PORT ANGELES — The final day of filing week for the November general election guaranteed a busy Aug. 17 primary ballot for elected Clallam County government positions.
The new candidate filings on Friday produced three-way primary races for Democrat Mike Doherty’s West End county commissioner seat and District Court 1 Judge Rick Porter’s position as well as a five-way battle for director of the Department of Community Development John Miller’s post.
Some incumbents unopposed
Incumbents who filed for re-election and face no opposition in the primary or general election are Sheriff Bill Benedict of Sequim, Auditor Patty Rosand of Port Angeles, Assessor Pam Rushton of Port Angeles, West End District Court 2 Judge Erik Rohrer of Forks, and Clallam County Public Utility District Position 1 incumbent Will Purser.
In one county race, that for treasurer, only two candidates have filed. Incumbent Judy Scott of Port Angeles will face off against DCD Senior Planner and non-practicing lawyer Selinda Barkhuis of Port Angeles.
That’s not the case with the District 3 county commissioner, DCD and judge positions.
Candidates will vie in a top two primary race that will narrow the field to only two candidates for the November election.
The top-two vote-getters will run in November, regardless of party affiliation, even in partisan races.
Quileute tribe Executive Director Bill Peach of Forks filed Friday as a Republican candidate for county commissioner.
Peach will join Republican Robin Poole, a Beaver UPS driver, and Doherty, the three-term incumbent from Port Angeles, on the primary ballot.
Two more candidates also joined the race for the position of DCD director, a nonpartisan post, bringing the total to five.
Filing Friday were former DCD planner Tim Woolett of Port Angeles and business owner Sean Ryan of Port Angeles.
Woolett and Ryan will join incumbent Miller, of Port Angeles, associate real estate broker Alan Barnard of Port Angeles and DCD Code Compliance Officer Sheila Roark Miller of Port Angeles, who is not related to John Miller, on the August primary ballot.
Also on Friday, Tim Davis, a state assistant attorney general based in Port Angeles, jumped into the race for District Court 1 judge, a nonpartisan position.
Davis, who has an unlisted number and was unavailable for comment by e-mail on Friday, will join two-term incumbent Porter, of Port Angeles, and lawyer Pam Lindquist of Port Angeles in the August primary.
Davis was admitted to practice in Washington state in 2003, according to the legal industry website www.Justia.com.
He was a Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney from 2003 to 2007 and now represents state agencies on behalf of the state Attorney General’s Office, Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said Saturday.
Kelly, a Port Angeles Republican, will herself face two Sequim Democrats in the primary.
A two-term incumbent, Kelly will go up against lawyer and developer Larry Freedman and lawyer and administrative law judge Lauren Erickson.
Write-in candidates
All candidates who filed last week can still face additional opponents — write-in candidates can file positions as late as the day before the primary and the day before the general election.
Ballots in the all-mail ballot election will be mailed to voters on July 28.
All registered voters countywide will be able cast ballots for all elected county government positions and the PUD post.
All elected county government positions, except for two of three county commissioner seats, are up for re-election to four-year terms.
All county positions are nonpartisan except for those of county commissioner and prosecuting attorney.
U.S. Senate
In the U.S. senator race, the field of candidates challenging incumbent Patty Murray, D-Freeland, grew to 15 for the primary at the close of the filing period.
Republican Clint Didier, who filed on Thursday, tweeted that he was drawing support from former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Anne Martens of Washington State Democrats said in an e-mail on Friday.
Other Republicans in the primary are Dino Rossi of Bellevue, Republican Mike Latimer of Des Moines, Norma D. Gruber of Walla Walla, William Edward Chovil of Tacoma and Paul Akers of Bellingham.
Also filing were Reform Party candidate Will Baker of Tacoma and Centrist Party candidate Mohammad H. Said of Ephrata.
Other Democrats are Goodspaceguy of Seattle, Mike the Mover of Mill Creek, Charles Allen of Seattle and Bob Burr of Bellingham.
Two candidates who expressed “no party preference” when they filed are Schalk Leonard of Poulsbo and James “Skip” Mercer of Bellevue.
Bryan Chushcoff of Tacoma filed for state Supreme Court Position 6, joining challenger Charlie Wiggins of Bainbridge Island in opposing incumbent state Justice Richard B. Sanders, turning that race into a three-way match-up for the primary.
Other races remained unchanged after Friday.
24th Legislative District
For Position No. 1, two-term incumbent Democrat Kevin Van De Wege of Sequim, a firefighter and paramedic, will be challenged in the primary by Port Ludlow Republican Craig Dorgan, a business owner who supports the tea party movement, and Port Angeles Republican Dan Gase, a real estate broker.
The Position No. 2 seat is a two-year position being vacated by retiring Democratic state Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam.
Steve Tharinger, Jack Dwyer, Jim McEntire and Larry Carter will face off in the primary.
Tharinger, a Democratic Clallam County Commissioner from Sequim, has said he will keep his county commissioner seat if elected.
Dwyer, a Montesano Democrat, is a chiropractor who serves on the Montesano School Board and has said he will resign his position on the School Board if elected.
McEntire, a Sequim Republican, is a retired Coast Guard captain and first-term Port of Port Angeles commissioner who has said he will resign his port commissioner position if elected.
Carter, a Port Ludlow Republican who supports the tea party movement, is a retired Navy command master chief petty officer.
The 24th District covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
State Supreme Court
Position No. 1 incumbent State Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson of Olympia will be challenged by Sam Rumbaugh of Tacoma.
Position No. 5 Chief Justice Barbara Madsen of Seattle faces no opposition in the general election.
Congress
Incumbent Democrat Norm Dicks of Belfair will be challenged by lawyer Doug Cloud, a Tacoma Republican, and software engineer Jesse Young, also a Tacoma Republican, in the primary.
Candidate filings are posted online through the state Secretary of State’s Office at www.clallam.net.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
