Ferry County Fields Crowded Commissioner Race Diverse Group Of Contenders For Northern District Seat

The county commissioner’s position being vacated by Democrat Ed Windsor in northern Ferry County has the most crowded primary field of any commissioner’s race in rural northeastern Washington.

Republicans Lorna Johnson and Dennis Snook and Democrats Chris Kroupa and Ed Watt want to represent the district, which extends south from the Canadian border to a line about a half-dozen miles north of Republic.

In the county’s southern district, incumbent Democrat Gary Kohler and fellow Inchelium-area resident Jerry Sullivan are competing for the right to face Republican David Schumacher in November.

Johnson, 39, came to the Curlew area in 1975 after graduating from high school in Seattle. She has been a Republican precinct officer for three years and is the party’s Ferry County secretary, a state committeewoman and vice chairman of the 7th District Republican organization.

Twice elected freeholder in unsuccessful drives to write a county charter, Johnson said she has attended county commissioner meetings for two years to learn the job. She opposes the state Growth Management Act, supports “fair property rights” and promises to “ask lots of questions and listen to the citizens.”

Johnson and her husband, Douglas Barnes, have three children whom she homeschools. She also operates an apple orchard and a home-based business that sells everything from plumbing supplies to food.

Snook, 53, moved to a small farm near Curlew eight years ago from Seattle, where he retired as a fire department battalion chief. He has an associate degree in fire science and administration from Seattle Community College.

Snook hasn’t run for office before, but serves on Ferry County’s Kettle River Advisory Board. He would support resource industries while promoting tourism. Snook considers property rights “the backbone of our freedoms” and thinks growth management should be local, not state-controlled.

Snook and his wife, Glenda, have three adult children.

Kroupa, 48, grew up in the Curlew area and graduated from Curlew High. He returned in 1979 after earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Washington State University and a master’s in fine arts from Michigan State University. Kroupa said he worked at a variety of jobs while developing a regional and national market for his pottery.

He said he would strive to find middle ground in a contentious environmental debate he believes is paralyzing the county: “I think we need a sustainable extraction (mining and timber) industry that doesn’t wreck the ecology.” He would appoint more “middle-of-the-road” people to county committees.

Kroupa and his wife, Nicole, have three sons. He was elected to the Curlew School Board in 1985 and served about 1 years before stepping down to concentrate on personal affairs.

Watt, also 48, moved to the Malo area 27 years ago from Puyallup. He said he has “done most jobs available in the community,” and for the past three years has grown shiitake oyster mushrooms.

Polarization is the biggest problem in Ferry County politics, Watt said. He said he would promote a more diverse, stable economy by encouraging the production of more products locally, “while still maintaining open space.” When ranchers sell land for development, they should consider clustered housing that leave the land in one parcel with lots of open space, he suggested.

Watt is on the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee and served on a committee that helped write interim regulations for the county under the state Growth Management Act. He is single and has no children.

Kohler, 54, said he feels a civic obligation to seek a second full term, but concedes it is “very awkward” to try to balance the competing interests of the southern district’s Indian and non-Indian residents. He thinks he is fair and open-minded enough to make the best of the “bouncing act.”

Kohler has lived all his life on the 1,500-acre cattle ranch he operates near Inchelium. He graduated from Inchelium High School and attended Yakima Valley Community College. Although his brother, Dale, is a Colville Confederated Tribes councilman, Kohler is not a tribal member because he was born after passage of a law limiting enrollment to people who have one-fourth or more Indian blood.

Kohler and his wife, Joyce, have four children.

Sullivan, 59, came to the Inchelium area 14 years ago to administer its Roman Catholic parish. He and his wife of five years, Ilene, shared the job in recent years and resigned from it in April. Sullivan said they stepped down a couple of months earlier than planned because of pressure from some members of the community.

Sullivan said his methods may have irritated some people, but he has helped the community by helping start a junior college and getting a grant to turn a former tavern into a restaurant and meeting hall. He would like to hire a county administrator, and thinks the county would benefit from a commissioner who is more assertive than Kohler.

Originally from Seattle, Sullivan has served all around the Northwest as a Jesuit brother - mostly as a teacher and coach in Catholic schools, including Spokane’s Gonzaga Prep. Sullivan has never run for elected office, but is chairman of the Ferry County Community Services Advisory Board. He has no children.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Eastern Washington University and master’s degrees in physical education and religious studies from the University of Oregon and Mundeline College in Chicago.

, DataTimes