DABOB BAY — Diane Johnson, a clinical psychologist with an office in Port Hadlock, has announced she will seek the Jefferson County commissioner seat now held by John Austin.
“I’m a hometown girl. I grew up here,” said Johnson, 66.
Johnson said she feels she has both Democratic and Republican supporters in the county despite the fact that Austin, who represents District 3, has received the Jefferson County Democrats’ endorsement in the past.
“I’m really going on history and the basis of my district and promising to represent them because many do not support what [Austin] is doing,” Johnson said.
Austin, a Port Ludlow Democrat, also is being challenged by Port Ludlow builder Jim Boyer, a Republican.
The candidates are scheduled to file for the election the week of June 7.
The top-two primary election is Aug. 17, and the general election is Nov. 2.
Assuming all file candidacy papers during the weeklong registration, the top two vote-getters in the August primary election regardless of party affiliation or incumbency will move on to the November general election.
Johnson grew up in Jefferson County and is a 1961 Chimacum High School graduate.
She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1979, and has been in private practice in Jefferson County since 1997. Previously, she directed a mental health clinic in Ohio for 15 years.
Shoreline management program
She cites grand-scale opposition to the shoreline management program and critical areas ordinance, which Austin supported.
A Dabob Road resident in Tarboo Valley, Johnson said she decided to run for county office after serving as a member of the citizen advisory committee proposing an update for the critical areas ordinance.
Two reports were accepted from that committee, a majority report and a minority report.
“I was on the citizens committee majority report side and that got shelved,” she said. “I think it’s just wrong.
“The opinions of a very small minority carried the day, giving the impression that county government had already decided in favor of the outside interests and the committee’s considerable effort was a sham,” she said.
She also opposes hiring two new employees to assist residents in fending their way through the complexities of the county commissioners-adopted shoreline master program.
The nearly $1 million resource center would duplicate services readily available in the community already, she said.
“I think it’s unnecessary. I think it’s an added layer of bureaucracy. I think it’s a waste of money.
Saying her entire campaign platform was a “common sense approach,” Johnson said she believes that county government is not adequately balancing the rights of citizens and their economic needs with other competing priorities being thrust at them by the state and other outside interests.
She said she is concerned that recent decisions have placed the economic future of Jefferson County citizens in jeopardy, with little or no consideration for that fact.
Johnson said she is concerned about spending money for things Jefferson County doesn’t need in a difficult economic time.
“In the interests of wildlife and the environment, the current commissioners have created new land-use regulations that will disturb property values and alter the tax base in ways that will not be clear for several years, but will significantly affect every taxpayer in the county,” she said.
“These regulations have also resulted in excessive, ever more expensive restrictions and increased difficulty in expanding the economic potential or usefulness of private property.”
Grandparents pioneers
Johnson’s grandparents came to the Tarboo Valley as pioneers in 1887, creating a homestead where she still lives.
She said her values come from that rich rural heritage, and she will bring those values to the deliberations and activities of Jefferson County government.
She is involved in leadership roles in her church, in the Chimacum Grange and the Olympic Stewardship Foundation, a local property rights group.
She is a member of East Jefferson Rotary and the local farm bureau.
She is an artist, with work at the Blue Whole Gallery in Sequim. Her other interests include playing bluegrass bass and gardening.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.