PORT ANGELES — Maggie Roth intends to run as a Republican for the Clallam County commissioner seat now held by Mike Chapman — an independent and himself a former Republican — in the Nov. 6 general election, Roth said Thursday.
Chapman said Thursday he intends to run for a fourth term for the Port Angeles-area District 2 position.
Filing week for the general election is May 14-18, and the primary is Aug. 7.
“I don’t think the man is doing his job,” said Roth, 57.
“I think I can do a better job.”
Chapman, 48, praised the board of commissioners he was first elected to in 2000 for governing with “a very centrist perspective.”
He said he had heard Roth would file to run against him.
If re-elected, he will “continue to represent the public and work on our budget and make sure we maintain our services,” Chapman said.
“I do think I’m doing a good job on all those issues.”
Roth has already picked up some high-profile support: Republican County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said Thursday she is endorsing Roth, who was Kelly’s 2010 campaign manager.
“Maggie is a good friend, she’s done her homework, she’s a hard worker, and I believe she will make a great commissioner,” Kelly said.
Chapman and Roth will square off in the Aug. 7 primary, which is limited to District 2 voters, even if no one else files for the position because it’s a partisan seat, county elections supervisor Shoona Radon said.
Other Clallam County seats up for election are the three Superior Court positions held by George L. Wood, S. Brook Taylor and Ken Williams and the Clallam County Public Utility District seat held by Ted Simpson.
Roth’s husband, Terry, was defeated by Chapman in the 2008 general election 23,645 votes to 11,7670 votes, or 67 percent to 33 percent.
Roth, who has never held elective office, is a precinct committeewoman and is on the finance committee of the county Republican Party.
She is the retired operations manager for the duty-free store she ran with her husband until it closed four years ago.
Roth criticized Chapman on Thursday for what she claimed was his change of position on the Wild Olympics Campaign, an effort that would protect watersheds by setting aside 132,000 acres of Olympic National Forest as wilderness.
It also would add 37,000 acres of state trust lands and private timber company land to Olympic National Park as wilderness on a willing-seller, willing-buyer basis, meaning no one would be forced to sell their land.
Chapman, fellow Commissioner Mike Doherty, a Democrat, and then-Commissioner Steve Tharinger, also a Democrat, signed a 2010 letter to U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair — whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties — that “asks that [Dicks] support the Wild Olympics Campaign.”
But Roth suggested Chapman is wishy-washy on the proposal, accusing him of changing his position to being against it after county Republican Party Chairman Dick Pilling presented a resolution to the commissioners at a heavily attended Nov. 29 board meeting that asked the board to rescind its support.
“I don’t think he takes a stand,” Roth said of Chapman.
“I think he jumps all over as far as making a commitment, like on Wild Olympics,” she said.
“I would like to say that if I make a commitment, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Chapman said he has not changed his mind about the letter and there is no public record to prove it.
He reiterated what he said at the Nov. 29 meeting, which was that the willing-seller, willing-buyer provision was key to him signing the letter.
He said then that property owners, if they were interested in selling, should have that right but added: “It appears to me now that no private-property owners in this proposal wants to sell, so I actually told representatives of [Sen. Patty] Murray and Dicks’ office you should just remove the private-property owners and look at it as a federal issue.”
On Thursday, Chapman said: “I, like many in the community, still have concerns about how Wild Olympics will impact our economy.
“The letter the board sent was a broad framework that said, ‘Let’s take a look at Wild Olympics and make sure there’s a willing-buyer and -seller’” provision, Chapman said, “and the facts will come out.”
Roth said Chapman’s first four years as a commissioner from 2000 to 2004 were productive but that after that, he did not effectively represent the public.
“You have to be out there after 5 o’clock, go to meeting, participate in the community,” she said.
“I don’t think he represents people in the community.”
Chapman said he is always available by cellphone, readily gives out the number and constantly checks his email.
“I have not had any specific complaints from any constituents that they could not get hold of me,” Chapman said.
As a Republican, Chapman defeated incumbent Carole Boardman in 2000 and ran unopposed in 2004.
In February 2008, the county Republican Party said Chapman violated its bylaws by supporting Tharinger, who defeated Republican Bob Forde in the November 2007 election, and barred Chapman from “holding yourself as a Republican with any standing.”
The party suspended its support for Chapman for two years. Chapman became an independent and never asked to be reinstated to the party.
“I was elected in 2008 as an independent, and it was important to me to maintain that commitment to voters who hired me as an independent in 2008,” he said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
