PORT ANGELES — Mike Chapman has joined the local Democratic Party organization, and the longtime Clallam County commissioner is being encouraged to run for another term in office.
Chapman, a former Republican who is now an independent, announced last spring that he would not seek a fifth four-year term.
His current term expires in December 2016.
In a Tuesday interview, Chapman said he recently registered with Clallam County Democrats and made a donation to the organization.
“They support the causes and candidates that I support,” Chapman said.
Chapman backed Democrat Mark Ozias in Ozias’s bid to unseat Republican Commissioner Jim McEntire in the November election.
“And I’ve always supported Derek Kilmer, Steve Tharinger, Kevin Van De Wege, Jim Hargrove,” Chapman said of region’s Democratic U.S. Congressman, state Representatives and state Senator.
Ozias, who defeated McEntire 53 percent to 47 percent last month, will flip the political disposition of three-member board of county commissioners when he takes the oath of office in January.
The board now consists of Chapman, McEntire and a second Republican, Bill Peach.
Clallam County Democrats’ Chairman Roger Fight was not immediately available for comment Thursday, and the organization’s Port Angeles office was closed Thursday afternoon.
Chapman said his goal for next year is to “govern as effectively and collaboratively as possible.”
In 2008, Chapman was suspended by the Clallam County Republican Party from its support after he endorsed Tharinger, then a county commissioner, when Tharinger announced that he was running for re-election in 2007.
Chapman filed to run as an independent in 2008.
Last March, Chapman announced during a commissioners’ work session that he would not seek another term. The announcement came during a board debate over spending philosophies.
“I’m being asked to reconsider,” Chapman said Tuesday.
“I have not changed my thinking at this point, but I am being asked to reconsider.”
As the District 2 commissioner, Chapman represents residents in central Clallam County between Valley Creek in Port Angeles to Boyce Road west of Carlsborg.
Chapman said he is listening to his supporters and humbled by those who want him to run again.
“There will be people that don’t want me to run, so I’m listening them, too,” Chapman said.
Chapman became a local figure in December 1999 when he tackled al-Qaida-trained terrorist Ahmed Ressam, who was caught driving off the MV Coho ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles with a trunk full of explosives.
Investigators later discovered that Ressam was on his way to bomb a passenger terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on or around Jan. 1, 2000.
Ressam fled after being stopped by U.S. Customs inspectors at the ferry terminal on Dec. 14, 1999.
Chapman, then a customs inspector, chased Ressam and shoulder-tackled him near the corner of Lincoln and First streets in downtown Port Angeles.
Ressam was sentenced to 37 years in prison in October 2012.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.