A good night for conservatives in Yakima County

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Incumbents are out in Sunnyside, conservatives are in on the Yakima City Council, Latino candidates fared poorly countywide against non-Latino candidates, a handful of races are way too close to call, and a candidate who withdrew more than a month ago won big in Toppenish.

In other words, it was another Election Day full of story lines in Yakima County.

"I think we had a real good night," said Max Golladay, the county's Republican Party chairman.

Although the party officially endorsed only one candidate for Yakima City Council -- incumbent Bill Lover, who defeated former Yakima schools chief Ben Soria -- its members were also rooting for talk-radio host Dave Ettl against Councilwoman Sonia Rodriguez, Councilwoman Maureen Adkison against active Democrat Paul George, and Councilman Micah Cawley against moderate Mary Place.

"I would consider them all Republicans, or conservatives," Golladay said.

And they all won.

The only place where local conservative voters failed on Tuesday was in supporting Tim Eyman's revenue-capping Initiative 1033. State voters soundly defeated that measure, as expected. And Yakima County voters went against it by the slimmest of margins, which surprised Golladay.

"If that would have been just state spending, it would have gone over big," he said. "Locally (voters) think they're getting bang for their buck."

The other state ballot measure, Referendum 71, which would affirm state domestic partner benefits approved this year by the Legislature, was passing as of Tuesday night. But it was soundly defeated in Yakima, where 64 percent of voters said no to the measure.

State Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima, who along with state Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, bucked his party to support the bill, said those results are bittersweet. On one hand, it's nice that voters statewide appear to be reinforcing the Legislature's move for legal equality for same-sex couples. On the other hand, the local results show that most people here still disagree with his vote on the issue.

"Does it worry me because Yakima County went overwhelmingly against it?" Johnson said. "I do have some concern, but I wish people would understand why I voted like I voted. ... I had a few people come up to me and say, 'I won't shake your hand because you voted for gay marriage.' Well, I never voted for gay marriage."

Another trend that could prove telling was the fate of Latino candidates in races against non-Latinos. In addition to Soria and Rodriguez in Yakima, eight other candidates with Latino surnames faced candidates without Latino surnames. Only two of them were winning as of Tuesday: Janie Cruz, who led incumbent Donna Shipman by two votes in Granger; and former Toppenish Councilwoman Clara Jimenez, who defeated Karen Rogers and reclaimed her council seat.

Soria, who is Latino, hinted Tuesday night that he believed ethnicity played a part in his defeat but he declined when directly asked to come out and say so.

"I wouldn't want to say that tonight because I wouldn't want people to think that I'm bitter," he said.

Soria conceded it was notable that Yakima's first Latino council member -- in a city that is 37 percent Latino according to the most recent U.S. Census numbers -- was appointed and then promptly ousted by the electorate.

"What does that say?" Soria said. "It's certainly troublesome, I would say."

The biggest election shake-up Tuesday happened in Sunnyside, where one incumbent clearly lost and two more were losing by narrow margins. In a town shaken by a year of turnover in top administrative positions at City Hall, voters showed their displeasure and a pair of former councilmen rose from the ashes. Even longtime port Commissioner St. Clair Woodworth was caught up in the voter revolt, losing soundly to Jim Grubenhoff.

At the council level, former Councilman Mike Farmer defeated Councilman Jesse Hernandez and former Councilman Don Vlieger led Councilwoman Carol Stone by 26 votes. Councilwoman Theresa Hancock also appeared in jeopardy, trailing newcomer Jason Raines by a single vote.

Those aren't the only nail-biters in the county. Former Grandview Councilman Javier Rodriguez was trailing Larry Bolan by five votes in his quest to regain a council seat. In Mabton, Maria Rose trailed Mark Gourneau by five votes for an open council seat.

In Moxee, longtime Councilwoman Maravell Gonsiorski trailed Dave Hunter by 11 votes. In Selah, former Councilman Allen Schmid trailed John Gawlik by 28 votes. In Toppenish, incumbent Mark Oaks led challenger Christina Kwan by six votes.

Also in Toppenish, Election Day's strangest story line had Robert Thomas leading James Schmidt by 49 votes. Both are political newcomers, so it was a hard race to predict -- until Thomas stopped campaigning earlier this fall and said he was withdrawing from the race. It appears not to have hurt his candidacy.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.