Registration deadlines have passed for would-be candidates for office, and of the elections that will affect the Sky Valley, it's the one to represent the region in Washington D.C. that will be the most hotly contested.
Seven contestants will vie for the job of representing the 1st District of Washington; the top two vote-getters in the August primary will proceed to the general election in November.
1st Congressional District
As of last week, Suzan DelBene, the Democrat who won the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District two years ago, had three opponents. By the close of business day Friday, she had six; four Republicans, an independent, and the quixotic Mike the Mover, the ubiquitous candidate for high Washington office, who prefers the National Union Party.
Her most credible challenger is Pedro Celis, a Republican from Redmond who has been a Washington State leader in politics as a campaigner for other candidates, notably as a spearhead of an effort to rally the Latino vote for Bush in 2004.
Celis has amassed a considerable war chest nearing $1 million; DelBene has more than $1 million ready to spend.
Her other three Republican challengers are John Orlinski of Bellevue, Edwin Moats of Arlington and Robert Sutherland of Granite Falls.
Although Orlinski, who works for DSHS, aligns himself with the Republican party, he identifies strongly with Independent Ron Paul. It's not his first run; he went after the seat for the 9th District of Washington in 2012 a a Republican and lost out in the primary with 5.6 percent of the vote. Prior to that, he ran to represent the 8th District in 2010 as a fiscally conservative and socially liberal Democrat, garnering less than 2 percent of the vote.
Sutherland is running in part to unseat DelBene over her support of Obamacare, he stated.
Edwin Moats of Arlington is most outspoken on immigration, at least early in his campaign, proposing not to address immigration policy until after the border is secure.
Richard Todd, and independent from Snoqualmie, hasn't put forth any information about himself yet.
Mike the Mover, a resident of Mill Creek, has been a candidate for various offices for the last 25 years, mostly as a business promotional tactic. He started running under his given name, Michael Patrick Shanks, but as the state laws prohibit one from promoting one's business in campaign materials, he simply changed his name legally to Mike the Mover. He has been quoted as saying the publicity and name recognition from his constant campaign filing, bringing him more than $150,000 in business per year. As campaign filing fees only cost less than $2,000, it's a good investment, he has said.
39th District
In the 39th District, which includes most of the Sky Valley as well as Granite Falls and north to Arlington and Darrington, long-time Republican representative Dan Kristiansen will run unopposed, but Elizabeth Scott, who has just competed her second year in office, has an opponent in the person of Democrat Charles Jensen of Stanwood.
Jensen is a veteran of the Unites States Air Force and the National Guard and is also a teacher.
Snohomish County
In county races, Snohomish County executive John Lovick, formerly the county sheriff, who was elected in a special election to fill the rest of the term of resigned executive Aaron Reardon, will face two challengers.
Running against him from his own party is Democrat James Robert Deal of Lynnwood, and Republican Carolyn Eslick, mayor of Sultan.
Deal is a real estate attorney who has sought office before and has a very in-depth website detailing his positions on many issues.
Carolyn Eslick, a Republican with a long track record of working with small businesses, is halfway through her second term as mayor of Sultan.
County Prosecutor Mark Roe is running unopposed, but County Sheriff Ty Trenary, appointed to fill the remainder of Lovick's term when he moved to the Executive's Office, is challenged by Jim Upton of Snohomish.
The two judges who work in Monroe's Evergreen Justice Court, Steve Cough and Patricia Lyons, are each running unopposed again.
There are no elections in the city of Monroe this year.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment