It’s always fun to listen to wannabe pundits like myself try to make sense of what the results of an election actually reveal. Who doesn’t love to play Monday morning quarterback? I know I do and I’m going to do just that right now but I will do so with this disclaimer – none of us know for sure what the results actually tell us.
First of all, of the 250,720 registered voters in Clark County at the time of the Aug. 4 Primary Election, only a little more than 25 percent actually cared enough to return their ballot. I know statistics experts will tell us that’s a large enough sample to draw some conclusions, but it’s still hard for me to definitively say those 25 percent accurately reflect the other 75 percent of registered voters.
As of this writing on Friday, Marc Boldt and Mike Dalesandro had what appeared to be a small, but insurmountable lead over David Madore in the race for the top two spots in the race for county chair. As of Friday morning, there was an ever-changing number of ballots that Clark County Elections officials said remained to be counted, but whatever the number actually was, it wasn’t believed to be enough for Madore to overcome the 777 votes he trailed Dalesandro by. Boldt was a mere 84 votes ahead of Dalesandro in first place.
Madore’s fellow sitting councilors, Jeanne Stewart and Tom Mielke, were a distant fourth and fifth in the five-candidate field. Even though Boldt is a former Clark County commissioner, a first glance at the results would show that a relative newcomer (Dalesandro) and a political veteran currently on the outside looking in (Boldt) fared decisively better than the three current councilors.
“I think it was a pretty strong message sent in the election,’’ said Dalesandro, who currently fills a seat on the Battle Ground City Council. “The two candidates who have advanced to the General (Election) are not a part of the incumbency. The same two candidates are also the ones who supported the Charter as well.’’
Dalesandro also pointed out that he and Boldt combined to receive more than 53 percent of the vote, further supporting his claim of an anti-incumbent sentiment among voters, perceivably a statement against the political acrimony that has existed in Clark County ever since Madore defeated Boldt in 2012 to tilt the county council to the right, angering the members of the left who had previously had things just the way they liked them.
Dalesandro gained insight in the anti-incumbent vote when he and two others decisively defeated three 12-year council members in 2013 races for the Battle Ground City Council, he himself routing the sitting mayor of Battle Ground Lisa Walters. It’s just who we are in this region and this country right now. We’re an anti-establishment bunch.
But, is there more to be learned from this election than just that first glance at the anti-incumbent vote? There are a lot of indicators out there that support the notion that the county is doing just fine. Is that an explanation for why nearly three-quarters of the voters didn’t even bother to fill out and mail their ballots? That’s a plausible explanation in my eyes.
Also, even though Dalesandro is correct that he and Boldt received more votes combined than the three sitting councilors, what if only two of the councilors would have filed for the chair position? Wouldn’t we have had a different outcome? Take Mielke’s 4,000 or so votes, if he was not in the race, who do you think would have received those votes? I guarantee you it wouldn’t have been Dalesandro, the lone Democrat in the field, which means the final two would have surely been Boldt and Madore.
I’m not blaming Mielke for running. He was the first to declare. Madore was next and Stewart surprised many by filing last among the three. It’s ironic to me that Madore and Mielke have worked so closely together for the past two years passing their collective agenda and then in the end, they weren’t able to get together and decide which of the two should have run for the chair position. In the end, the three current Republican councilors sealed their own fate by running against each other.
After talking to both Boldt and Dalesandro multiple times last week, I am pleased that I do think the political culture in Clark County is going to be much more civil in the coming months as the two campaign for the chair position. Both are likable, sincere people who have indicated that they will not attack the other during the race, electing rather to just focus on the issues.
As far as my insight into the Nov. 3 General Election, this isn’t an endorsement of a candidate, but I think Dalesandro and the Democrats have their work cut out for them. I’ve been impressed by the way he has conducted himself during the campaign, he’s been calming, confident and well spoken. But, he got far fewer votes in the Primary than I expected and that has to be because Boldt got considerable support from both Democrats and Republicans. And, even though Boldt was previously shunned in his career by the Clark County GOP (Republican Party), it would seem to be a no-brainer that he would pick up the larger number of voters who cast ballots for one of the three Republicans in the Primary.
Ken Vance
Editor
