Bud Hover

Don’t forget to bring your questions for the county commissioner candidates to the candidates’ forum next Thursday evening, August 23, at 7 p.m. at the Twisp Valley Grange.

The four survivors of the August primary election for commissioner in District 1 and District 2 will appear at the event, according to moderator Peter Morgan. Two of the county’s three commissioners’ jobs, which pay $59,640 per year, are up for grabs in the Nov. 6 general election.

“We do want questions from the crowd,” Morgan told Grist. “It’s an opportunity to get to know the candidates and where they stand on issues.”

Ray Campbell

The tightest race is the District 2 contest for the seat held by former professional football player and rancher Don “Bud” Hover of Winthrop, the Republican incumbent who in February received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington.

Hover is being challenged by rancher and North Cross-State Realty owner Ray Campbell of Gold Creek, a fellow Republican who has served on the county’s board of adjustment and watershed planning board. He received the endorsement of the Okanogan County Republican Party’s central committee.

In the primary, Hover outpolled Campbell 53 to 46 percent, or 1,482 votes to Campbell’s 1,264, as of the August 15 count by the county assessor. However, in the primary, only voters in each district cast ballots for that district’s commissioner candidates. In November, voters in the entire county will vote for commissioners in both districts.

In District 1, the local Republican Party’s endorsement went to challenger Sheila Kennedy of Okanogan, former manager of the county’s noxious weed board, rather than to Republican incumbent Andrew Lampe, who did not survive the primary. She outpolled her Democratic opponent, Albert Roberts of Omak, 41 percent to 33 percent.

Roberts is a U.S. Navy veteran who served 14 years on the county’s regional planning commission. He also was a member of the county’s economic development council, served as an auditor of the county’s conservation district and on a regional policy advisory committee for the U.S. Forest Service. He’s co-owner of Pine Stump Farms and ran for the office in 2004.

The candidates first will answer prepared questions given to them in advance by forum organizers. During a break, written questions from the audience will be gathered and put to the candidates by the moderator. The forum is sponsored by the Twisp Chamber of Commerce and the Twisp Valley Grange.