Snubbed Democrat makes another bid for Wahkiakum board
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 7:14 AM PDT
By Tony Lystra
Printable version
E-mail this articlePerhaps the most unusual election in Wahkiakum County's history will enter its second chapter this November as Blair Brady, a former Georgia Pacific Corp. mechanic, tries to unseat County Commissioner Tom Doumit.
In an election last November, Brady finished in a dead heat with incumbent Mark Linquist, who managed to keep his seat only after winning a coin toss. Linquist then died of lung cancer in late December.
What happened next stirred a political rivalry that has continued into this year's election. By early January, Brady had collected nearly 200 signatures from voters, saying he should be appointed to the late Linquist's seat. Instead, the board's other two commissioners appointed Doumit, angering Brady and his fellow Democrats.
This year, Brady is once again fighting for a seat on the board, and Doumit is fighting to keep his appointed post.
Brady has said he's running because county government has been "unresponsive." Doumit characterizes himself as a largely apolitical observer who was called by the commissioners to serve.
"It's been an interesting situation," he said. "I didn't seek out the appointment. They came to me."
Like the other two commissioners, Doumit is an independent, though he once was a registered Democrat.
Whoever wins the Nov. 6 general election will play a pivotal role in deciding the county's financial future during a critical time.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources manages about 13,000 acres of timber on behalf of the county and funnels revenue from timber sales into the county's coffers. But about 3,000 of those acres have been set aside to protect marbled murrelett habitat, cutting into the county's revenues, Doumit said.
Commissioners are poised this month make cuts across departments and programs, Doumit said.
To solve the problem, Doumit said he and the other commissioners are considering managing the timber land themselves (the state takes about 25 percent of timber sales revenues as a management fee). Managing timber on its own could give the county more flexibility in how the timber is harvested and when revenues trickle down to the county, Doumit said. He also said he's lobbying the Legislature to provide more funding to counties that rely on timber revenue for basic government services.
Brady, who calls himself "a fiscally conservative Democrat," said he's not promising voters any miracles when it comes to the budget. "If the money's not there, the money's not there," he said.
But, he said, he would consider saving the county money by using more in-kind and in-house services for maintenance and other tasks instead of outsourcing and going after grants that require the county put up local funds.
Asked about more specific measures, he said, "I don't really want to address them before the election."
The county is also faced with saving a clinic, which it took over from PeaceHealth in 2005. The Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic, the county's only source of health care, has faced annual deficits of $250,000.
"We're reluctant owners," Doumit said Monday.
Earlier this year, the county appointed a citizen task force to devise a plan for keeping the clinic open. The group, Doumit said, has forecasted that, with one doctor and two nurse practitioners, the clinic may slip into the black by 2010.
In the long-term, Doumit said, he'd like to see the clinic expand into a "one-stop shopping medical center" that would include the county's Health and Human Services Department, acupuncture, physical therapy and even a dentists.
But Brady said he wants to find federal funding for the clinic and to get it off the county's roles.
"I see it as being a black hole into the future," he said.
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