Four years can go by fast.  One day you are elected and on the top of the world, and then New Years Day 2010 comes around, and like a hangover, the unpleasant reality of an election year is upon you.   Rural prosecuting attorneys who won large pay raises last year (see post) will face an increase in interest for their jobs.  But, starting in Okanogan County, it appears that the prosecuting attorney could be unopposed.  East of there in Ferry County, Prosecuting Attorney Mike Sandona is almost certain to face a challenger. It was almost four years ago that he staged a coup d’etat when he ran against his boss.   He won by a large majority, and everything after that would seem to be downhill.  But that hasn’t stopped him from preparing for an election battle by joining every civic group known to mankind.

In Stevens County, Tim Rasmussen ousted four-termer Gerry Wettle for prosecuting attorney in 2006.  He does not have an election challenger that has announced publicly yet.   Mr Rasmussen connects with voters through his regular column “Prosecutor’s Corner”.  See sample.

The Sheriff’s races in the region may be interesting.  I was surprised to see a campaign bumper sticker as early as last October in Okanogan. Dave Yarnell has announced his candidacy for Sheriff in Okanogan County, and has a pretty impressive website here.  Mr. Yarnell mentioned some dissatisfaction with the current situation in the department in a newspaper article but he doesn’t get into specifics.   I guess there is plenty of time to discuss specific issues in the long hot summer of that region.   He is probably smart to get his web site up early because it can take awhile sometimes for search engines to even find your site.

In Ferry County, there was talk about election year challenges to Pete Warner.  I received emails from people encouraging Ray Maycumber and Tom Williams to run, but that seems unlikely (from an outsider’s perspective) in light of the fact that Pete Warner just promoted Maycumber to the position of 911 coordinator,  and has apparently made Tom Williams the undersheriff.  Other candidates have been mentioned as possibilities but no one that I have talked to has declared.  I did a poll last year with limited success – see here.  Comments are always welcome but I think for comments about political races people need to post their first and last name.

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