Three Kootenai County leaders seek re-election in May
Three of the four Kootenai County elected leaders whose terms are up next January are running for re-election in the May 17 primary.
County Commissioner Dave Stewart and Sheriff Ben Wolfinger each will seek a second term. County Prosecutor Barry McHugh is running for a third term.
County Commissioner Dan Green, first elected in 2010, will not run again. Green said he supports term limits: “Elected office, at any level, should not be a career.”
The candidate filing period doesn’t begin until Monday, but many candidates already have publicly announced their plans to run. Candidates can file through March 11.
The open seat on the Board of Commissioners has attracted three Republican hopefuls so far: Bob Bingham, founder of the North West Property Owners Alliance; Leslie Duncan, who chairs the Kootenai County Aquifer Protection District Committee; and Rathdrum City Councilman Fred Meckel. All three have said they’ll seek the District 3 seat representing the north-central part of the county.
Stewart, elected in 2014, said he will continue to fight for and protect property rights if re-elected. Finishing an interim land-use code and updating the county’s 2010 comprehensive plan are top goals, he said. He also wants to focus more on retaining county workers, improving workforce morale and making employee compensation fair.
He faces a challenge from Republican Chris Fillios for the board’s District 2 seat covering most of Coeur d’Alene and the southern part of the county.
Fillios, a real estate broker and appraiser, was elected to the Eastside Highway District board last May. He ran unsuccessfully for the Coeur d’Alene City Council in 2013.
In announcing his re-election bid this week, Prosecuting Attorney McHugh said, “I promised to create an office that would effectively prosecute the difficult cases, and that goal has been accomplished. Still, there is more to do to retain quality attorneys and staff to prosecute the increasing number of violent crimes.”
The prosecutor’s office has handled a string of homicide cases the past two years, including the murder conviction this month of 16-year-old Eldon Samuel III, who killed his father and brother in 2014; the life sentence imposed in January for a Mexican immigrant who killed his wife and step-daughter in 2014; last week’s voluntary manslaughter guilty plea by a Hauser man who killed a Spokane woman last June; and the upcoming trial of Jonathan Daniel Renfro, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Coeur d’Alene police Sgt. Greg Moore last May.
At the sheriff’s office, Wolfinger cited a new crime prevention program and more collaboration with the county commissioners and other law enforcement agencies as some of his accomplishments since taking office in 2013. Also, the sheriff switched to a food services contract for the jail, saving $250,000 the first year, he said.
Two residents plan to challenge Wolfinger in May: Tina Kunishige, a gun dealer who espouses constitutionalism and is affiliated with the patriot movement; and John Green, a constitutional lawyer and “chief law enforcement advisor” for the U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation, a constitutional rights advocacy group.