Kitsap candidate filings yield few surprises

Few, if any, surprises cropped up as the deadline approached for officially filing candidacy reports at the Kitsap County elections division in Port Orchard Friday afternoon.

Only a handful of the Kitsap County elected positions up for grabs this year will have contested races. And of those that will, only two candidates are running for the position in question.

At least one unexpected name showed up, however.

Bremerton City Councilman Ed Rollman filed to run for Kitsap County Coroner on Friday afternoon. Rollman, a Democrat, will face Republican incumbent Greg Sandstrom in November.

“(Time) has been wasted on a regional morgue,” Rollman said this week.

He contends the Coroner’s Office shouldn’t have flown spokesmen to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal funds for a regional morgue, which officials hope to locate at the Emergency Readiness Center in west Bremerton.

Instead, Rollman insists more should have been done to build a new coroner’s facility and morgue in Port Orchard.

“It’s the Kitsap County Coroner not the Bremerton Coroner,” Rollman said. “Port Orchard is where the county leaders are.”

Rollman was elected to the Bremerton City Council in 1999 and, if elected coroner, would leave his city post one year early.

The remaining contested races aren’t surprises.

Kitsap County Commissioner Tim Botkin, a first-term incumbent Democrat, will vie this fall for the Central Kitsap seat. He will be the only Democrat to run, according to candidate filing records.

Only Republican Patty Lent, of Bremerton, has registered to run for the county commissioners’ seat. Lent, a Silverdale travel consultant, is somewhat a political novice, but she’s not without campaign experience.

Lent advocated for the incorporation of SeaTac in the mid 1980s and volunteered to work on several school levies. Lent also served on a rezoning board for two years.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s race also still has two contenders.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer, a first-term Democratic incumbent will have an opponent this fall in William Johnston of Bremerton. Johnston registered on July 23 with the county as a Libertarian, although he initially announced his intention to run as an Independent candidate.

When told at the counter he couldn’t register as an Independent because a convention wasn’t held to nominate him, he was given the choice of filing as a Republican, Democrat or Libertarian.

Johnston chose Libertarian.

Two Democrats are vying for the county treasurer post.

Former City of Poulsbo accounting manager Paulette Alvarado, a Democrat, has filed to run for County Treasurer, a position to be vacated by Sharon Shrader, who is retiring at the end of the year.

Alvarado retired this year after 25 years with Poulsbo to focus solely on her campaign bid. She will face Barbara Stephenson, who has served over the past decade as executive director of the United Way of Kitsap County. Stephenson, a Democrat, is also a Poulsbo resident.

The uncontested races, according to the candidate filing report issued by the county elections division, are:

• Kitsap County Assessor Jim Avery, a Republican from Port Orchard, will run unopposed this year for another term.

• Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn, a Democrat from South Kitsap, also plans to run again this year. She will be unopposed.

• Kitsap County Clerk Dave Peterson, who was appointed by the county commissioners last year to replace then departing clerk Dean Logan, is running for the position this fall. Peterson, a Silverdale Democrat, is unopposed.

• Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge, the Democratic incumbent, also plans to run again this fall. He is unopposed in the race.

• Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Russell Hartman of Bremerton was appointed by Gov. Gary Locke in February to a bench position vacated when William Kamps retired. Now he is running unopposed for the position, Superior Court Judge, court six.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge James M. Riehl plans to run for his sixth term this fall. He is unopposed for position 1.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge W. Daniel Phillips plans to run for his sixth term as well. He is unopposed for position 2.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge Marilyn Paja plans to run for her second term this fall. She is running unopposed for position 3.

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