BEND, OR -- Bend businessman Sam Carpenter officially launched his campaign Wednesday, for the Republican nomination to unseat U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in the fall. The 67-year-old owner of Centratel, a telephone answering service, tells KBND News his business experience will help him take on an entrenched incumbent. "The entrenchment is the problem, isn’t it this year? - If you look at Trump and Bush - And there’s other problems happening in this state that need to be pointed out. I’m a turnaround specialist. That’s what I do. I turn around businesses and I’ve been doing it for a while. I turned my business around and I’ve been doing it with hundreds of other across the country. Up to a half a billion dollars in size." Carpenter ran for Senator Jeff Merkley's (D-OR) seat in 2013, but dropped out of that race a month into his campaign. He chose, instead, to endorse fellow Bend resident Jason Conger, who later lost in the primary to Dr. Monica Wehby.
