Whitman County Commission Jamison Vs. Mcgehee: Getting Down To Business
After a summer of political nose-thumbing in the courthouse, all four candidates for the Whitman County commission say it’s time to get back to business.
The race pits Hollis Jamison, a Republican Garfield farmer, against Democrat Steve McGehee, a veteran Palouse City Council member.
Whitman County Commissioner Nora Mae Keifer, a moderate Republican, faces Democrat Charlie Russell, a self-employed environmental consultant.
Jamison, 60, was raised in Garfield, studied education at Washington State University, then joined the Army. He’s put in decades on area farm boards, granges and service clubs.
Jamison said he wants to straighten out the “terrible mess” that the county government - and budget - have become. He’d tighten the budget and work more closely with the county’s 16 towns.
McGehee, 48, deals in classic car parts. Raised in California, he earned his doctorate in political science in 1978 from Washington State University. He said he wants to repair an unresponsive, good-old-boy county government.
To encourage input, he says, he’d restore the county’s toll-free number, and hold meetings around the county. He also wants more flexible land use rules.
Keifer vs. Russell
In the Keifer-Russell race, Russell, a 53-year-old Democrat, says he’s the more fiscally conservative. He also pledges to make county government open and understandable. He also wants the county to have a toll-free number, and to advertise meeting topics.
Keifer, a Republican, ran a Pullman clothing store for 12 years. She’s director of Pullman Child Welfare, a non-profit aid group.
Keifer, 63, said the conflicts with Auditor Eugenia Goldsworthy over Goldsworthy’s requests for more funds have tapered off. Keifer also said the budget is nowhere near as ailing as critics say. She said money was spent on badly needed things - a phone system, the mainframe computer, the courthouse roof. Letting those slide would have cost more, she said.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE JOB Whitman County commissioner serve four-year terms and are paid $38,556 annually.