Mielke’s long fight succeeds

Tom Mielke New county commissioner

Four years after he left the state legislature to make the first of three runs for county commissioner, Tom Mielke’s dream came true Monday.

By 209 votes, the Battle Ground-area Republican finally cracked through the ribbon in his photo-finish recount against Democrat Pam Brokaw. That was 2 votes ahead of his lead before the recount.

“This has been the longest, hardest campaign in my life,” Mielke said Monday.

Mielke, 65, will take office Jan. 2, replacing Democrat Betty Sue Morris of Felida.

Mielke and Marc Boldt of Hockinson will form the first Republican majority in 32 years on the county’s top board, and they’re likely to be pro-development, anti-regulation voices as the county enters a major overhaul of its rural development patterns.

Mielke said Monday that he’s been following the county’s budget process and has already found “five departments” in the county that seemed to duplicate one anothers’ services and might be merged.

He said he wasn’t ready to specify which.

Mielke ran his campaign on a call for freer markets, no bridge tolls and scrapping the Interstate 5 bridge replacement project in favor of a third bridge across the Columbia River.

Mielke also criticized the Cowlitz Tribe’s plans for a casino near La Center and said he’d oppose tax or fee increases in the immediate future.

Brokaw said Monday that she’ll stay active in the Democratic Party, though she’s unsure if she’ll run for office again.

“I’m going to go and find a job,” said a smiling Brokaw, who had resigned as director of a Vancouver affordable-housing group in order to campaign full time. “Picked a great market.”

The departing Morris, who certified Mielke’s victory Monday, shared an embrace with Brokaw afterward.

“I’ll buy you a bottle of wine and we’ll drink it,” Morris told her. “Maybe I’ll bring two.”

Aided by endorsements such as Morris’s, Brokaw had outraised and outspent Mielke during the campaign.

Indeed, Mielke has been outspent in every one of his races for county office, including last summer’s four-way Republican primary. Even the local Building Industry Association, a longtime ally, thought Mielke a relatively weak candidate this year and endorsed his somewhat less conservative opponent Brad Lothspeich in the primary.

On Monday, Mielke proved them wrong.

Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.