Although the top spenders won their 24th District seats in the state Legislature, that wasn’t necessarily true in county races.
The biggest spenders in Clallam County races — in terms of cost of each vote — in three of four general election county races lost, while the candidate who spent the least of all per vote won.
Democrat Larry Freedman spent $24,503, or $1.59 per vote, to lose his bid to unseat Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, a Republican, who spent $25,547, or $1.53 per vote.
Clallam County Department of Community Development incumbent John Miller lost his seat to challenger Sheila Roark Miller of Carlsborg after spending $13,748, or $1.03 per vote, to his opponent’s $10,127, or 66 cents per vote.
The county’s treasurer-elect and political newcomer Selinda Barkhuis spent $2,134, or 15 cents a vote — the lowest amount in any North Olympic Peninsula county race — to defeat incumbent Judy Scott, who spent $4,987, or 36 cents a vote.
Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty, who outspent his opponent, kept his seat.
Doherty, 67, a three-term incumbent from Port Angeles and a Democrat, defeated Republican Robin Poole, 61, after spending $7,023, or 43 cents a vote, compared with Poole’s estimate, in an interview, of $4,750, or 31 cents a vote.
In races for 24th Legislative District Positions 1 and 2, four candidates spent a combined $260,885, with Democratic winners Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege — who combined spent $184,987 — outspending their Republican opponents, who spent a combined $75,898, by more than 2 to 1 dollars.
The 24th District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and about half of Grays Harbor County, but 80 percent of the district’s 84,000 voters live in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
The candidate who spent the most per vote in any Peninsula race, Port Ludlow Republican Jim Boyer, lost in his bid to unseat Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin, a Democrat.
Boyer spent $21,390, or $3.02 per vote, to Austin’s $22,307, or $2.30 per vote.
Barkhuis spent the least in both counties.
Candidates in Clallam County spent a total of $92,819.
Jefferson County candidates spent at least $60,303, according to state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) reports and candidate interviews.
The Jefferson County total does not include District Court Judge Jill Landes’ campaign expenses, which were unavailable.
North Olympic Peninsula candidates — not including those who failed to make it through the Aug. 17 primary — spent a total of $153,122 in two races in Jefferson County and four races in Clallam County.
The final PDC reporting date for election campaigns is Friday, Dec. 10.
Here is a breakdown of campaign expenditures as of Oct. 26, with a focus on cost per vote according to votes counted as of Friday.
24th District Position 1
Van De Wege, 36, of Sequim is a two-term incumbent who defeated Dan Gase, 57, of Port Angeles by 34,818 votes, or 56 percent, to 27,182 votes, or 44 percent.
Van De Wege, a firefighter and paramedic, spent $89,774, or $2.58 per vote, while Gase spent $35,524, or $1.31 per vote.
Van De Wege’s expenditures included $15,100 in payroll for a campaign manager and $5,159 to WinPower Strategies, a Seattle political consultant firm.
Gase, a real estate managing broker and consultant, spent $6,064 for signs, including yard signs.
“We were definitely on a shoestring,” said Gase, who lost 18 pounds during the campaign, much of it walking district neighborhoods and ringing doorbells.
Together, the candidates for the position spent $125,298.
24th District Position 2
Tharinger, 61, a Clallam County commissioner and Sequim resident, defeated Jim McEntire, 60, a Port of Port Angeles commissioner who also lives in Sequim, 32,143 votes, or 52 percent, to 29,328 votes, or 48 percent.
Tharinger spent $95,213, or $2.96 per vote, compared with McEntire, who spent $40,374, or $1.38 per vote.
Tharinger’s expenditures included $34,335 to WinPower Strategies — $408 of which was for those interruptive “robo-calls,” or automated phone messages — and $7,262 to ISE Consultants of Port Townsend for campaign management.
McEntire’s largest expenses included $8,341 for radio advertising, most of it in Port Angeles.
Together, the candidates for the position spent $135,587.
County commissioner
Doherty defeated Poole, a UPS driver from Beaver, by garnering 16,494 votes, or 52 percent, to 15,426 votes, or 48 percent.
Because Poole spent less than $5,000 in his campaign, he is not required to file expenditure and contribution reports with the PDC.
The combined spending by candidates in the race was $11,773.
Doherty did not walk any neighborhoods and ring doorbells looking for votes, nor did he solicit donations.
“I just don’t have those characteristics,” he said.
Poole said he spent about $1,300 on a campaign ad and signs.
“I didn’t realize how expensive this stuff was,” he said.
Community development
Roark Miller, 51, defeated incumbent John Miller, 61, of Port Angeles with 15,264 votes, or 53 percent, to 13,294 votes, or 47 percent.
Together, the two candidates spent $23,875.
Roark Miller’s largest single expense was $5,111 for signs.
Expenses for John Miller’s campaign included $2,495 for bulk mailing, mailing fees and newspaper advertising.
Miller said he mailed 13,000 campaign postcards to voters.
The two Millers are not related.
Prosecuting attorney
Kelly, 57, of Port Angeles defeated Sequim attorney Freedman, 72, with 16,648 votes, or 52 percent, to 15,388 votes, or 48 percent.
Combined, the two candidates spent $50,050.
Kelly’s largest single expense was $3,500 to GMA Research of Bellevue for a phone survey to determine voters’ attitudes toward her and issues such as crime, she said.
Very few respondents had heard about an ongoing lawsuit by three former employees against her office.
“That was a good thing,” Kelly said.
The largest single expenditure for Freedman was $2,989 for billboard advertising.
“I don’t think I could have spent any amount of money any differently and have the outcome be any different,” he said, adding voters trended against Democrats and for Republicans.
County treasurer
Barkhuis, 48, defeated Scott with 14,318 votes to 13,868 votes, or 51 percent to 49 percent.
Barkhuis provided her campaign spending figure in an interview.
The two candidates combined spent $7,121.
Barkhuis, a county planner who lives in Port Angeles, intentionally kept her signs to a minimum because they were so expensive and to avoid what she saw as an ongoing controversy about campaign signs.
Scott, who has worked in the treasurer’s office for 27 years and has served as treasurer since 2006, said her campaign was hurt by newspaper articles she said dwelled on the embezzlement of more than $617,467 from the Treasurer’s Office.
Most of it occurred while Scott was treasurer. Former office cashier Catherine Betts has been charged in connection with the alleged theft.
Betts has pleaded not guilty to first-degree theft, and a status hearing on her case is due Thursday in county Superior Court.
Barkhuis said during the campaign that the embezzlement was her reason for running against Scott.
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Senior Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.