PORT ANGELES — One-term Port Angeles City Councilman Max Mania is not running for re-election, while a Sequim-area seat on the Port of Port Angeles commission has three candidates running for one position who will go up against each other in the Aug. 6 primary.
And there was some juggling of candidates at the last minute, with two who had filed for positions having to withdraw because they did not live in the district and then refiling for the district they do live in.
Those were among some of the highlights in Clallam County as filing week ended Friday for the Nov. 6 general election with enough candidates for four primary races and 11 total contested races in the general election.
All the races are nonpartisan.
Three-way race
The Aug. 6 primary will include a three-way District 1 Port of Port Angeles race among incumbent Paul McHugh, port Director of Business Development Colleen McAleer and management consultant Del DelaBarre. (See related story today.)
The top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.
Other primary races will be for seats on the elected boards that oversee the Port Angeles School District, Olympic Medical Center and Fire District No. 3.
Incumbent Port Angeles School Board member Sarah Methner will face Debby Fuson and David M. Tietz.
Incumbent Olympic Medical Center Commissioner Jean Hordyk will face former Port of Port Angeles Commissioner Bill Hannan and Heather Jeffers.
And incumbent Fire District No. 3 Commissioner James Barnfather will face Charles Perdomo and Sean Ryan, a 2010 candidate for the elected position of director of the Clallam County Department of Community Development.
Ballots in the all-mail-ballot primary will be sent to voters July 17 and are due at the Auditor’s Office by Aug. 6 or must be postmarked by that date.
No primary races are countywide, while all county voters can cast ballots in the race for the port seat in the general election.
In all, 56 candidates filed for public office, many of whom will face no opposition in the general election,
That includes Port Angeles City Councilmen Brad Collins and Patrick Downie, and Realtor Dan Gase, who filed for a position held by Realtor Brooke Nelson.
Nelson did not seek re-election, and no one else but Gase filed for her position.
That wasn’t the case for the position of Forks mayor.
Incumbent Mayor Bryon Monohon will be challenged in the general election by downtown retailer Janet Hughes.
Peter Ripley, an advocate for people with disabilities who has sought a Port Angeles council seat four times unsuccessfully, and Lee Whetham, a commercial plumber, will square off in the general election for Mania’s Position 2 seat.
Mania has been a frequent, high-profile critic of Nippon Industries USA’s biomass cogeneration plant and a champion of the arts whose publicly hurled epithet at a former county Democratic Party official helped spur the council to adopt an ethics policy for council members.
Mania did not respond to an emailed query on why he decided not to run.
Candidate juggling
Refilings occurred in the OMC and Sequim School Board races.
Jeffers, who had been the sole candidate for Olympic Medical Center District 1, Position 2, lives in District 2, so she had to withdraw her name, Auditor Patty Rosand said around noon Friday.
She later filed for Hordyk’s District 2, Position 2 seat.
John Clark Yeo, who had filed for Sequim School Board District 2, faced the same dilemma.
He refiled for the Sequim School Board District 4 position held by incumbent Beverly Horan.
Horan and Yeo will now face off in the Nov. 6 general election.
But Yeo’s switch, combined with the withdrawal Friday of Sequim School Board District 2 candidate Craig Stevenson, meant Mike Howe, the Clallam County Public Utility District’s executive communications coordinator, automatically wins the Sequim School Board District 2 position.
He had faced a primary battle with Yeo and Stevenson.
Here are the other candidates among the 56 who filed election forms with the Clallam County Auditor’s Office during election week:
■ Incumbent Daisy Anderson — Forks Community Hospital commissioner, District 1.
■ Incumbent John Beitzel — Olympic Medical Center commissioner, District 1, Position 1.
■ Incumbent Thomas Oblak — Olympic Medical Center commissioner, District 1, Position 2.
■ Incumbent John Hillcar — Forks City Council, Position 2.
■ Bill Brager — Forks City Council, Position 3.
■ Brandon Janisse — Sequim City Council, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Ted Miller — Sequim City Council, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Dennis Smith — Sequim City Council, Position 4.
■ Incumbent Genaveve Starr — Sequim City Council, Position 5.
■ Incumbent Cindy Kelly — Port Angeles School District, Position 2.
■ Mike McCarty — Port Angeles School Board, Position 2.
■ Incumbent Holly Rose — Crescent School Board, Position 1.
■ Incumbent Sandra Criss — Crescent School Board, Position 2.
■ Incumbent Dara Peppard — Crescent School Board, Position 5.
■ Heather Greene — Cape Flattery School District, Position 1.
■ Incumbent John Stubbs — Cape Flattery School Board, District 3.
■ Incumbent Rick Gale — Quillayute Valley School Board, District 2.
■ Incumbent Brian Pederson — Quillayute Valley School District, Position 4.
■ Incumbent David Burt — Clallam County Fire District No. 1 commissioner, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Richard Ruud — Clallam County Fire District No. 2 commissioner, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Sam Nugent — Clallam County Fire District No. 4 commissioner, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Christopher Christie — Clallam County Fire District No. 4 commissioner, Position 5.
■ Incumbent George Eastman — Clallam County Fire District No. 5 commissioner, Position 2.
■ Incumbent Jeffry Kopis — Clallam County Fire District No. 5 commissioner, Position 3.
■ Incumbent Robert “Chip” Keen — Clallam County Fire District No. 6 commissioner, Position 2.
■ Sherry Nagel — Sequim Park and Recreation District No. 1 (SARC) commissioner, Position 1.
■ Incumbent Frank Pickering — Sequim Park and Recreation District No. 1 (SARC) commissioner, Position 2.
■ Adam Sullivan — Sequim Park and Recreation District No. 1 (SARC) commissioner, Position 2.
■ Incumbent Donald Grafstrom — Quillayute Valley Park and Recreation District, Position 1.
■ Incumbent Laura L. Huling — Quillayute Valley Park and Recreation District, Position 2.
■ Incumbent William Peach — Quillayute Valley Park and Recreation District, Position 3. Peach is a former executive director of the Quileute tribe. He ran unsuccessfully for Clallam County commissioner in 2010.
■ Incumbent Annie O’Rourke — Black Diamond Water District commissioner, District 1.
■ Incumbent James Heflin — Black Diamond Water District commissioner, District 3.
■ Incumbent Jim Larison — SunLand Water District commissioner, Position 1.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
