Incumbents retain commission seats

RITZVILLE — The two incumbent Adams County commissioner facing Nov. 5 general election challenges have retained their seats.

Unofficial results show Dan Blankenship topped challenger David Lobe to retain the District No. 1 seat. And Jay R. Weise retained his District No. 2 seat over challenger Hank Rivard.

A count of late-arriving ballots on Nov. 8 showed Blankenship leading Lobe 2,854 votes (60.75%) to 1,754 (37.3%).

There were 94 write-ins, or 2.0% of the total of 4,702.

In the District 2 commissioner race, Weise’s tally was 3,099 votes (66.19%), while Rivard logged 1,498 (31.99%). There were 85 write-ins of the grand total of 4,682.

As of press time Monday, Nov. 11, the Adams County Elections Office reported having less than 100 more ballots to count at 4 p.m. Nov. 15.

In the congressional races, incumbent Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside, a censured Republican, has defeated Republican Jerrod Sessler of Richland for the 4th Congressional seat.

The 4th District represents Central Washington, including a small portion of Adams County in the Othello area.

At press time, Newhouse had received 131,447 votes (51.8%) and Sessler had 118,034 votes (46.51%).

Newhouse is the last congressman in the Republican caucus who voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump.

In the 5th Congressional District, Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, defeated Camela Conory, D-Spokane, in their bids to replace retiring Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Baumgartner received 208,942 votes (60.12%); Conroy received 138,085 (39.73%).

The 5th Congressional District represents Eastern Washington, including most of Adams County, Ritzville, Washtucna, Lind, Benge and other areas.

In other votes:

Adams County Fire District No. 4’s Proposition No. 1 received 8 votes of approval and 0 opposing votes.

And Washtucna Parks and Recreation’s Proposition No. 1 receive 108 votes (56.99%) of support and 80 votes (43.01%) of rejection.