PORT ANGELES — Three incumbents and one challenger were leading the four Port Angeles City Council races Tuesday after the first round of ballot counting.
Sissi Bruch, with 1,796 votes, or 51.31 percent, was inching past Deputy Mayor Don Perry, who had 1,704 votes, or 48.69 percent.
City Council member Brad Collins was leading Andrew Schwab with 2,121 votes, or 64.64 percent, to 1,160 votes, or 35.36 percent.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio was leading Noelle Fuller with 2,076 votes, or 62.03 percent, to 1,271 votes, or 37.97 percent.
City Council member Cherie Kidd had 2,177 votes, 66.51 percent.
Cody Blevins had dropped out of the race against Kidd in September but his name was still on the ballot. He received 1,096 votes, or 33.49 percent.
The Clallam County Auditor’s Office tallied 17,802 ballots countywide Tuesday.
The office had 3,951 left to count. With more coming in the mail, it expects to have 5,000 to tally during the next count Thursday.
Bruch, a Port Angeles Planning Commission member and Lower Elwha Klallam tribe senior planner, said she thinks voters are looking for a change.
“I think they are tired of the way money in the city is being spent,” she said.
Bruch had been outspoken against city policy during the campaign.
She had criticized both the city’s $40 million sewage overflow elimination project and the Nippon biomass project, both supported by Perry.
Neither said they think the race is over yet.
Perry, owner of Heritage Tours, said he was disappointed by the early results but not surprised.
“My opponent had quite a following that was out really campaigning for her,” he said.
“It’s going to come down to the wire still,” Perry added.
There are seven members on the City Council.
Each of the four incumbents are serving their first terms; three were elected in 2007.
Collins was appointed in January 2010 to take the seat of Larry Little, who resigned before taking the seat due to his wife being diagnosed with cancer.
As a result, Collins will have to run for re-election again in 2013.
Collins, deputy director of capital projects for Serenity House of Clallam County and a former Port Angeles planning director, said he looks forward to making utility rates more equitable and improving the budgeting process during his next term.
He said he agreed on many of the issues with Schwab, and added that he thinks his experience put him ahead.
“I think that it speaks to the difference in our qualifications,” he said.
Schwab, owner of Anime Kat and a Port Angeles Downtown Association board member, said he was not surprised by the results since he is a new face to Port Angeles politics.
“I went into this figuring I was either going to lose by a landslide or the vote was coming down to 100 votes,” he said, adding he has not decided whether to run again.
Fuller, owner of the Twisted clothing shop and a Port Angeles Downtown Association board member, said she doesn’t think the race is over yet.
“At this point I’m excited to have as many votes as I have and I hope for a positive outcome in my favor,” she said.
Di Guilio, a retired Clallam Transit general manager, said he was confident in his lead.
“I hope they think I’ve done a good job,” he said of the voters.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.