Franklin County primary election scrutinized

PASCO -- Experience didn't give Democratic Franklin County incumbents an edge in the August primary.

Despite serving years in office and often having the most campaign dollars, the incumbent county prosecutor, treasurer and auditor trailed their Republican challengers once the votes were counted.

All three races featured only two candidates.

Treasurer Tiffany Coffland said it appears people cast straight party-line ballots for Republicans.

But Republican Josie Koelzer, who is challenging Coffland, said the primary shows voters "want change."

Others have another theory -- the primary was influenced by the "Clint Didier effect," said David Chassin, chairman of the Franklin County Democratic Central Committee. He said Didier supporters voted for other Republicans and for Didier, who finished third in the U.S. Senate race but first in Franklin County, where he's a hometown boy from Eltopia and a pro football hero.

Auditor Zona Lenhart agreed that the votes in the primary seemed to be along party lines.

Lenhart, who was appointed to her job in 1989, had run unopposed as a Democrat since 1990.

But in the primary, Republican Matt Beaton led by 414 votes and drew 52 percent of the votes to Lenhart's 48 percent in county-certified results.

Lenhart said she hopes voters look at experience, not party affiliation, when they vote in the general election because they are hiring someone to work for them for the next four years.

The gap between Prosecutor Steve Lowe and his former employee, Republican Shawn Sant, was wider. Sant led with 1,060 votes, or about 55 percent, to Lowe's 45 percent.

Lowe has said he only has his previous experience to go on. He previously has lost in the primary and won the general election to unseat Dennis DeFelice, a Republican, in 1994. Lowe has run uncontested since then.

"I expect to turn it around," he said.

The disparity between experience, campaign funding and votes was most apparent in the treasurer race.

Coffland raised the most campaign dollars of any Franklin County candidate in this year's elections, with $11,025, while Koelzer has the least at $3,900.

But Coffland, the treasurer since 2005, received 38 percent of the vote to Koelzer's 62 percent.

Chassin said it's ironic to have the treasurer race turn partisan because Coffland isn't a partisan person.

Coffland said she votes for candidates from both parties and doesn't see party affiliation as important in the treasurer's job.

She said she's conservative, as shown in conservative 2010 revenue estimates and careful oversight of her office's 2009 budget, which led her to spend $16,253 less than was budgeted even after cuts made midway through the year.

Koelzer agreed that party affiliation doesn't matter in a county office like treasurer.

But Beaton, a real estate appraiser, said party affiliation matters because it influences a person's world view.

Republicans typically want small government and see the private sector as the solution, while Democrats are associated with larger government and see government as the solution, he said.

Beaton is running on "choice, change and accountability," while Lenhart, who's held the office for 21 years, is running on her record and the service her office provides.

Many county officials have been Democrats because in the past many Republicans voted for a Democratic candidate, Chassin said.

Earlier this year, five of the seven elected county officials, excluding the county commissioners, were Democrats. The number decreased to four after Assessor Steve Marks switched parties.

Longtime residents were aware that Democratic leadership and the federal government created key elements of the local economy through Hanford and the Columbia-Snake River dams that benefit agriculture, Chassin said.

But the population has grown and there seems to be a shift, he said.

Lenhart said Washington voters have a history of voting independently.

The state has a relatively new top-two primary, in which voters pick the candidate and not the party. That's why two Republicans, incumbent Rick Miller and Basin City farmer Hans "Jochen" Engelke, will face off in the November general election. Miller received 70 percent of the primary votes, while Engelke received 30 percent.

Party affiliation hasn't mattered in the county courthouse until recently, Lenhart said.

"The politics should stay outside the front door," she said.

County officials are elected to represent the majority of county residents, not personal views, Lenhart said.

Coffland said she was initially surprised by the primary results because she feels her qualifications and experience outweigh Koelzer's.

Koelzer, a Franklin County farmer and bookkeeper, has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in human resources. She said her experience in bookkeeping has given her the accounting knowledge needed for the job.

Coffland has worked for the county since 1989, when she took a job as a licensing deputy. She started working in government accounting in 1991 and earned an associate's degree with a concentration in accounting from Columbia Basin College in 1995.

As treasurer, Coffland handles accounting, foreclosures and bankruptcy, and processes tax and mortgage payments. She said she also fills in doing other jobs since recent staff cuts.

Although she hasn't worked in the treasurer's office, Koelzer said she would be able to learn and then determine how to modernize the office.

Coffland has almost three times as much campaign money as Koelzer.

But Chassin said money doesn't equal a win, it just means a candidate can buy visibility, such as advertising.

Of $11,025 raised for the Coff-land campaign, she and her husband, Dan, have supplied about $4,338, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Coffland's donors include former County Commissioner Neva Corkrum, county chief deputy treasurer Daniele Carlson and William Lampson of Lampson International, who is a prominent Republican supporter, according to the PDC.

About $2,500 of Koelzer's $3,900 is her own money. She said the rest is from small donations by Franklin County residents.

Koelzer can't raise more than $5,000 because she chose a mini-reporting option with the PDC. That means she doesn't have to file detailed reports listing donor names and amounts.

The campaign donations in the prosecutor and auditor races show little disparity. Lenhart has $6,330 and Beaton $5,716. Lowe has $4,625 to Sant's $5,285, according to the PDC.

-- Kristi Pihl: 582-1512; kpihl@tricityherald.com

This story was originally published September 4, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Franklin County primary election scrutinized."