Phil Harris inching closer to challenger
Don’t count out Phil Harris.
A late GOP surge in the final days of voting has pushed the incumbent Spokane County commissioner to within 1,800 votes of challenger Bonnie Mager.
Harris will win if he takes 55 percent of the remaining 19,000 ballots, which is about the percentage he’s been getting in recent days of counting.
The strong showing by Republicans in late counts already appears to have shut Democrat Judy Personett out of the assessor’s office – after she declared victory on election night.
The elections office counts ballots in the order received. After Election Day, Mager had a lead of more than 6 percentage points. Since then, Harris has made up ground after every count. He’s now behind by 1.2 points.
Auditor Vicky Dalton, who leads the county elections office, said late last week that Harris couldn’t make up the difference. Now she says it’s a tossup. “I don’t ever remember a surge like this,” Dalton said Monday. “I think it’s going to be a very tight race.”
Many of the ballots left to count are ones that had problems, such as coffee stains, ovals not filled in dark enough to be read by machines or missing signatures. Nearly all votes should be counted by the end of the week.
Jonathan Brunt
Spokane Valley
Pellet gun leads to school expulsion
A 13-year-old Evergreen Middle School student was expelled Thursday after he brought an Airsoft pellet gun to school, Central Valley School District officials said.
The eighth-grader allegedly showed another student the gun he had in his backpack. The second student reported the incident to school administrators, who immediately expelled and removed the student from school grounds pending an investigation.
“Administration at the school is talking to everyone that has information to share,” district spokeswoman Melanie Rose said.
Rose said that if the investigation shows that the incident meets certain criteria, the student will face a mandatory one-year expulsion from the Central Valley district.
Kandis Carper
spokane
Sex offender set to plead guilty
Registered sex offender Thomas A. Herman is scheduled to plead guilty Friday to federal child pornography charges, according to court documents filed Monday.
Herman was arrested July 25, living in the basement of a home occupied by Spokane police Cpl. David Freitag, his wife, and their two teenage sons and 6-year-old daughter.
The police officer has been on paid leave since then, but not charged with any crimes. An internal affairs investigation by the Police Department is under way.
Herman was scheduled to appear Monday before U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle for a pretrial conference, but the hearing was canceled.
Court documents filed Monday say a “change of plea” hearing for the 65-year-old is now scheduled for 1:30 Friday before the federal judge.
Herman had a jury trial scheduled in early December.
Bill Morlin
OLYMPIA
West Side Republican keeps House seat
Republican Rep. Dave Reichert survived a strong 8th District challenge from Democratic newcomer Darcy Burner, winning a second term Monday amid a Democratic wave that swept his party out of power in the House.
Reichert said Burner called to congratulate him on a second term, and the two shared their frustrations about the slow pace of Washington’s largely vote-by-mail elections.
Burner did not publicly concede Monday night, but called a news conference today in Bellevue.
Her loss ended Democrats’ best hope for claiming a Republican House seat in Washington.
Associated Press