John Laird July 12: Politicians' favorite word: Unopposed

By my count (dangerous words when issued by a liberal-arts major or an amateur golfer), there are 46 politicians in Clark County who are running unopposed this year on various local ballots. They are running for — no, advancing automatically to — positions on city councils, plus boards of schools, fire districts, cemeteries and ports.

Each of these lucky people will affirm this political adage: There is one event that's more exciting than a victorious election night, and it's the passing of a filing deadline with no opponent having filed. This nonevent (actually) might elicit yawns from most people, but there are high-fives aplenty in homes of politicians who have learned that they're already winners, and who realize they don't have to raise more money to run for office, don't have to spend time and energy campaigning and don't have to suffer through the same old questions and answers at countless forums and debates. Just sit back, you sly dog, and relax. Contemplate how much the people love you, watch the other politicians fight it out and try to act interested. This surprise sabbatical resembles the down time a college athlete enjoys when he gets drafted by a pro team but remains enrolled (wink, wink) in classes.

The foe-free politicians will insist this rare luxury allows them to focus more intently on the offices to which they were elected. OK. If you say so.

There's another triumph related to filing deadline. If you drew only one opponent, you won't worry about the primary and will advance to the general election. (One infinitely remote threat to an unopposed candidate and one drawing a single opponent is the unforeseen, miraculous upset victory by a write-in candidate. Hey, don't scoff! Sarah Palin might bounce back!)

After scouring the list of candidates headed for the Aug. 18 primary and the Nov. 3 general election, I have reached this conclusion: Camas is just about the most boring place you'd ever want to live, politically speaking, of course. What's with these people? Don't they ever get angry?

All three incumbent city councilors in Camas appear on this year's ballot unopposed: Melissa Smith, Steve Hogan and Scott Higgins. Compare their peaches-and-cream political playground to Vancouver, where a dozen candidates are running for four council positions (including mayor) or Battle Ground, where three of five council races are contested by six people.

Now, granted, Melissa, Steve and Scott would insist that they are unopposed because their service has been so fabulous that not a single constituent sees any need to replace them. But the cynical columnist wonders if it's because they've all done such horrible jobs that the whole town has given up on public service, and not a single Camasoid wants to have anything to do with the city council. Or, maybe the economy has caused such severe budget problems that no one would dare wade into the fiduciary quagmire.

Camas Mayor Paul Dennis insists I'm wrong. "All three of these city councilors are doing an outstanding job," he said. "They focus on solutions and have no personal agendas."

Fine, sir. Let's move on to the Camas school board, where surely there must be some electoral nastiness to stir up. Nope. All three board members (Casey O'Dell, Julie Rotz and Mary Tipton) are running unopposed. Meanwhile, the Vancouver school district has four folks running for two positions, the Evergreen district has one disputed race and Battle Ground has six people running in three school board races.

In fact, I can't find a good fight in Camas until visiting the world-famous Cemetery District No. 1, where Lois Engel and John Straub are competing. (The Camas-Washougal Port District, has six people tangled up in two races.)

In our phone conversation last week, I assessed a technical foul on Mayor Dennis for having such a boring city. Why can't they be newsworthy like, say, Ridgefield? "This is a great place to live, work and go to school," he said, unabashedly unapologetic.

Perhaps you're right, Paul. But we who get paid to observe the political battlefields and go down later to shoot the wounded will not be wasting much time in Camas this year.