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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Boldt, Dalesandro, Madore lead council chair race

Port voters choose candidates with divergent views

By , Columbian Editor
Published:

First primary election results released Tuesday evening showed two outsiders in the lead for county council chair. However, Republican Councilor David Madore was not far behind independent Marc Boldt and Democrat Mike Dalesandro.

Boldt, who was turned out of office by Madore in 2012, led all five council chair candidates with 13,937 votes, or 27.5 percent. Dalesandro, the lone Democrat, polled 13,636, or 26.9 percent, and Madore had 12,152, or 24.0 percent. The other two current councilors, Republicans Jeanne Stewart and Tom Mielke, trailed.

“I think God has a sense of humor,” Boldt said in an interview broadcast on government channel CVTV. He added that he thinks a lot of people who supported the county charter last November turned out for the primary.

Republican Julie Olson and Democrat Chuck Green took the early lead in the Position 2 council race, with 30.9 percent and 27.0 percent respectively. First-time candidates Democrat Mike Pond and Republican Mary Benton were third and fourth, respectively. Tanner Martin, who ran as a nonpartisan, trailed.

Voters living in the Vancouver port district appeared to be setting up a November showdown between oil terminal proponent Lisa Ross, who led Tuesday’s tally, and Eric LaBrant, who opposes it.

For Vancouver City Council, Linda Glover and Ty Stober were on their way to advancing to November’s general election.

In the final primary race, incumbent Mavis Nickels and Dick Rylander appear to the choice of Battle Ground School District voters.

Under Washington law, the top two finishers in the primary advance to the Nov. 3 general election, regardless of party.

The county issued 250,728 ballots for the election, and as of Tuesday morning had received 52,340 to be tabulated, which translates to a 20.9 percent voter turnout. Of those, 51,073 of these were included in tonight’s count.

More valid ballots that were submitted or mailed by the Tuesday evening deadline will be received and counted in the coming days. The next count is expected at the end of the business day Wednesday.

Most of the primary campaigns were relatively modest, with the exception of Madore, who spent $188,448 on the council chair primary race, according to his pre-election filings with the state Public Disclosure Commission. Nearly all of his expenditures came from personal funds.

That was nearly eight times more spending than his four opponents combined. That total does not include nearly $150,000 spent by a pro-Madore PAC backed by local businessmen Ken Fisher and Clyde Holland.

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