PORT ANGELES — Four contested races shaped up in Clallam County the second day of the candidate filing period.
Two are on the Port Angeles City Council.
Andrew “Drew” Schwab, 26, filed to run against Port Angeles City Councilman Brad Collins, 62, for a two-year unexpired term, while Sissi Bruch, 50, filed to run against incumbent Port Angeles City Council Deputy Mayor Don Perry.
On the Sequim City Council, Ron Fairclough, 72, has filed to challenge incumbent Laura J. Dubois, 63, for her seat.
And on the Sequim School Board, two people have filed to challenge incumbent Walter Johnson on the Sequim School Board: Richard L. Fleck, 70, and Stephen Rosales, 53.
Collins, deputy director for capital projects and resource development for Serenity House, was appointed to the Port Angeles City Council position in January 2010 and said he now “can continue to be a steady hand on public affairs during economic recovery.”
Schwab owns Anime Kat, 110 W. First St., which he opened in April 2010. He serves on the Port Angeles Downtown Association board, having run for the seat after having been appointed last year. He is serving a three-year term.
Schwab said he ran for office to provide “a new perspective,” both as a business owner and as a member of a “younger demographic.”
Bruch is a senior planner for the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe and a member of the Port Angles Planning Commission.
Perry is an insurance agent and broker for more than 30 years who operates Heritage Tours in Port Angeles.
Meanwhile, Cherie Kidd filed to join fellow incumbent Dan Di Guilio for Port Angeles City Council on the ballot. They were unopposed as of Tuesday evening.
Dubois, former mayor of Sequim, is seeking a second term.
“I’d like to complete some of the work we’ve been doing on the downtown plan and the comprehensive plan,” she said.
Fairclough, a dental technician who has lived in Sequim for 37 years, enjoyed the town when he first arrived because “you could walk everywhere.
“I want to revive a more active kind of situation for all of the citizens,” Fairclough said.
Four positions — the majority of seats — are up for election on the Sequim City Council.
Incumbents Erik Erichsen and Ken Hayes filed Tuesday.
Candace Pratt, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters of Clallam County, filed Tuesday for the seat held by Susan Lorenzen, who had not filed as of Tuesday.
Walter Johnson ran unopposed in 2007 after a two-year board appointment to the seat he had unsuccessfully sought at the ballot box in 2002.
He did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
Johnson is a retired engineer who moved to Sequim in 2003 from Southfield, Mich., where he sat on the Southfield Board of Education from 1974 to 1999.
He retired from the Ford Motor Co. in 1995. He had been a manager there working on developing and supporting the company’s automotive-design system.
Rosales was one of seven volunteers given the Clallam County Community Service Award for 2011 and was the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Sequim Citizen of the Year in 2007.
A retired state of Texas employee who moved from Austin to Sequim with his family in 2005, Rosales has volunteered with the Sequim Food Bank, the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Sequim schools and Little League.
Fleck — a retired Boeing maintenance dispatcher who now serves as a high school football, basketball and baseball referee — wants to see the district get back to basics.
“Kids need to learn how to read properly, do good math and learn how to talk,” said Fleck, who has lived in Sequim since 2004.
Incumbents John Bridge, board president, and Sarah Bedinger both have filed for re-election.
All told, 19 candidates filed for office in Clallam County on Tuesday, bringing the total to 35.
Other new filings included Nedra Reed, former Forks mayor, who is running for re-election to the Quillayute Valley Parks and Recreation District.
Also filing were Cape Flattery School Board member Donald Baker and SunLand Water District Commissioner Pepper Putnam. Jim Larison filed for the SunLand district Monday.
There are 98 elective positions up for grabs on the North Olympic Peninsula — 50 in Clallam County and 48 in Jefferson County.
Jim McEntire, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner from Sequim, filed Monday as a Republican candidate for the District 1 county commissioner position being vacated by state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim.
Sequim Democrat Linda Barnfather announced Monday that she will file for the same office today.
Barnfather, 48, is a legislative assistant to the other 24th District state representative, Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
McEntire, 60, was defeated by Tharinger for a state House of Representatives seat in the 24th District last November.
Forks City Council incumbents Kevin Hinchen and Michael D. Breidenbach both have filed for re-election.
Port Angeles School Board incumbents Lonnie Linn and Steven Baxter filed Tuesday for re-election. Incumbent Patti Happe filed Monday.
Quillayute Valley School Board incumbent David L. Dickson has filed for re-election.
Incumbent Olympic Medical Center Commissioners John Nutter and Dr. John Miles have filed, as well as Forks Community Hospital Commissioner Gerry Lane.
Besides Tharinger’s four-year commissioner’s seat, the other countywide seat up for election is George Schoenfeldt’s six-year District 2 Port of Port Angeles position. Schoenfeldt had not filed as of Tuesday evening.
Filing for fire district seats were Tom Martin for District 2, Richard Houts for District 3, Mary Elizabeth Bower for District 4 and Roy (Spider) Wright for District 5.
Melinda E. Griffith has filed for Clallam County Park and Recreation District 1.
The filing period continues from 8:30 a.m. to
4:30 p.m. today through Friday at the Clallam County Courthouse in Port Angeles and the Jefferson County Courthouse in Port Townsend.
The top two vote-getters in contested races in the Aug. 16 primary will advance to the Nov. 8 general election regardless of party affiliation.
Primary ballots will be mailed to voters in both counties July 27.
If more than three candidates file for a position, they must vie in the primary, with the top two advancing to the general election — regardless of party preference in partisan races.
The list of open positions in Clallam County and information for potential candidates is at http://tinyurl.com/25omebk.
