Pheasant leading county treasurer race

GRANT COUNTY - Incumbent Darryl Pheasant is leading in his bid for another term in office, edging out Republican candidate Casey Cooper for the Grant County treasurer's seat.

Pheasant, a nonpartisan candidate, secured 59 percent of the 14,275 collected votes in Grant County, to Cooper's 40 percent.

There are 36,480 registered voters in the county, with 15,466 votes counted and 4,000 still to be counted, the results of which will be released today.

Pheasant received 98 percent of the vote in the August, to Cooper's 2 percent in the primary. Cooper was a write-in candidate in the primary.

Pheasant, a Soap Lake/Ephrata product, has been the county's treasurer for nearly 28 years, and said his record of service and results in the position speaks for itself.

"Well in reality Grant County is one of the top percentage counties in the state, and so Grant County had a lot of contentious issues on the ballot," Pheasant said. "A lot of money was spent in this county to bring out the voters, so it's a shame that some people put so much money out there for a local race."

Pheasant beat current state committee man for the Grant County Republican Party, Cooper, who was a write-in candidate, and said he made the decision to run after being approached by a person who told him anyone who ran against Pheasant would have the support and backing from realty and title groups.

Cooper, originally from Eugene, Ore., said one of his main priorities in running was to bring customer service back to the treasurer's office.

Pheasant said in his next term he will be working to make some software changes to the treasurer's office and he is currently short-staffed.

"We are seeing a great response to online payments, and believe things can happen so that we can offer other options. But right now our software limitations are stalling everything that we want to do," Pheasant said.

Pheasant noted the issue is one of waiting until the fixes come in, so the treasurer's office can offer new options to county residents.