Outlying Counties Set Final Ballots Incumbents Losing In Stevens County, Winning In Pend Oreille, Ferry

In the counties around Spokane, voters apparently tossed out several incumbent commissioners, gave several a second chance and finalized races in Whitman County that won’t require runoffs in November.

All five commissioner candidates vying for Whitman County’s two positions are Republican. With no party contest, there is no need for a final election. The same goes for the nonpartisan election for a Superior Court Judge.

Incumbent commissioners survived their primaries in Pend Oreille and Ferry counties, but Stevens County voters apparently tossed out both of the incumbents that were up for re-election.

Whitman County District Court Judge David Frazier won the job of Superior Court judge in Tuesday night’s primary election with nearly 75 percent of the votes.

Frazier’s rival, David Savage, was a 27-year Pullman attorney.

Frazier will replace Judge Wallis Friel, who plans to retire.

A tug-of-war evening in Whitman County’s District 1 race between farmer and commissioner incumbent Hollis Jamison and businessman Greg Partch ended with Partch pulling ahead by 36 votes. Their contest will be decided after the county auditor adds up more than 560 mail-in ballots.

In District 2, lifelong Pullman grocer Gerald Finch apparently trounced farmers Jim Druffel of Uniontown and Dan Boone of Pullman by taking 42 percent of the votes and leaving them with 30 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

Still, both of Whitman’s commissioner races could be subject to upset thanks to the mail-in and absentee ballots.

Pend Oreille County

Incumbent County Commissioner Mike Hanson beat back a strong challenge by political newcomer Ric Opp in the Republican primary for his district at the south end of Pend Oreille County. Another newcomer, advertising and marketing consultant Michael Quick, won the Democratic primary against Jerry Larson, an appraiser in the county Assessor’s Office.

Hanson’s victory was without the support of some of his fellow Republicans, whom he irritated.

The arch-conservative Hanson could be even stronger in the general election if he manages to pull some votes from Republicans Opp, who is a Ponderay Newsprint engineer and the husband of County Clerk Fawn Opp, and Walt Campbell, a pastor and a retired logger.

Hanson won 337 votes to Opp’s 263 and Campbell’s 158. The Republicans collected more than twice as many votes as the Democrats. Quick won 200 votes; Larson, 149.

In the county’s northern district, where Democratic Commissioner Karl McKenzie is stepping down, the primary results show Republican Sam Nicholas with a 467-315 edge over Democrat Bob Nichols. The Democratic Central Committee appointed Nichols to run when no Democrat filed for McKenzie’s position. Nichols operates a sanitation business and serves on the Cusick School Board and the county Planning Commission, while Nicholas is a longtime Selkirk School District administrator.

Ferry County

In Ferry County, three-term County Commissioner Gary Kohler won a three-way Democratic primary election, and will face Republican Mike Blankenship in the general election.

Kohler enters the Nov. 7 general election neck-and-neck with Blankenship. Twelve years ago, the two men made their first races for county commissioner and Kohler beat Blankenship by a 2-1 margin.

Blankenship won Tuesday’s Republican primary with 175 votes to Scott Schumacher’s 93. In the Democratic primary, Kohler had 167 votes, Ron Warren had 86 and John Stensgar had 40.

The Democratic candidates in Kohler’s district, which includes the southern and northeastern parts of the county, collectively drew 293 votes to the Republicans’ 268.

A close race also is shaping up in the county’s northwestern district, where incumbent Republican County Commissioner Dennis Snook and Democratic challenger Connie Fletcher drew comparable numbers of votes in their unopposed primaries.

Lincoln County

A Davenport School District bond measure was the focus of attention in Lincoln County, where Commissioners Bill Graedel and Deral Boleneus are running unopposed. The $3.5 million bond measure to renovate the district’s junior and senior high schools and build a bus garage was too close to call Tuesday night.

Stevens County

Businessman Malcolm Friedman, a former Colville mayor and city councilman, overwhelmed incumbent County Commissioner Fred Lotze and Colville furniture store owner Al Wilma in the county’s three-way Republican primary for the county’s northern commissioner district. With only four precincts still uncounted in Lotze’s district, he finished well behind Wilma, and Wilma had fewer than half as many votes as Friedman.

With all precincts counted in the county’s southern district, retired Loon Lake excavation contractor Tony Delgado apparently unseated incumbent Commissioner Fran Bessermin in the Republican primary, with 888 votes to her 801. Democrat Kathy Moss got 809 votes in her uncontested primary.

In the Chewelah School District, a $7.8 million high school construction bond failed with only 56.7 percent support, 907-693.

But Fire District 1 voters approved a six-year extension of their 25-cents-per-$1,000 EMS levy with 65.9 percent support, 1,208 to 625.