PORT ANGELES — Who will be the other candidate on the November ballot?
Connie Beauvais ran away election day with the four-way race for Port of Port Angeles commissioner, but her victory hasn’t ended the suspense.
Her opponent in November will be the second-place finisher in the primary contest that until Friday remains too close to call.
And one of those semifinalists has said he’ll support his rival if he loses, charging that partisan politics has entered the contest.
With 2,000 to 4,000 ballots left to count Friday, only 31 votes separate Forks Councilman Mike Breidenbach from Lee Whetham, the Port Angeles City Council member who holds third place in the four-candidate race.
The preliminary primary totals:
■ Beauvais: 615 votes, 32.71 percent.
■ Breidenbach: 461 votes, 24.52 percent.
■ Whetham: 430, 22.87 percent.
■ Rick “Doc” Robinson: 374 votes, 19.89 percent.
Of the 13,248 registered voters in District 3, the Clallam County Auditor’s Office had received 2,182 ballots Tuesday and tallied 1,880 of them. Fifty-eight more ballots were not counted for port commissioner, 43 because the voters made no choice, 15 because they marked more than one candidate.
The District 3 seat has been held since 2004 by John Calhoun, retired director of the Olympic Natural Resources Center.
Although the primary contest has been decided by voters in District 3, the deciding ballots won’t be tallied until Friday, and results won’t be certified until Aug. 18.
Come November, however, the winner will be chosen countywide, where 43,522 voters were registered for the primary and 15,108 votes had been received as of Wednesday afternoon.
Pledges support
Breidenbach called the election “almost a dead heat” until more ballots can be counted, but Whetham said he’d throw his support to the Forks candidate if Breidenbach holds onto second place.
Why?
“Well, this has actually turned into a partisan race,” Whetham said Wednesday about Beauvais’ candidacy, although the port commissioner’s post officially is nonpartisan.
“I’ve got real concerns that there’s been a real party involvement, especially by the county commissioner, Bill Peach, who is her campaign manager.”
Peach is the Republican county commissioner from District 3.
Beauvais said she had spoken with Whetham early in the campaign and told him partisan politicking in the port race “would be very sad because this needs to be about the issues and not about the party.
”I’m going to run a nonpartisan race.”
For his part, Breidenbach called Whetham’s offer “awfully gracious” but denied he was a Democratic candidate.
“I would say I’m an informed voter,” Breidenbach told the Peninsula Daily News. “I research the people I’m voting for. Sometimes I vote Republican; sometimes I vote Democrat.
“I’ve had several people who have been in office who were Democrats who were interested in supporting me, but I said, ‘Let’s see how this primary goes.’”
And as for Peach’s involvement, Beauvais said, “He wanted someone from the West End who would serve the West End.”
Beauvais, a Joyce resident, manages the Crescent Water District. She also is vice chair of the elected nonpartisan Clallam County Charter Review Commission and the appointed nonpartisan county Planning Commission, on both of which she represents District 3.
Peach confirmed Beauvais’ view.
“I’m supporting a representative from the West End, and it’s that simple,” he said Wednesday.
“I’ve worked with Connie. I’ve seen how she’s performed on the Charter Review Commission and on the Planning Commission, and I respect the work that she does.
“I think she’s very qualified for a position that’s going to require an understanding of policy.”
EDC still an issue
Whetham said he’d also support Breidenbach because they held similar views of the Clallam County Economic Development Corp.
Present port commissioners voted July 28 to rejoin the EDC as the county’s agency to recruit and retain businesses.
After months of delay, they pledged $15,000 to the council, down from a $50,000 contribution they previously had considered but withheld, and less than the $75,000 the EDC had requested.
In her campaign statements, Beauvais has supported the EDC given its reorganized board and increased accountability to port commissioners.
Economic development
Whetham has proposed that the port fill the economic development role, and Breidenbach has said the port and county should “explore other options” for the task.
Concerning the offices the candidates currently hold, Breidenbach’s Forks City Council term would not overlap that of port commissioner.
Whetham has said he will resign his City Council post if elected to the port.
The county Charter Review Commission on which Beauvais serves will be dissolved at the end of the year, the same time her term on the Planning Commission will expire.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.
