Fall elections candidate filings reveal few surprises

Few, if any, surprises cropped up as the deadline passed for officially filing candidacy reports in Port Orchard Friday afternoon.

Only a handful of the Kitsap County elected positions up for grabs this year will have contested races.

At least one unexpected candidate showed up, however.

Bremerton City Councilman Ed Rollman filed to run for Kitsap County Coroner on Friday afternoon. Rollman, a Democrat, will face GOP incumbent Greg Sandstrom in November.

“(Time) has been wasted on a regional morgue,” Rollman said this week.

He contends the Coroner’s Office shouldn’t have flown spokesmen to Washington, D.C., to lobby for federal funds for a regional morgue, which officials hope to locate at the Emergency Readiness Center in West Bremerton. Rollman insists more should have been done to build a new coroner’s facility and morgue in Port Orchard.

“It’s the Kitsap County Coroner not the Bremerton Coroner,” Rollman said. “Port Orchard is where the county leaders are.”

Rollman was elected to the Bremerton City Council in 1999 and, if elected coroner, would leave his city post one year early.

The remaining contested races aren’t surprises.

Kitsap County Commissioner Tim Botkin, a first-term incumbent Democrat, will vie this fall for the Central Kitsap seat. He will be the only Democrat to run. Patty Lent, of Bremerton, a Republican has also filed for Botkin’s seat.

Lent, a Silverdale travel consultant, is not without campaign experience.

Lent advocated for the incorporation of SeaTac in the mid 1980s and volunteered to work on several school levies. Lent also served on a rezoning board for two years.

Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer, a first-term Democratic incumbent will have an opponent this fall in William Johnston of Bremerton. Johnston registered on July 23 with the county as a Libertarian, although he initially announced his intention to run as an Independent.

When told at the counter he couldn’t register as an Independent because a convention wasn’t held to nominate him, he was given the choice of filing as a Republican, Democrat or Libertarian.

Two Democrats are vying for county treasurer. Incumbent Sharon Shrader is retiring. Former City of Poulsbo accounting manager Paulette Alvarado, has filed to run. Alvarado retired this year after 25 years with Poulsbo to focus solely on her campaign bid. She will face Barbara Stephenson, who has served over the past decade as executive director of the United Way of Kitsap County. Stephenson is also a Poulsbo resident.

Uncontested races are:

• Kitsap County Assessor Jim Avery, a Republican from Port Orchard.

• Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn, a Democrat from South Kitsap.

• Kitsap County Clerk Dave Peterson, who was appointed by the county commissioners last year to replace departing clerk Dean Logan.

• Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge, the Democratic incumbent has no opponent.

• Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Russell Hartman of Bremerton was appointed by Gov. Gary Locke in February to a bench position vacated when William Kamps retired. Now he is running unopposed.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge James M. Riehl plans to run for his sixth term this fall.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge W. Daniel Phillips plans to run for his sixth term as well. He is unopposed for position 2.

• Kitsap County District Court Judge Marilyn Paja plans to run for her second term this fall. She is running unopposed for position 3.

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