Wapato mayor seeking seat on county commission

YAKIMA -- With three Republicans already in the race, Wapato Mayor Jesse Farias said Tuesday that he will run as a Democrat for the District 2 seat on the Yakima County Commission.

Farias, who was elected to a second term as mayor last year, plans to formally announce his candidacy later this week. The 63-year-old retired state employee said he could lend his energy and government experience to the commission.

"When individuals become mayors or school board members or county commissioners, they realize there's a lot of bureaucracy that they have to deal with," he said. "I know how to deal with that bureaucracy."

Republicans Kevin Bouchey and Dan Olson, a political newcomer and a Union Gap councilman, respectively, also will challenge incumbent Commissioner Ron Gamache, who is seeking a third term. If the recently revived "top two" primary is in effect for the election, as predicted by Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, the two highest primary vote getters will advance to the general election regardless of party.

District 2 covers the part of the county south of Tieton Drive in Yakima and west of the Yakima River south to the Klickitat County line.

Describing himself as a fiscal conservative, Farias said he believes a Democrat can still win election to the commission, although no Democrat has held such a position since Chuck Klarich was ousted in 1994.

Regardless of party, Farias said he can do a better job than Gamache has lobbying the state Legislature. That comes from years of doing just that as state director of Veterans Affairs during Booth Gardner's governorship and later as Eastern Washington director of operations for the state Employment Security Department, he said.

"Ron and his wife have been my friends for a long, long time, so I wouldn't say anything negative about him," Farias said. "But to tell you the truth, I think I can do a better job."

Farias is married with three grown children.