Voters in south Pierce County have decided who they want to choose between in the fall for a fire commissioner and a port commissioner.
John McCarthy, a former Port of Tacoma commissioner who is trying to return to the office, and Eric Holdeman were the first and second-leading votegetters in the primary election at the end of voting Tuesday.
In a race for South Pierce Fire and Rescue commissioner, Alan Simmons and Jody Westing emerged as the finalists.
The port and fire district races, the only ones involving south Pierce County that had enough candidates to require a primary contest, will be part of the general election ballot in November.
The port race is countywide, while the South Pierce Fire race is being decided to voters who live within that district.
McCarthy is a former commissioner. He also was an elected judge (Pierce County Superior and District courts) before retiring in 2014. His wife, state Auditor Pat McCarthy, is a former Pierce County Executive.
Holdeman, who once worked for the port as its security director, has run before for commissioner. He’s the director of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Center for Regional Disaster Resilience.
In the primary, McCarthy received 47.4 percent of the votes to Holdeman’s 30 percent.
Port commissioner was McCarthy’s first elected post in a political career that later included judge in Pierce County Superior and District courts. He retired in 2014.
His wife, state Auditor Pat McCarthy, is a former Pierce County Executive.
Holdeman, who once worked for the port as its security director, has run before for commissioner. He’s the director of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region Center for Regional Disaster Resilience.
Jim Jensen was the third candidate for port commissioner on the primary ballot. He collected 20.9 of the votes even though he dropped out of the campaign following public criticism of online comments he made that he himself described as insensitive and offensive. But Jensen didn’t withdraw his candidacy in time to have his name removed from the ballot, so he could have advanced to the general election if he finished in top two in the primary.
The three-way race for South Pierce Fire commissioner was dominated by Simmons, who led with 51.7 percent of the votes, and Westing (39.8 percent).
The third candidate was incumbent Daniel Morris (7 percent).
Westing is a nurse supervisor for CHI Franciscan Health. Simmons was a career firefighter before retiring.
With few races on the ballot, voting was light, as predicted by county election officials. The port contest, the only one that was countywide drew 15 percent pf the 499,152 eligible voters – roughly 5 percent less than the forecast. Twelve percent of the 12,375 voters in the fire district cast ballots for fire commissioner.
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