Blankenship widens lead in Adams County commission race

RITZVILLE — Challenger Dan Blankenship widened his lead over incumbent Adams County Commissioner John Marshall in updated results announced Friday.

Blankenship, of Ritzville, a retired dryland farmer and former business owner, had 1,016 votes to 418 votes for Marshall, also of Ritzville. Marshall is running for a third term on the commission.

A third candidate in the race, Glen Stockwell, of Ritzville, had 338 votes.

In the race for a second county commission seat, Jay Weise had a substantial lead over Ken Johnson. Weise, Othello, Adams County emergency management director, had 452 votes to 248 votes for Johnson, an Othello business owner.

Weise and Johnson are running for an open seat. Incumbent Roger Hartwig did not file for re-election.

The two commission races were the only county offices on the ballot.

In the race for the Ninth District Washington Senate seat, incumbent Mark Schoesler, of Ritzville, held a comfortable lead over challenger Jenn Goulet, of Pasco, both in Adams County and the district. In updated Adams County totals, Schoesler, a Republican, had 2,532 votes to 635 votes for Goulet, a Democrat. In an updated tally covering all of the Ninth District, Schoesler had 24,709 votes and Goulet had 11,891 votes.

Incumbent Mary Dye, a Republican from Pomeroy, had a substantial lead over challenger Brett Borden, of Pullman, in the race for the House of Representatives Position 1 seat for the Ninth District. Borden is the Libertarian Party candidate.

In Adams County, Dye had 2,636 votes to 406 votes for Borden. The tally for the Ninth District as a whole had Dye with 26,938 votes to 7,361 for Borden.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.