PORT ANGELES — The field for the 2014 elections is set, and it doesn’t include Howard V. “Mike” Doherty.
Doherty, who has represented the county’s western District 3 in consecutive terms since 1999, decided Friday not to run for another four-year term as the weeklong period for local and regional candidate filings came to an end.
Doherty, 71, said he became frustrated with a growing “dysfunction” on the board.
He cited his fellow commissioners’ lack of response to the recently released investigative report on employee complaints against Community Development Director Sheila Roark Miller and their unwillingness to schedule a community meeting on the impacts of climate change as outlined in a Jamestown S’Klallam tribe report, among other factors.
“Generally, some of the values I represent have not been shared by colleagues, things like more open government, transparency, accountability,” Doherty said in a telephone interview from Eugene, Ore., where he was attending a family gathering.
“Some of those things I don’t think we’re geared to as much as we used to be.”
Doherty, a Port Angeles Democrat, is now in his fourth consecutive four-year term as a Clallam County commissioner.
He was also a county commissioner from 1976-1980 and, previous to that, was chairman of the Clallam County board of freeholders, which designed a process that eventually resulted in the drafting and passage of the county’s home rule charter.
He is running for a Charter Review Commission seat this year.
Doherty said he will continue to serve his constituents until his term expires Dec. 31.
Despite the lack of an incumbent, the race will be a primary election contest.
Forks Mayor Bryon Monohon filed Thursday to run as an independent for Doherty’s seat.
Also filing last week were Sissi Bruch, a Port Angeles city councilwoman, and Bill Peach of Forks, a retired forester and Quillayute Valley Parks and Recreation District commissioner.
Bruch, who had said she would withdraw from the race if Doherty filed for re-election, is running as a Democrat.
Peach is running as a Republican.
When more than two candidates file for a position, they face off in the primary, set Aug. 5 this year. The top two vote-getters will move on to the Nov. 4 general election.
Four Clallam County races are being contested by two candidates: prosecuting attorney, Port Angeles-area District Court 1 judge, community development director and auditor.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney William Payne, who was appointed by two commissioners in January to serve the last year on retired Prosecutor Deborah Kelly’s four-year term, will run against fellow Republican Mark Nichols.
Nichols, the county’s half-time hearings examiner, was a longtime chief civil deputy in the office before he was promoted to acting prosecutor when Kelly resigned Dec. 31.
Incumbent District Court 1 Judge Rick Porter drew a challenge Friday from Cathy Marshall, manager of the Port Angeles office of the state attorney general and current president of the Clallam County Bar Association.
Roark Miller, the incumbent community development director, will face Port Angeles architect Mary Ellen Winborn in her bid for a second term.
County Elections Supervisor Shoona Riggs will run against county Health and Human Services Administrative Coordinator Kim Yacklin for retiring Auditor Patty Rosand’s nonpartisan position.
Clallam County incumbents who filed unopposed last week for nonpartisan countywide offices are Sheriff Bill Benedict, Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis, Assessor Pam Rushton, Superior Court Judge Chris Melly, Forks-area District Court 2 Judge John Doherty and Clallam County Public Utility District Commissioner Hugh Haffner.
Barkhuis also is running for a Charter Review Commission seat.
In the 24th Legislative District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties, state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, filed unopposed last week.
State Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim, will face two challengers in the primary.
Dr. Stafford Conway, a Sequim neurologist who joined Olympic Medical Center in 2012, filed as a Libertarian on Friday to run against Tharinger and Republican Thomas Greisamer of Moclips in Grays Harbor County.
On the national front, U.S. Rep Derek Kilmer, a Port Angeles native from Gig Harbor, faces three challengers in the 6th Congressional District.
Green Party candidate Douglas Milholland of Port Townsend, Republican Marty McClendon of Gig Harbor and W. “Greybeard” McPherson of Port Angeles, who stated no party preference but voted for the Green Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election, will attempt to unseat Kilmer.
Charter Review
The top five vote-getters in each of the county’s three commissioner districts will automatically be seated on the Charter Review Commission as a result of the general election.
Here are the 42 candidates for Charter Review Commission in the order in which they filed:
■ District 1 (east county): Nola Judd, Anita Ready, Sequim City Councilman Ted Miller, former chairwoman of the Clallam County Republican Party Sue Forde, unsuccessful 2013 candidate for Sequim City Council Brandon Janisse, Jon Alan Kirshbaum, Bill Lowman, Henning Holmgaard, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula Treasurer Jerry Sinn, farmer Bryon Gunnerson, Ronald Bell, Sequim City Councilman Ken Hayes and Clallam County Health & Human Services Developmental Disabilities Planner Timothy Bruce.
■ District 2 (central county): Unsuccessful 2012 county commissioner candidate Maggie Roth, retired investment banker Kaj Ahlburg, Lindsey Schromen-Wawrin, Stephanie Noblin, Smart Awareness organizer Judi Hangartner, former charter commissioner Norma Turner, William Shore Memorial Pool Executive Director Steven Burke, county Planning Commissioner Scott Clausen, unsuccessful 2012 county commission candidate Patti Morris, Dennis McBride, former Port Angeles Mayor Glenn Wiggins, unsuccessful 2013 Fire District No. 3 commission candidate Sean Ryan, Barkhuis, Robert “Rob” Robertsen, county Democratic Party Vice-chairwoman Marcia Farrell, Diane Haffner and Susan Shotthafer.
■ District 3 (west county): Horticulturist and freelance PDN columnist Andrew May, Clallam County Planning Commission member Connie Beauvais, Fair Advisory Board member William White, former Clallam County Democratic Party Chairman John Merton Marrs, Superior Court Clerk Barbara Christensen, Port Angeles Councilman Lee Whetham, Doherty, winery co-owner and former district manager Don Corson, attorney Derek Medina, county Democratic Party state committeeman Joe McGimpsey, Cheryl Williams and Forks City Attorney Rod Fleck.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
