Incumbent Kitsap County Commissioner Patty Lent appeared to fall to a challenge from within her party, while assessor Jim Avery and sheriff Steve Boyer held their posts in races decided in Tuesday’s primary election.
Lent, a first-term Republican representing Central Kitsap, was trailing challenger Jack Hamilton by 500 votes with 3,500 counted in unofficial final returns Tuesday evening.
If the results hold, Hamilton will face Democrat Josh Brown in the November general election. Brown earned 53 percent of the vote in a three-way Democratic primary, easily outdistancing Wally Carlson and Nels Rosendahl.
Tuesday returns showed just over 36,000 votes counted out of some 133,000 registered Kitsap voters, for a 27 percent turnout.
In the recently court-mandated “closed” primary — in which voters were required to declare a party preference and could only choose candidates from one side of the slate — about two-thirds of Kitsap voters chose the Democratic ballot.
The numbers in other races reflected those preferences. Bainbridge Democrat Christine Rolfes, challenging incumbent Republican Beverly Woods of Kingston for a 23rd District House seat, polled just over 10,000 votes to Woods’ 5,100.
In the other 23rd District House seat, incumbent Democrat Sherry Appleton of Poulsbo received some 10,300 votes, to just over 4,900 for Republican challenger Earl Johnson of Bainbridge.
In a federal race, incumbent 1st District Congressman Jay Inslee of Bainbridge Island polled 9,900 votes from the Kitsap electorate, to 4,700 for Republican challenger Larry Ishmael. District-wide, Inslee showed about 30,000 votes to Ishmael’s 15,000, in a warm-up for November’s general election.
Kitsap voters gave some 17,800 votes to incumbent U.S. Sent. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, and about 8,400 to Republican challenger Mike McGavick. That race too will be decided in the November general.
The closed primary also meant that several Kitsaps County races were effectively decided in the primary by voters of a single party. Avery prevailed in an assessor’s race determined solely by Republicans — no Democrats filed for the seat, making the November ballot moot — while Democrats gave Boyer another term as sheriff.
Other Kitsap incumbents, including auditor Karen Flynn, treasurer Barbara Stephenson and coroner Greg Sandstrom, went unopposed.
In a race for Republican party precinct officer in the Fort Ward neighborhood, incumbent Thomas Hemphill outpolled James M. Olsen, 45 votes to 7, for 87 percent of the vote.
