All but one incumbent running in the Sequim and Port Angeles city council races will be challenged in this year’s general election, while two council members positions in Forks will remain undisputed.
Candidate filing week ended Friday.
Port Angeles and Sequim each will have four council races on the ballot in the Nov. 8 general election.
None of the races have more than two candidates, meaning they won’t be on the Aug. 16 primary ballot.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays, and Forks council member Kevin Hinchen and Michael Breidenbach will go unchallenged.
Sequim City Councilwoman Susan Lorenzen is not running for re-election. She said Friday that she “needs to be home” after the death of her husband.
Running in her place are Candace Pratt and Eric Miller.
Also running for Sequim City Council are incumbents Erik Erichsen and Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois. Peter Duncan is running against Erichsen, while Ron Fairclough and John Miller are challenging Dubois.
In Port Angeles, Noelle Fuller is challenging Mayor Dan Di Guilio; Drew Schwab is challenging Councilman Brad Collins; Sissi Bruch is challenging Deputy Mayor Don Perry; and Cody Blevins, who ran unsuccessfully for council in 2008, is challenging Councilwoman Cherie Kidd.
Only two of the 44 local races will be on the primary ballot: Sequim City Council Position 2, held by Dubois, and Sequim Aquatic Recreation Board of Commissioners Position 5.
Running for the SARC seat are Sonu Deol, Sky Heatherton and Jan Richardson.
Port of Port Angeles Commissioner George Schoenfeldt is not running for re-election.
Schoenfeldt, who took office in 2006, said he has “adjusted his priorities” after a close friend of his died last month. He decided to not seek re-election if a qualified candidate filed.
He said he feels that Jim Hallett, the only candidate to file for the position, is that person.
“If Jim had not stepped forward, I would have ran again in a heartbeat,” Schoenfeldt said.
Hallett is the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce president, a former Port Angeles mayor, and former Harbor-Works Development Authority board member.
Democrat Linda Barnfather and Republican Jim McEntire will face off in the general election for the Clallam County commission seat being vacated by Steve Tharinger.
Tharinger, a Democrat from Sequim, chose to not seek re-election after serving his first session in Olympia as a 24th District representative.
On Friday, Richard Fleck withdrew his candidacy for Sequim School Board Position 5.
Fleck said he is backing Stephen Rosales in the race against incumbent Walter Johnson.
He said he withdrew because he and Rosales share many of the same positions and he didn’t want to “cloud the issues” for voters.
“We’re all saying virtually the same thing,” Fleck said.
Rosales, a volunteer with the Sequim Boys and Girls Club and the Sequim Food Bank, and Fleck said they share support for finding new ways to raise revenue, including advertising on the outside of school buses, and making the board more accessible to parents.
Fleck said he plans to run for the board again another year.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.