A DOE STALKED purposefully across West 18th Street in Port Angeles.
The spotted fawn following close behind her turned back and waited for its lagging twin before trotting calmly after their mother.
This gentle Tuesday evening distraction contributed to my decision to skip making the rounds of election night parties.
Many voters ignored the primary altogether.
Statewide, voter participation was at about 35 percent as of Thursday, making local voters look good.
Jefferson County was at 56.9 percent as of Thursday, and Clallam was at 54 percent.
Among those who did vote in the all-mail, top-two primary, incumbents weren’t wildly popular, but tea partiers clearly didn’t reach consensus on who should replace the career politicos.
Based on ballot tallies as of Thursday, incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray fell short of taking a majority of the vote statewide (46 percent) and in Clallam (45 percent), but racked up 58 percent in heavily Democratic Jefferson County.
Republican Dino Rossi won the right to challenge Murray in November with 33 percent of the vote statewide, 38 percent in Clallam and 29 percent in Jefferson.
Clallam voters gave U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, an anemic 48 percent of the vote, but 64 percent of voters in Jefferson bumped his total District 6 total up to 58 percent.
He will again face Republican Doug Cloud of Gig Harbor, who tallied scarcely half as many votes as Dicks district-wide, but almost twice as many as newcomer Jesse Young.
In state Legislative District 24 races (representing Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County), the Port Ludlow tag team of Craig Durgan and Larry Carter, who ran as Republicans, proved that voters don’t appreciate slates of candidates.
District-wide, Carter claimed little more than 11 percent of the vote, while 19 percent of the voters picked Durgan.
One online analyst mistakenly declared him the winner.
Actually, it’s Dan Gase, a Port Angeles real estate broker and Republican, who will face Position 1 incumbent Democrat Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, a Sequim firefighter-EMT, in November.
Gase, who took nearly 25 percent of the vote, has his work cut out for him.
Van De Wege tallied 56 percent district-wide and 63 percent in Jefferson.
He eked out 50 percent in his home county of Clallam.
There is no incumbent seeking Position 2, thanks to Rep. Lynn Kessler’s retirement, but Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness, carries the aura of incumbency along with official endorsements from local Democratic Party organizations.
Nevertheless, Republican Jim McEntire, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner, out-polled Tharinger 43 percent to 40 percent in their home county.
Jefferson County edged Tharinger ahead district-wide, 38 percent to McEntire’s 36 percent.
District 3 county commissioner races were the most surprising.
By the end of Jefferson County’s noon Thursday ballot count, incumbent Democrat John Austin had polled a pitiful 28 percent to Republican challenger Jim Boyer’s 47 percent.
Holding nearly 25 percent of the vote, Democratic challenger Diane Johnson has declined to concede until the election is certified.
And she said she’ll support Boyer, the Republican, over Austin.
In Clallam County, where the counting of last-minute ballots won’t occur until today, incumbent Democratic Commissioner Mike Doherty also came up short of a majority, but only by a hair.
Two Republican challengers split the protest vote, with Robin Poole scoring a 26.7 percent to 23.5 percent upset over Bill Peach, who party leaders had perceived as being the stronger candidate of the two.
In November, both county commissioner races go countywide.
In the five-way tussle for Clallam’s elected Community Development Director post (it’s apparently the only elected DCD position in the country), incumbent John Miller was outpolled by building inspector Sheila Roark Miller, 30.02 percent to 31.29 percent, in Tuesday’s first returns.
John Miller was handed the office in 2006 when then-incumbent Rob Robertson withdrew after the filing period, leaving him as the sole candidate.
Widespread discontent recruited a bevy of challengers who split the vote.
Alan Barnard’s third place finish suggests voter discomfort with putting a real estate broker in charge of land use.
Accusatory campaigns may have assisted two much-maligned incumbents.
Clallam District Court 1 Judge Rick Porter apparently won re-election outright, taking nearly 57 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s count against two challengers.
Judicial candidates who score more than 50 percent plus one vote in the primary bypass the general election.
Nearly 52 percent of Clallam voters backed Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, a Republican.
She will face Democrat Larry Freedman, whose 28 percent tally pushed fellow Democrat Lauren Erickson (20 percent) off the November ballot.
The only two levies on North Olympic Peninsula ballots received opposite outcomes.
The North Olympic Library System’s Clallam-wide lid lift checked in with more than 58 percent of the votes, while Port Townsend’s fire levy went down in flames.
Oh, deer: Voters better not ignore the general election.
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Martha Ireland was a Clallam County commissioner from 1996 through 1999 and is the secretary of the Republican Women of Clallam County, among other community endeavors.
Martha and her husband, Dale, live on a Carlsborg-area farm. Her column appears every Friday.
E-mail: irelands@olypen.com.
