Not everyone is enthusiastic about the prospect of having interim commissioner Fred Messerle on the board as this mobile “NO Fred” sign indicates. Someone possibly using a machete has been hacking up campaign signs in the Coos Bay-Empire area and according to some the culprit leaves Cribbens and Messerle signs untouched.

Position one is going to be very interesting to see whether campaign money translates into votes in Coos County because in this race many people will be voting less for Fred Messerle or Randy Sanne than they are voting against Bob Main. In other words they are voting for the candidate they believe has the best chance of beating Main, who has burned a lot of bridges and disappointed many of his previous backers, not necessarily for the best candidate. Messerle has name recognition and campaign funds on his side whereas Sanne is less well known and because he represents the working class has fewer campaign funds to spend getting his message out. Nonetheless, if Sanne survives the primary, and I believe that he will, his chances of winning in the general are probably higher against Messerle than Main simply because so many people feel about Messerle the way this sign holder does.