Challengers lead incumbents in West Richland council races

All three incumbents running for re-election in West Richland city council races were trailing their challengers after initial votes were counted Tuesday.

Incumbents Robert Perkes and Tony Benegas were down by more than 400 votes in the races for positions 5 and 7.

Ken Stoker and Don Engleman were leading those respective races after ballots were counted Tuesday. Stoker is a database programmer and Engleman is a retired engineering company president.

Engleman told the Herald he felt comfortable with the sizable lead and expected it to hold up.

“I want to thank everybody,” he said. “There’s a lot of people who I have talked with who are very interested in the health of the city of West Richland. I thank them all.”

Byron Martin, who is seeking to be re-elected to Position 1, trailed John E. Smart, who had 54 percent of the vote, by less than 200 votes.

With an estimated 15,000 ballots left to count across the county, Martin is holding out hope that he can make a late push and fend off Smart. Ballots will be counted again Wednesday.

“Right now there’s a lot more votes to be counted,” he said. “Who knows, it may turn around, it may not.”

If the early tally holds, the West Richland council could see four new faces. Two first-time candidates — Scott Whalen and Neomi Garza — are facing off for Position 6.

Whalen, a senior researcher at Battelle, led Garza, a construction company owner, by almost 400 votes.

The winner between Whalen and Garza will fill the seat left open by Ron Hayden, who decided not to seek re-election.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 9:16 PM with the headline "Challengers lead incumbents in West Richland council races."