Dowaliby to be in Republican primary
One new name, Mark Dowaliby, will be placed on the Republican primary ballot for Park County District 3 commissioner, and no new names will be put on the ballot for District 2 county commissioner. Not yet, anyway.
In District 3, the candidates now are Republicans Dowaliby and interim commissioner Lillian Wissel, who was placed on the primary ballot by the Park County Republican Central Committee's Executive Board on May 15.
Dowaliby just achieved a spot on the primary ballot through gathering enough petition signatures, which were due by May 29.
The District 2 commissioner candidates are Democrat Lynda James, Republican Dick Hodges, and possibly Republican Ron Spunt.
Spunt plans to file a recount request with the Clerk and Recorder's Office after falling nine signatures short of enough valid signatures to make the primary ballot. If successful, Spunt would face off against Hodges on the primary ballot.
District 1 candidates for the commissioner seat include Republican incumbent John Tighe, Republican Doug Tamminga, and independent Lora Abcarian.
Abcarian is seeking signatures to petition onto the general ballot in November. She must turn her signatures in by June 17, Green said.
Tighe and Tamminga have made it on the Republican primary ballot by each getting at least 30 percent of the vote at the Republican County Assembly on March 8.
District 3
According to Green, Alma Mayor Mark Dowaliby received at least 158 valid signatures on his petition and thus earned a spot on the District 3 County Commissioner Republican primary ballot.
A valid signature for purposes of getting on the Republican primary ballot is one from a person who lives in Park County and is a registered Republican.
Dowaliby said he turned in 303 signatures, so he had a cushion to allow for invalid signatures.
Hartsel resident Kathleen Thomas turned in 177 signatures, of which 88 were valid.
Bonnie Edmondson, who filed to run for District 3 Commissioner, dropped out of the race before May 29 and threw her support behind Dowaliby.
"She delivered her CD of voter names and said good luck to me," he said.
At first, Dowaliby was discouraged that he had to collect signatures, but it forced him to get out and talk to people about the direction the county should be headed in, and he's glad he did.
"I feel it's a total advantage to my campaign," he said.
He collected his first of many signatures on May 15 and turned them in on May 29.
"I felt so much more support in this election than the last election," he said.
Dowaliby ran and lost against Doc McKay in the 2006 Republican primary election.
But despite the support he said he is now receiving, Dowaliby said it was tough work collecting the signatures.
"It was hard. I'd never worked so hard," he said of the 12-hour days he put in meeting people and collecting signatures.
"It feels like for every signatures I got, I had to talk to 10 people," he said.
Dowaliby said he especially wanted to thank Chip Thomas, owner of the Cutthroat Cafe in downtown Bailey, for helping him get signatures on his ballot.
District 2's Thomas
District 2 candidate Thomas sent an e-mail to The Flume on June 2, that called her quest for a spot on the primary ballot "an experience."
"To the team who helped me gather signatures and the 180 people who gave me great encouragement by signing my petitions so enthusiastically, I want to say thank you. My motivation in entering the race was to bring a new set of eyes, a new perspective, to the commission, and while I didn't succeed in making the primary ballot, the fact that Park County is looking for change was certainly made clear to me and others paying attention. Someone very wise once said, 'If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten.' Let's hope those who are eventually elected to the Park County Commission take those words to heart," she said in an e-mail.
Spunt not done with district 2 election yet
Spunt said on June 2 that he was exploring his options and that he wasn't giving up on the race.
"I'm not gone yet," he said.
He plans to file an official request for a recount sometime this week.
His missing a ballot position by only nine valid signatures has him hoping that a recount might reveal nine errors made by the clerk's office during the validation process.
If it comes to it, Spunt said, he would consider running as a write-in candidate.
He chose to run because he wanted to make a difference in the county, and now that he has devoted so much time toward campaigning and learning the issues that face the residents of Park County, he feels he has to continue.
"The more you go into it, the more impassioned you become," he said.