BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang easily defeated his three Primary challengers in this week's election. At 61%, Chang had more than twice as many votes as the second-place finisher, Rob Imhoff. "I felt like I would win this election," Chang said the day after the election, "But the margin was bigger than I had anticipated."

Chang believes he won by focusing on a platform that resonated with voters, "Talking about housing, land conservation, mental health and addiction treatment, drought and wildfire resiliency." But, he adds, "I also, I want to emphasize that this was the first nonpartisan County Commissioner race in Deschutes County. And, we saw 61,000 voters turn up to vote. If only Democrats and Republicans were allowed to vote, more than a quarter of those people wouldn’t have cast ballots for Commissioner."

Until this election, non-affiliated and independent voters weren’t allowed to vote for Commissioner in the May Primary, "But now, all of those folks really have a say. And I think that, as a result, these Commissioner races are going to select for moderate, pragmatic, problem-solver candidates. And I would like to think that that is who I am and how I presented myself to the voters."

If no candidate earned more than 50%, the top two would have gone to a run-off in November. Chang tells KBND News he’s glad to be off the campaign trail, "I’m very excited to work on the full range of issues facing the county with that little bit of time given back to me, for the next six months."