PORT TOWNSEND – With just two minutes before candidate filing closed on Friday, City Councilman Frank Benskin said he was just playing “the game” when he stalled on his filing as the surprise fourth candidate for Port of Port Townsend commissioner.
Up to that point, political observers wondered whether Benskin would run again for his Position 7 council seat, or make a last-minute maneuver for another of four uncontested slots on the council.
Instead, Benskin left his colleague in the county Department of Community Development, Brent Butler, the lone candidate for the Position 7 council seat Benskin has commanded for more than three years.
“You gotta have some excitement,” said a smiling Benskin.
He was firmly coaxed into line by county Auditor Donna Eldridge and Karen Cartmel, chief deputy auditor/elections coordinator at the Auditor’s Office at Jefferson County Courthouse.
After filing officially closed at 5 p.m., Eldridge and Cartmel drew numbers out of a wooden box to determine ballot position.
Benskin watched as he was drawn as the first candidate on the port commissioner ballot.
As the last of 73 hopefuls to file their candidacies for 56 countywide positions, Benskin is headed for a four-way primary race for the port’s Position 1 seat.
That seat has been held for going on eight years by uptown bed-and-breakfast innkeeper, Bob Sokol.
Forrest Rambo, a former Port Townsend mayor, and John Collins, a Northwest Maritime Center and Wood Boat Foundation board member, have also filed for the port commission seat.
That forces a primary election runoff during the election that will end on Aug. 21.
