PORT TOWNSEND — Heather Dudley-Nollette defeated fellow Democrat Ben Thomas for the District 1 seat on the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners, according to initial ballot returns Tuesday night.
Dudley-Nollette received 75 percent of the vote while Ben Thomas received 23.5 percent.
Heidi Eisenhour, also a Democrat, gathered 98 percent of the vote, running unopposed in District 2.
“I feel a complex mix of gratitude and awe and excitement,” Dudley-Nollette said Wednesday. “I’m really ready to take on this new role, and I’m just so humbled by the support.”
Dudley-Nollette said she is excited to learn the job and that she sees her fellow commissioners, Greg Brotherton and Eisenhour, as good teachers. She said she’s also excited to learn from the public.
Dudley-Nollette said that her 13 years of experience with the Jefferson County Economic Development Council has given her valuable insight into the county’s three districts, and she expects her time on the council will help her be more effective in her new role.
Dudley-Nollette most recently has worked for Bayside Housing & Services, another experience she expects will serve her well in her new role.
“Having spent time in housing is going to be invaluable to the perspective that’s needed to be a county commissioner,” Dudley-Nollette said.
Thomas, who has another year to serve on the Port Townsend City Council, said he considered dropping out of the race after the primary.
He said he sees Dudley-Nollette as a good fit for the job.
“I have high faith she will do a good job,” Thomas said.
Eisenhour said the board is in the middle of a number of important and complicated tasks, and that she heard feedback from the community saying that she should run for a second term.
In her first term, Eisenhour said she was most surprised by the mental and behavioral health challenges the county is facing.
“The topic and issue that I really was not engaged in at all previously is mental and behavioral health issues in our community” Eisenhour said. “I was signed up, in my first meeting as a commissioner with the board of county commissioners, to the behavioral health advisory committee.”
Eisenhour said she is particularly engaged with county forestland and will continue to work on behalf of the county and with the state Department of Natural Resources to find productive forestland, which can benefit junior taxing districts.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
Ben Thomas.
