Yellott runs for office, no reply to ‘hostile’ media

Illustration by Prisma Flores.

George “Sonny” Yellott, our often controversial MHCC District board member, is running for office again. He’s currently in the waning stages of his third campaign as the Republican candidate for the 48th House District in the Oregon Legislature. While he finds himself in somewhat familiar territory in this race, it’s safe to say his campaign has not gone according to plan. That said, his political future is in the voters’ hands now, with the election looming.

Yellott ignored the Advocate’s repeated attempts to contact him regarding his current candidacy.

This is a recurring theme with him, dating back to at least 2013. At that time, he had announced his intent to run for the Mt. Hood board seat vacated by Rod Monroe after eight years of service. After being contacted by multiple media outlets, including the Advocate, Yellott told the Gresham Outlook reporter Lisa Anderson, “I’m not going to get involved in any potentially hostile media outlets.” He added, “(What the media publishes) is not close to what the truth is. It’s totally misrepresented. I do not trust you to do what is right.”

He directly declined the Advocate’s request, again citing the “lying media” that he said “has not been comporting itself properly over the last 10 years.”

There is more that could have voters in the 48th feeling a sense of deja vú. This will be Yellott’s third try in this legislative district, having run unsuccessfully in both 2012 and 2014. All three times, the general election has pitted him against the same opponent, Democratic Rep. Jeff Reardon.

That is likely where Yellott hopes the similarities end for now, as Reardon won both previous races easily with more than two-thirds of the vote. Libertarian candidate Gary Dye, a local landlord, is hoping to put a dent in both Yellott’s and Reardon’s plans this time. However, with Reardon pulling nearly 70 percent of the votes in the last two elections, according to Ballotpedia.org, it remains to be seen if Dye or Yellott can mount any real opposition.

While Yellott can hope for a different outcome this year, he didn’t do himself any favors in the court of public opinion over the past few months. After making disparaging remarks during the July 13 MHCC District board meeting where he referenced “illegals” as the reason Mt. Hood’s recent bond measure failed, he was then outed for posting offensive messages on his personal Facebook account, including a depiction of President Barack Obama being lynched.   

Yellott claimed he doesn’t know how the image of Obama made it onto his Facebook page. But soon after, his own party denied any ties to or support for him. In a statement to The Oregonian news website, Preston Mann, Oregon House Republican spokesperson, said “George Yellott’s Facebook post is absolutely abhorrent… He should immediately remove the post, withdraw from running for office, and apologize to Oregonians for posting something so blatantly offensive and disgusting.”

On July 29, the MHCC board formally voted to censure Yellott for “repeatedly reprehensible comments” during board business, while he resisted pleas that he resign his seat, he told television reporters.

How this summer controversy will affect Yellott’s chances on Nov. 8 remains to be seen. One could easily ask how someone as controversial as him onto the November ballot, or a college board of directors, in the first place. The answer is really quite simple: he runs unopposed.  In all three of his legislative primary elections, he was the only Republican on the ticket for the 48th district, advancing to November by default.

From there, dethroning the incumbent, Reardon, has proved a much harder puzzle to solve.

That was not the case in Yellott’s May 2013 bid for the 4th District seat on the MHCC board. In that race Yellott also ran unopposed and won the seat by default. Since then he has drawn criticism repeatedly and on several different fronts.

He’s up for re-election in another six months, on the May 2017 ballot, if he decides to run again for the board.

Advocate Staff