Move-the-seat advocate winning in Benton County

PROSSER -- A longtime advocate of moving the county seat to Kennewick, Fred Staples collected more votes than incumbent Benton County commissioner Leo Bowman, according to late unofficial results Tuesday evening.

A third candidate for the commission seat, Merle Johnson, trailed and will not advance to November's general election.

Staples, a retired Benton County Superior Court judge collected 2,923 votes, or about 40 percent. Bowman, collected 2,715 votes, or about 38 percent. Johnson trailed with 1,579 votes or not quite 22 percent.

Staples' platform has consisted almost solely of moving the county seat away from Prosser to the more populated Kennewick area.

"There is a lot more to being commissioner than this, but the number one problem in this county is it's all screwed up because the county seat is in Prosser," Staples said during the campaign.

Staples and Bowman filed as Republicans, Johnson as an independent. Johnson is a city councilman in West Richland. He ran against Bowman in 2004.

Prosser has been Benton County's seat since the county was established in 1905. However, the county offers most services in the Tri-Cities, which has about 20 times the population of Prosser. About 80 percent of the county employees work in the Tri-Cities.

Staples contends the situation is illegal and inefficient and he is trying to get a measure to move the county seat before voters in 2010.