Forest Grove News-Times Write-up

The following is a story that was published July 2nd in the Forest Grove News-Times.

Politician, Pacific alum to march in Hillsboro’s holiday parade Friday
BY STOVER E. HARGER III

Hillsboro was his home for the first 24 years of his life and on Friday, the Republican candidate for secretary of state will return to proudly march in the annual 4th of July parade.

“It’s not my home anymore, but it still feels like home because that’s where I grew up,” Dancer said.

The homecoming for the 49-year-old Pacific University alum, who until recently was a full-time broadcast journalist based out of Eugene, offers a chance to be part of an event he watched as a child. He recalls sitting on the curb outside his childhood home on 24th Street with his sisters, waiting for the candy to come flying.

With his current bid for office, running against former Oregon Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown, Dancer hopes to give back to the state that has given so much to him as well as have an impact on the area where his life began.

With an end, comes a beginning

The last time Dancer came to his hometown was in early January, when his father and long-time Washington County civic booster and high school speech teacher, Roy E. Dancer, died at the age of 82.

It wasn’t yet set in stone, but in his last conversation with his dying father, the younger Dancer told him of his desire to run for secretary of state. His father told Dancer that he wished he could help him in his pursuit.

The end of his father’s life and the grieving process Dancer went through became a place for beginnings for him. As he scooped dirt onto his father’s coffin, Dancer knew that it was time to step up on his own and do what he had to do. He said it was a powerful moment for him and one that set him on his current passion. Somewhere, Dancer said, his dad is smiling.

“He set me up and gave me everything I needed to do this,” he said.

Just three weeks later Joe Dancer, Rick’s uncle and the former city manager of McMinnville, died, but before he did, Rick Dancer requested a favor. “When you get up there, will you let my dad know I did it?” he asked.

A new direction

In February, Dancer set his campaign in motion, leaving behind his 20-plus-year career in broadcast journalism and becoming a politician.

Although it was a definite career change, it is not that much of a drastic shift, Dancer said. His years in journalism, including many as main anchor for KEZI in Eugene, gave him the skills needed by the secretary of state: an ability to listen to everyone and be fair.

Dancer has traversed the entire state – meeting with elections clerks, politicians and community members – to try and get his message across and learn what they want from him, putting 11,440 miles in his Acura since March. He hopes it works, because for him there is no back-up option. He left his career to pursue his dream.

“I don’t have a Plan B,” Dancer said. “You can’t run for office and say if this doesn’t work out, I’ll do that, because you have to put every bit of energy you’ve got in Plan A.”

Learning the skills

His dad was a speech teacher in the 1950s and ‘60s at Hill High, but his son was at first reluctant to use the communication skills that his father taught. Rick Dancer was a shy kid, one who would hide in the back of class hoping that he wasn’t called on.

That all changed when he got a job at the Hillsboro Copeland Lumber yard, where it was a job requirement to get to know people. His time working at Copeland and talking with customers taught him more about social interactions and communicating then anything he had ever learned in school, he said.

Dancer expanded on this new skill when he attended Pacific University and graduated in 1983 with a communications degree and a desire to become a journalist. From then on he said he became, “soaked in news.”

Judi Magnuson, Dancer’s twin sister who lives in Lake Oswego, thinks some of Dancer’s abilities as a speaker came from their father’s example. When she saw her brother speak at a recent Lake Oswego Republican event, she said she was very impressed at how well-spoken and sincere her brother was.

“It makes me very proud,” she said. As she looked at her brother, she couldn’t help but think, “Hey, look there’s Rick being a grown-up.”

A connection to home

Eventually the Dancer family moved from Hillsboro, but most choose to stay close by. Dancer’s mother, Betty, lives in Beaverton, and another sister, Dana Vandecoevering, lives in Banks.

But Hillsboro and the surrounding area remain a special place for them, Magnuson said. The jobs, the time at school and the memories – it’s hard not to have a connection to the place you grew up, she said.

Which is why Friday will be a particularly big day for her brother, offering a chance to not just sit on the curb waiting for the candy to come, but to walk in the Fourth of July parade as someone who could have an impact on the lives of the people watching.

“I’m going to have an impact on the lives where my family started,” he said. 

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