williams with 19,209 votes (48.73 percent) to Helfrich’s 19,125 votes
(48.52 percent), a margin of just 84 votes.

“It was a long two weeks while we waited on the final results, but I’m thrilled
that the election came out in my favor,” Williams wrote in an email to The
Mountain Times. “In Clackamas County, there was a strong conservative
turnout that unseated Democratic county commissioners and city councilors
throughout my district and beyond. Relative to those other races, I’m happy
with how mine turned out even if I’d have preferred a wider margin of
victory.”

HD52 covers parts of Multnomah, Hood River and Clackamas Counties, with
Williams taking the most votes in Hood River County while Helfrich received
more votes in the other two. In Clackamas County, 10,613 votes were cast for
Helfrich while Williams received 7,538.

“I want to take this time to thank each and every one of you for your time
and effort you put towards my campaign,” Helfrich wrote in an email to The
Mountain Times. “Your contribution has meant the world to me and my family.
Throughout the last few years, we've all seen firsthand how politics has pulled
our communities apart. Now is the time to come together.”

Helfrich added that he did not see the victory by Williams as a “mandate to do
more of the same in Salem.”

“My hope is we can find a new path forward for our state where decisions are
made for the greater good of the people in our communities, not for the
political parties that politicians represent or the special interests that support
them,” he wrote. “Let's use this season to come together and remember what
unites us as a state and a nation is far greater than what divides us.”

Williams noted that in her first term she made “significant efforts” to listen to
people throughout the district, including those from across party lines.

“Even though most of them probably continued to oppose me this year, the
fact that I eked out a victory while so many other Clackamas County
Democrats were unseated leads me to believe that at least some of those
conservative voters appreciated my willingness to hear them out, and my
attempts to make sure they felt represented in the legislature,” Williams
wrote. “Above all else, though, I’m thrilled with the high turnout in our
district, and I’m grateful for the hard work that went into making sure
everyone who submitted a ballot had their vote counted – including some
people who were given the chance to cure ballots with signature errors. Even
though counting every vote over the course of the weeks following Election
Day made the race much closer than it looked on November 3rd, it’s a
testament to our democratic values that everyone’s voice was heard.”

Elsewhere in Clackamas County, Mark Shull defeated Ken Humberston for
Position 4 on the Board of County Commissioners by a vote of 93,923 to
90,324. The voters of Sandy reelected Mayor Stan Pulliam, who ran
unopposed, and elected Richard Sheldon for Position 3 on the city council,
Kathleen Walker for Position 4 on the council and Don Hokanson for Position 6
on the council.