Initiative filed to make Deschutes County commissioner seats non-partisan If no successful challenge to measure, it'll need 6,700 signatures to make ballot BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- An initiative filed with the Deschutes County Clerk’s Office would ask voters to decide whether county commissioner seats should become non-partisan. Susan Cobb, the chief petitioner for the non-partisan county commissioners committee, says she believes commissioners hold judge-like powers meaning they should be non-partisan. “So judges, as you know, are never partisan. And so it seemed to me that the position of being a judge, one should not be partisan,” Cobb said Tuesday. County Commissioner Tony DeBone says he' not opposed to having non-partisan commission seats. He says the current committee can even make the switch if they wanted to.