PORT ANGELES — Two of three candidates for Clallam County sheriff on Monday debated around-the-clock deputy patrols and increasing the number of road deputies.
Sheriff Joe Martin, appointed to the job last year after Joe Hawe resigned, and challenger Soeren Poulsen jousted before about 100 persons attending the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce weekly luncheon at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant.
Lonnie Steele, a perennial sheriff’s candidate who owns a security guard agency in Port Angeles, failed to show for the debate.
Today’s primary election is expected to cut sheriff’s candidates to two for the Nov. 2 general election.
Poulsen is a 60-year-old Sequim-area resident who was a sergeant in the Long Beach, Calif., police department. He has an international reputation as a computer-crime expert.
Martin is 70, the oldest sheriff in Washington’s 39 counties.
He has been with the sheriff’s department for 14 years and was an undersheriff before the county commissioners picked him to be sheriff last year over Poulsen and another candidate.
