From Stark
Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike outpolled challenger Kelli Linville at the Thursday, June 16 endorsement meeting of more than 200 Whatcom County Democrats, but he fell just short of the two-thirds vote he needed for an official endorsement.
Ditto David Stalheim, former county planning director, who hopes to succeed Pete Kremen as Whatcom County Executive.
In the mayor’s race, Pike got about 64 percent of the ballots cast, with 49 percent for Linville and nine percent endorsing no one. (The totals add up to more than 100 because party members are permitted to endorse more than one candidate.)
In the executive race, Stalheim got 63 percent, (click here to read about his Hatch Act complications) with 46 percent endorsing Tom Anderson, former general manager of Whatcom County PUD. Two party members–a little less than one percent– endorsed State Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, who surprised the gathering by asking for Dems’ endorsement and actually showing up to speak.
UPDATE: A Friday, June 17 recount did not change these results.
The other candidates in the two races–Clayton Petree and Steve Moore for mayor, and Jack Louws for County Executive–did not seek the Dems’ endorsement and were not on the ballot.
The night’s big winner was Cathy Lehman, who got an endorsement with 78 percent of votes cast. Incumbent Barry Buchanan, the party’s former county chairman, managed just 33 percent.
J. Lynne Walker also earned an endorsement with 79 percent in her campaign to succeed Shirley Forslof as Whatcom County Auditor. But her rival, Debbie Adelstein, announced via former Bellingham Mayor Tim Douglas that she would not seek or accept the Democratic endorsement because she already works in the Auditor’s office, which has the task of counting ballots in the primary and general elections. Adelstein’s name was not on the party ballot, but she got five write-in votes.
Sheriff Bill Elfo got approval on 62 percent of ballots, with 50 percent for his challenger, sheriff’s detective Steve Harris. The third candidate in the race, Bob Taylor, did not seek endorsement.
Party Chairwoman Natalie McClendon said the party doesn’t give money to candidates it endorses, but they do send out mailings and provide political people power to mobilize Demo-leaning voters.
No endorsement for Pike is best for Bellingham.
Pike does need to go. The last thing Bellingham needs is a technocrat who joins up with a rotten corporation to run government/corporate cameras in the community.
Fascinating results.
MAYOR
Pike’s absolute dismissal of the shipping port may have swung him some extra environmental activists. This result is still consistant with a view that Pike may get slightly more of the the Democrat split, but that Kelli can make up the difference with a lion’s share of Bellingham’s non-Democrats and “pro business” types for a mixed coalition of voters. A key factor will be whether conservatives will cast a spoiler vote for Moore or Petree in the primary and inadvertantly set up a Pike victory in November if the Democrat majority has only one Democrat left on the ballot.
EXECUTIVE
The executive race is very interesting and has some similarities to the mayor race, Stalheim has the trust of some Democrat insiders and politically observant people who appreciate his work… if he can get elected. He faces hurdles in that he has never been a candidate, he started his campaign last week, he is restricted by the hatch act, has little time to campaign, and he is the quintessential demonized poster boy that the yellow Land Grab Area signs were summoning the townspeople and torches about in the 2009 conservative takeover of county council.
Tom Anderson, although not as flashy, has a solid resume, but without the level of polarizing negatives. Tom got a similar split of the Dems that Kelli got for mayor… but unlike Kelli’s Dem town race with a limited pool of non-Dems to supplement her support, Tom’s pool of non Dem voters in the whole county is wide open. Tom is known to rural folks as the guy who brokered a better water deal, not the guy who told them they couldn’t build a shed on their land.
SHERRIF
Steve Harris exceeded all expectations and got repeated spontanious applause for his non nonsense policy points. Any prognosticator would have guessed that Elfo was a shoe in for re-endorsement, but elections are about matchups, and Harris appears to be getting the hang of the election. This was a bona-fide upset.
BHAM COUNCIL
Speaking of upsets… Cathy Lehman is apparently on fire. Her focus on downtown business revitalization is a win for voters across the ideological spectrum. Bellingham Republicans that I know are supporting her. She also has a clear track record on preserving Lake Whatcom.
This predicament for Barry is partly because he quit the mayor race to get out of Kelli’s way, and someone else had already jumped into what they thought was his “open empty seat”. I can’t really see what else he could have done, once Kelli went for the mayor chair. A few people at the endorsement meeting indicated that they couldn’t really list how Barry had distinguished himself on council, so his campaign would need to play catch up at this point to retroactively impress the base.
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Admit I don’t like your math much RM, but it sounds feasible….still, I am glad to see a majority of Dems have their doubts about Linville…as well they should….just watch for her to tempt enviro money by pretending to have concerns about the port and then dump them once she gets it and/or gets elected….she is the consummate politician who will say anything to anyone as long as it benefits her…
Richard,
Thanks for sharing your perspective on these candidates! Fascinating indeed.
Shaun and Richard May on the same page…Wow!
Enough for any blog reader to now to do a 180 on there political agreement.
Thanks for the very revealing write-up, we could benefit from much more personal blogs such as this on the web. Could you elaborate a little more about your second paragraph please? I am a small bit baffled as well as unsure whether or not I am aware your position completely. Thank you.