Washington port board incumbents head to November election

Washington port board incumbents head to November election Results from last week's Washington state primary election show signs of some change for several Pacific Northwest port authority commissions.
   Incumbents placed well in three out of four port commission seats up for contention.
   In Seattle, a heated campaign to win two seats on the Port of Seattle governing board has resulted in both incumbents facing a run-off in the Nov. 6 final election.
   Seattle Port Commissioner Bob Edwards captured 29 percent of the vote in his effort to keep his seat and will face top vote getter Gael Tarleton, who nabbed 33 percent, in the Nov. 6 final election. In the race for the other Seattle seat on the port board, incumbent Commissioner Alec Fisken polled 46 percent of the vote and must face 30 percent-vote getter Bill Bryant. Just over 22 percent of the 999,000 registered voters turned out to vote in Kings Country, which includes the Port of Seattle.
   The six-way race to win an upcoming vacancy on the Port of Tacoma board has resulted in retired executive Don Johnson jumping out to the front of the pack with 39 percent of the vote. Johnson will face-off against engineer Bill Casper in November to win the seat being freed up by retiring Commissioner Jack Fabulich. Casper managed to garner 16 percent of the vote in Tuesday's election. Pierce County, which includes the Port of Tacoma, recorded under 25 percent of the county's 375,000 registered voters at the polls Tuesday.
   In Olympia, an open seat on the port's board is turning into a final furlong dead heat contest. The race for the port commission seat has three contenders within several percentage points of each other. Commission incumbent Bob Van Schoorl and challenger George Barner Jr. made the cut for the final election in November, with Schoorl grabbing 36 percent of the vote and Barner pulling in 34 percent. Third place challenger Suzanne Nott managed to gather nearly 30 percent in a race that saw several hundred votes out of nearly 13,000 cast to make the difference. Voter turnout in Thurston County, which includes the Port of Olympia, was just under 26 percent of eligible voters.