PORT TOWNSEND — With votes yet to be counted in the Port Townsend City Council race between the mayor and her challenger, incumbent Deborah Stinson and Monica MickHager are neck-and-neck in the competition for campaign donations.
Stinson, 64 on Election Day, has raised $4,501 in donations, not including $822 in loans, while MickHager has $4,572 in contributions, according to reports filed as of last week with the state Public Disclosure Commission. MickHager, 63 as of Election Day, has no loans to her campaign.
General election ballots mailed to registered voters Wednesday are due by 8 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Auditor’s Office or in drop-boxes, or must be postmarked by that date.
Candidates are required by the state Public Disclosure Commission to report specific contributions and expenditures if they intend to raise more than $5,000.
Fifteen contested races are on the Jefferson County ballot.
In three of those races, one candidate has withdrawn but did so after the deadline to remove their names from the ballot.
Laura Beck withdrew from the race against Mary Fickett for a Brinnon School Board position, Tyler Myles Vega quit a Port Townsend City Council contest against David Faber, and Charles W. Smith III decided after filing that he did no want to run in a Sequim School Board race against Eric A. Pickens.
The Stinson-MickHager race and the Clallam-Jefferson Fire District 3 race between incumbent James Barnfather and challenger William Miano III — which includes 400 registered Jefferson County voters — are the only contested races in Jefferson County in which both candidates who are spending reportable funds to win election.
District 1 Port of Port Townsend candidate Pam Petranek has raised $8,768 with no loans and spent $8,479 of that — the largest campaign contribution total in both Clallam and Jefferson counties — to defeat Chuck Fauls, who is mini-reporting so is not filing contributions and expenditures.
Stinson, a City Council member since 2012 and council-elected mayor since 2016, said she has not made a big push for campaign funds nor done much doorbelling for votes, which she said she “really enjoyed” the first time she ran.
Being a council member, which pays her $750 a month and other council members $500 a month, takes her at least 40 hours a week, she said.
“My bandwidth is limited for campaigning,” she said.
Stinson was not surprised about how close she and MickHager were in their campaign donations.
“She’s lived here a long time, twice as long as I have,” Stinson said.
MickHager, in her 10th year on the city planning commission, said Friday she will continue doorbelling until her 500 campaign cards are handed out.
She said she is “absolutely delighted” by the support she’s received.
“I believe our City Council here in Port Townsend is making decisions I am personally uncomfortable with,” she said.
“I believed if I got there and went door to door I would find other people who were uncomfortable, and that’s what I found.
“I think it’s time for a change, and that’s why I believe we’re neck-and-neck.”
MickHager said the council has been unresponsive to residents and the planning commission on affordable housing issues, including zoning for affordable housing, and that these are her top priorities.
“I disagree with her that we haven’t done enough,” Stinson said.
Stinson said MickHager did not seem to understand that proposals from the planning commission must go through staff.
“It’s a process the mayor does not get to intercede in,” Stinson said.
PDC spokesperson Kim Bradford said Friday that MickHager had to list her contributors’ full first names rather than their initials on her contribution reports. MickHager said she would comply.
In an Oct. 4 complaint to the PDC, campaign disclosure activist Glen Morgan of Thurston County alleged MickHager’s campaign had failed to accurately and timely file contribution and expenditure reports.
The PDC staff etermined the failure did not amount to a violation that warrants further investigation and told MickHager in a “reminder letter” about “importance of the timely and accurate disclosure of all contribution and expenditure activities, including the filing fee,” according to a disposition issued Thursday.
“It was all resolved,” MickHager said of the complaint.
Miano has raised $6,218 without taking out loans and spent $4,951, counting as his top contributor District 3 Lt. Kevin Van De Wege, the 24th District state senator who represents Clallam and Jefferson counties. Other contributors are District 3 firefighters and firefighter unions.
Barnfather opened a campaign account with $100 that he has not spent.
“I’m doing this purely on the reputation and friends I’ve made over 12 years in office,” Barnfather said Friday.
Miano, a paramedic with Olympic Ambulance, said most of his donations come from firefighters when counting funds from firefighter unions.
“I believe I have a clearer vision of what it takes to staff and respond in the modern fire departments,” he said.
Candidates who filed contributions and expenditures with the state Public Disclosure Commission as of last week are listed here, as they are listed on the state website at www.pdc.wa.gov.
• Port of Port Townsend
District 1 Commissioner
Pamela A. Petranek
Starting balance: None.
Contributions: $8,768
In-kind contributions: None.
Loans: None.
Total: $8,768.
Expenditures: $8,479
$1,000: Port Townsend Marine Trades Association, Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op, Siver Standford, Sea Marine, Port Townsend.
$400: Joel Kawahara, Quilcene.
$250: John B. Simpson, Port Ludlow.
$215: Small contributions from a variety of donors.
$200: Matilda Henry, Becci Kimball, Port Townsend.
$160: Ronald Richards, Nina Richards, Port Angeles.
$150: Scott Landis, Kathleen Mitchell, Port Townsend.
$100: Liz H. Kanieski, Charles Kanieski, Carol McCreary, John Kaplan, Diana Talley, Jim Maupin, Levy Bertram, Scott Walker, Inger Rankins, Pamela Alvarado, Robert D’Arcy, Michelle Sandoval, Susan Ohlson, Gwendolyn Tracy, Bill Curtsinger, Port Townsend; Ernst R. Baird, Nordland; Ann Kittredge, Quilcene; Patricia Stevenson, Shelburne Falls, Mass.; Sarah Fisken, Bainbridge.
• Port Townsend City Council
Position 3
Monica MickHager
Starting balance: None.
Contributions: $4,572.
Cash contributions: $3,210.
In-kind contributions: $1,362.
Loans: None.
Total: $4,572
Expenditures: $3,308.
$700: R. Kimball, Port Townsend.
$450: T. Tennesen, Port Towensend.
$370: D. Fletcher, Port Townsend.
$349: R. Jahnke, Port Townsend.
$260: M. MickHager, Port Townsend.
$250: D. Gooding, C. Littlefield, T. Clark, Port Townsend.
$200: S. Walker, C. Koan, T. Christopher, C. McCreary, Port Townsend.
$141: D. Jahnke, Port Townsend.
$130: R. Gray, Port Townsend.
$100: G. Marseille, Port Townsend; C. Saran, Seattle.
Deborah Stinson
Starting balance: None.
Contributions: $4,501.
Cash contributions: $3,979
In-kind contributions: $522.
Loans: $822.
Total: $5,324.
$566: Small contributions.
$522: Deborah Stinson, Port Townsend.
$250: Benjamin Bauermeister, Benjamin S. Pederson, Port Townsend.
$200: David King, K.S. Crow, Larry Kallenberger, Port Townsend.
$150: Judith Alexander, Kris Morris, Port Townsend.
$100: Helen Kolff, Libby L. Atkins, Martin K. Gay Ruth Gordon, Alice King, Brig Knauer, Cornelius Kolff, Martha J. Trolin, Teresa Verraes, Port Townsend.
• Clallam-Jefferson Fire District 3
William (Bill) Miano
Starting balance: None.
Contributions: $6,218.
Cash contributions: $5,947.
In-kind contributions: $270.
Total: $6,218.
Loans: None.
Expenditures: $4,951.
$750: Kevin Van De Wege, Sequim.
$500: Everett Firefighters Local 466, Everettt; Bill Miano Jr., Midway, Utah.
$351: Professional Firefighters of Kitsap County, Silverdale.
$250: Ryan Tillman, Port Hadlock; Bremerton Firefighters, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 437, Bremerton;
$240: Ivan J. Hueter, Sequim.
$200: Jared Romberg, Sequim; South Kitsap Professional Firefighters, Port Orchard; International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2024, Federal Way; Matthew V. Randazzo, Olympia.
$180: Bryce McGinley, Sequim.
$150: Kolby Konapaski, Port Angeles.
$125: Small contributions.
$100: Leonard L. Horst, Jr, Lawrence T. Bingham, Joel L. Bower, Bryan Swanberg, Michael Sprenger, John C. Riley, Paul Lang, Jacob B. Linder; Sequim; Charles T. Cate, Siverdale; Alex S. McCracken, Centralia.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.