Three-term Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty is so out of touch with the West End that UPS driver Robin Poole wants Doherty’s job, Poole said Wednesday.
The Beaver Republican and Vietnam War veteran filed late Tuesday afternoon as a candidate for the District 3 seat held by Doherty, 67, a Port Angeles Democrat.
“He’s so far removed from us, he has his own weather pattern,” said Poole, 60, who has been driving the roads of the West End as a UPS driver for 33 years.
“People out here, from the information I get, they would just like to have someone more in tune with the West End. People want a little different outlook on things than Port Angeles people.”
Doherty was unavailable for comment Wednesday, board Clerk Trish Holden said.
Poole grew up in Seattle and has lived in the West End for 40 years.
He said he’s upset by policies that reduce the ability to extract resources, such as timber, and that limit what landowners can do with their property, such as those that restrict land development to parcels of five acres or more.
“Younger people coming up are going to struggle anytime they are saddled with 5 acres of land just to produce a house,” Poole said.
“That escalates their costs dramatically.”
Poole said there’s “rampant unemployment” on the West End and suggested commissioners should consider a 5 percent wage cut.
The winner of the position will make $61,000 annually upon being sworn into office in January.
“Maybe the commissioners should take a 5 percent wage cut,” Poole said.
Poole has been active in the Elks Club, been a basketball referee and helped coach track.
But he has never attended a county commissioners’ meeting or been elected to any public position, he said.
“I’ll have to get up to speed when I get up there,” Poole said.
He and his wife, Jeri, have two adult daughters and an adult son.
Poole’s father, Verl, ran for commissioner around the 1970s, he said. County election records on candidates do not extend earlier than 1974 and there was no record of his candidacy, Election Supervisor Shoona Radon said.
State archives do not go extend any later than 1939, a spokesman for the Washington State Archives said.
Verl Poole managed the Sears store in Forks and owned a trailer park in Beaver and two bars in Forks and Beaver.
If a third contender emerges before the filing deadline Friday, all three candidates advance to the Aug. 17 primary, with the winners advancing to the Nov. 2 general election regardless of party affiliation or incumbency.
If there are no other candidates for the position, Doherty and Poole automatically advance to the general election.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
