Soap Lake City Council waters murky

Shell game for council seats

SOAP LAKE — In a city known for healing lakes and giant lava lamps, it's only fitting that the political races be a little unusual too.

This year everything seems ordinary on the surface as only one of three Soap Lake City Council positions will be contested to represent the roughly 1,700 residents.

Nothing unusual so far, right? Well, no.

This election thus far has been more about who isn't running, or some might say, who shouldn't be running, than it is about who is running.

First, Marina Romary, who is the City Council Position No. 3 incumbent and served as either mayor or city council member since 1974, will not be running, she said Thursday.

"I've been up there a long time," Romary said.

However, she would not say if she had plans to file for a write-in candidacy.

On July 27, Romary did file to run for Position No. 5, which is currently held by John Hillman.

On July 25, Martin Ringhofer had filed for that same position, but withdrew on July 29 after he found out he would be running against Romary.

Several years ago, Romary changed seats to take on then-city council member Lana McClintock, who was eventually defeated.

Ringhofer said that Romary's decision to run for Position No. 5 instead of her current seat was an attempt to keep him off the city council.

Not wanting to take on Romary, Ringhofer withdrew his candidacy on July 29 and filed for Position No. 4.

Romary also withdrew candidacy from Position No. 5 candidacy on July 29.

But in a last minute attempt to file for Position No. 4 by fax and take on Ringhofer in the Nov. 8 election, her paperwork was not received in the Grant County Courthouse Elections Office by the 5 p.m. deadline on July 29 and she was out of Soap Lake political races all together.

After all the position changing and paper filing, Ringhofer sits uncontested for a seat on the city council and Romary must depend on a write-in candidacy if she is going to serve in City Hall.

"The only person who could beat Romary is Romary. I think she has done that now," Ringhofer said. "I hate to see a great political career end this way."

Current City Councilman Maynard Hagen said that the position requires council members to be active and he doesn't believe that Ringhofer would be able to devote enough time to the city's business.

"If you live on the other side of the mountain, how can you be an active member of a community that is 180 miles away?" Hagen said.

On Aug. 24, 2001, Ringhofer's Grant County voter registration was challenged by Soap Lake resident Pat Leicester, who claimed that Ringhofer was a Seattle resident and only spent occasional weekends and holidays in Soap Lake.

Grant County Auditor Bill Varney determined that Leicester had, "failed to meet the burden of proof in providing clear and convincing evidence as to the invalidity of Martin D. Ringhofer's voter registration."

Ringhofer, conversely, provide several items of documentation to support his claim of Soap Lake residency in response to the challenge.

According to the document describing Varney's ruling, Ringhofer was able to show a driver's license with a Soap Lake address and a poster reporting his lost dog which listed a contact number and address in Soap Lake. Ringhofer presented both telephone and cable television bills that listed his Soap Lake address. He also had a security system monitoring agreement for his Soap Lake address among the items proving his Soap Lake residency.

Ringhofer said he will campaign whether he is contested in City Council Position No. 4 or not. For one thing, he plans to ring the doorbell of every house in town twice before the primary. He said he wants to get the message out about the three-page "Contract with Soap Lake citizens, taxpayers and voters" that he has drafted for his campaign for city council.