Tuesday’s landslide wins by three candidates for the Bainbridge Island City Council were lopsided affairs from one end of the island to the other, according to a Review analysis of unofficial precinct returns in the 2013 General Election.
Roger Townsend, Val Tollefson and Wayne Roth rode an overwhelming wave of voter support to victory against Dee McComb, Richard “Dick” Haugan and Arlene Buetow in this year’s council elections.
An analysis of precinct results show that McComb and Buetow each won only one of Bainbridge’s 22 precincts, while Haugan did not win the majority vote in any precinct on the island.
Townsend-McComb
Townsend, a lawyer making his first bid for elected office, was the biggest winner on Election Day.
Townsend bested McComb for the South Ward, Position 3 race by pulling in 67 percent of the vote, according to initial election returns on Nov. 5. McComb finished with 32 percent of the vote.
Initial precinct returns show that Townsend won by a commanding lead in a majority of Bainbridge precincts.
Townsend collected 65 percent of the vote or more in 15 precincts, and won more than 70 percent of the vote in nine precincts.
He fared best in Meadowmeer, where he won 79 percent of all ballots cast.
He also topped McComb by greater-than-landslide proportions in the precincts of Winslow (75 percent), Eagle Harbor (74), New Brooklyn (74), Torvanger (71), Rolling Bay (71) and Island Center (70).
Most of Townsend’s greatest support came outside the South Ward, with just Island Center showing support above 70 percent for the first-time candidate.
Townsend received less than 60 percent of the vote in just two precincts; Port Madison, where he pulled in 53 percent of the vote, and Wing Point, where he failed to capture a majority.
McComb won the precinct of Wing Point with 50.4 percent of the vote.
It was a two-vote win, however. In the initial vote tally, McComb received 109 votes, and Townsend, 107.
Roth-Buetow
Wing Point was also the only bright spot for Buetow, who lost in her Central Ward council race to Roth.
Roth claimed 61 percent of the Bainbridge vote, while Buetow had 38 percent in the initial vote tally.
Buetow won just one precinct, Eagle Harbor, while Roth took the majority vote in Bainbridge’s 21 other precincts.
Buetow, a retiree who currently serves as chairwoman of the city’s Utility Advisory Committee, won Wing Point with 53 percent of the vote. She collected 120 votes to Roth’s 103.
Roth, who is president and general manager of KUOW Public Radio, won seven Bainbridge precincts with 65 percent or more of the vote.
He did best in Eagle Harbor, where he captured 72 percent of the vote.
Roth also bested his islandwide vote count percentage of 61.4 percent in the precincts of Meadowmeer (69 percent), Winslow (68), New Brooklyn (68), Rolling Bay (66), Finch (66), Blue Heron (63), Crystal Springs (62), Blakely (62) and Ferncliff (61.7).
Tollefson-Haugan
Tollefson, a former trial lawyer and, like all of the other council hopefuls, a first-time candidate for public office, handily dispatched Haugan in the North Ward council race.
In initial vote returns, Tollefson earned 66 percent of the vote to Haugan’s 33 percent.
An analysis of precinct returns shows a dominating performance by Tollefson.
He won 21 of 22 Bainbridge precincts, and in 13 of those, pulled in 65 percent of the vote or more.
Tollefson won six precincts with 70 percent or more of the vote; Eagle Harbor (78 percent), Meadowmeer (77), Finch (72), Seabold (71), Blue Heron (71) and Winslow (70.4).
Tollefson’s support was the softest in Wing Point, where he tied Haugan in votes. Both candidates picked up 113 votes in that precinct, according to the early, unofficial vote count.
