Wood products donors build war chest for Lane County races

Dan Giustina, Goshen Forest Products, Murphy Company, Rosboro, Sierra Pacific Industries and other wood-products donors have funneled roughly $160,000 into a Eugene-based political committee called Community Action Network, assembling a six-figure war chest aimed at Lane County Board of Commissioners contests ahead of the May 19, 2026 primary. The committee, its filings show, is positioned to back three right-leaning candidates who control county policy on timber, zoning and permitting.

Community Action Network is run by businessman Dennis Morgan from an office listed at 361 W Fifth Ave in Eugene, the same address tied to Renewable Resource Group, Inc. Morgan, who has served as treasurer in Oregon Republican Party circles and appears on a 2024 federal filing at the same address, told reporters he expects the PAC’s tally could approach roughly $300,000 this cycle; the committee raised about $306,000 in 2022. Oregon campaign-finance transaction logs show entries for a committee matching the Community Action Network name, corroborating the committee’s activity in state filings.

The 2025–26 donor list filed with state records names Dan Giustina as the largest contributor so far at $45,000, with Goshen Forest Products giving $15,000, Murphy Company $15,000, Rosboro $15,000, Sierra Pacific Industries $12,000 and Marie Jones $10,000. Several contributors have explicit local ties: Goshen Forest Products is based in Goshen, and Rosboro operates a Springfield mill, tying the money to timber operations inside Lane County.

The PAC’s potential beneficiaries are named on local ballots: David Loveall, the incumbent in the Springfield seat running for re-election; Ryan Ceniga, incumbent in the West Lane seat; and Jake Pelroy, a challenger in the East Lane contest. All three appear on the May 19, 2026 primary ballot, a ballot that will shape which names move into the November general election and, ultimately, who sits at the commissioners’ dais.

Those seats matter to timber interests because Lane County commissioners adopt the Lane County Land Use and Development Code, set zoning and permitting rules, control county real property and manage large portions of the county budget and oversight of departments including public works, public health and planning. Those statutory levers affect logging permits, land-use designations, economic incentives for mills and county partnerships with private landowners, all policy areas cited by the donors and traced in county administrative documents.

This concentrated giving is part of an ongoing pattern: committee records and past campaign cycles show Community Action Network focused more of its giving on county commissioner contests beginning in 2018 and peaking in 2022. Organized labor remains the other major donor bloc in Lane County races, typically donating directly to individual candidates rather than through a committee, a dynamic that can change competitive math when a single PAC consolidates industry dollars.

Outreach to the named companies did not produce responses, and state filings will show whether Community Action Network makes direct disbursements to the three named campaigns before or after the May 19 vote. With the May 19, 2026 primary 37 days away, the six-figure fund assembled by Community Action Network puts concrete money behind a contest that decides who will write and enforce land-use and permitting rules that affect mills in Springfield, Goshen and across Lane County.