BOARDMAN — John Murray has won his reelection to the Port of Morrow Board of Commissioners, according to early results.

Four candidates vied for the position — Murray, Jonathan Tallman, David Boor and Wes Killion. It was the most contested election of the night Tuesday, May 16, for Morrow County.

Murray, who owns and operates Murray’s Drug, a pharmacy, had 45% of the vote, or 887 votes total, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s election results. Boor was the closest competitor, with 35.6% or 702 votes.

Killion received 10.7% of the vote, or 210 votes, and Tallman was last with 8.4%, or 166 votes.

Murray previously said he wanted to use this term to address conflicts of interest on the board of commissioners, as two other commissioners, Jerry Healy and Marvin Padberg, both have ownership of Windwave, which has been part of multiple votes over the past six months.

Murray also planned to follow through on the port’s commitments regarding wastewater and secondary treatments.

“I made a statement apologizing for the port knowing there was a leak on the port property and not fixing it as soon as we knew we had it,” Murray said April 26. “It was in bad faith, in my opinion, to not fix the leak we had, to where it had to be turned in by the public.”

Murray’s four-year term will expire in June 2027.

And challenger Kelly Doherty in early results was unseating Marvin Padberg on the Port of Morrow Board. Doherty received 53.2% of the Morrow County vote, tallying up 1,017 votes to Padberg’s 876, or 45.8% of the vote.

Doherty, a Boardman resident, is the owner of O’Doherty Cattle Co. whose previous experience in an elected position was on the Morrow County Education Committee.