Losing county candidate asks radio station for his money back — and more

A candidate who finished a distant fourth in the May primary race for a seat on the Lincoln County commission has gone to court seeking nearly $3,600 from a Newport radio station which he claims did not run his advertisements and therefore hurt his campaign.

Don Gomez of Newport says he paid $450 for radio station KSHL and The WAVE to run his political ads from May 7-21. Despite he and his wife listening “from morning to night” Gomez claimed they did not run as promised.

Gomez filed a small claims notice in Lincoln County circuit court seeking not only the $450 back but an additional $2,988 “for the impact on my political campaign …” plus $152 in additional court fees and costs.

Gomez, who moved to Newport two years ago from California to open a book publishing business, came in fourth in the five-way primary with 1,811 votes. Incumbent county commissioner Claire Hall was first with 5,337 votes and faces a runoff in November with Depoe Bay councilor Rick Beasley, who got 2,835 votes.

Gomez told YachatsNews that KSHL did not submit the required regulatory reports for the ads to the Federal Communications Commission “which is supposed to be publicly available to protect the integrity of our elections.” Gomez said after repeated requests station co-owner and manager Leslie Brown “continued to be evasive.”

Gomez said he also advertised with KPPT “The Otter” which provided exact times his ads were aired and posted the required information to the FCC’s website.

Brown disputed Gomez’s claim and said they ran his ads in May. “Just because they didn’t hear them doesn’t mean they didn’t run,” Brown said. “We’ve been doing this for 30 years; it’s what we do.”