Gamache ousted in commissioner's race

Yakima County Commissioner Ron Gamache has lost a bid for a third term after being bested by two challengers in a crowded race.

Having garnered 40 percent of the votes counted Tuesday night, 48-year-old Kevin Bouchey, a third-generation Toppenish farmer, will face Wapato Mayor Jesse Farias in November for the District 2 seat.

Gamache, who has held seat the past eight years, came in third.

Bouchey said he had hoped to collect between 33 percent and 40 percent of the total vote and was glad he hit the top end of that range.

"I'm very pleased," Bouchey said. "We did all we could with mailings, media, yard signs and doorbelling. People appreciate that."

Bouchey received 2,850 votes to 2,043 votes, or 29 percent, for Farias.

Farias, 63, attributed his showing to a lot of telephone calling and talking to voters.

"I feel real good about tonight," the disabled Vietnam veteran and former regional director of the state Employment Security Department said.

Gamache, 64, trailed with 1,445 votes (20 percent). He said he was not ready to concede after looking at the vote totals.

"I will wait to see what happens," he said as he left the county courthouse shortly after vote tabulations were released by the Yakima County Auditor's Office.

Incumbent Commissioner Mike Leita, running unopposed for a second term representing District 1, collected 8,965 votes or nearly 96 percent of the ballots. That district includes the area from Tieton Drive north to the county line.

Votes will continue to be counted until the primary is certified Sept. 9. Ballots were required to be postmarked by Tuesday. But given the margins that emerged Tuesday, it appears unlikely the final outcome will change once all votes in the commissioner race are counted.

Union Gap City Councilmember Dan Olson came in fourth with 782 votes (11 percent).

Bouchey, Gamache and Olson are Republicans. Farias is the sole Democratic candidate in the race, leaving voters countywide to choose between a Republican and a Democrat in November, following the first test of the state's new "top-two" primary system.

Under the format, the two candidates with the highest vote totals move on to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.

Only voters in District 2 participated in narrowing the field of candidates. The district includes all county land south of Tieton Drive in Yakima and west of the Yakima River.

All four candidates in the election touted their own version of experience as the reason each deserved to represent the district.

Asked to run by the Central Washington Home Builders Association, Bouchey said his business experience would best serve the county. He was the only candidate in the race without prior government service.

Fellow Republicans Gamache and Olson have been part of the local political scene as has Farias.

The candidates focused on streamlining the approval of permits and development projects as ways to spur economic development in the county as their major initiatives, if elected.

But issues specific to the district got lots of attention during the campaign. Bouchey, Olson and Farias criticized the relocation of the Douglas Auto Wrecking business from the Yakima River to a spot along Yakima Valley Highway.

Neighbors challenged the move, saying a wrecking yard along the gateway to the Valley's wine industry sends the wrong message to tourists.

The challengers to incumbent Gamache also criticized the county for the purchase of 38 acres in Toppenish for a new county jail before finding out the city lacked enough water rights to serve the proposed 1,728-bed jail.

Only Olson said he would not favor continuing a three-tenths of a cent sales tax for criminal justice needs that will expire in 2010 unless voters agree to extend the tax.

Bouchey easily outdistanced his challengers in campaign contributions. He received more than $73,000 to fund his run for the seat and spent more than half to get his name before the voters. His expenditures exceeded those of his challengers combined.

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