By WILL MOSS - Ravalli Republic
Posted: Tuesday, November 2, 2010 11:06 pm
With a majority of ballots counted Tuesday evening, it appeared as if the three Republican challengers for Ravalli County Commissioner successfully swept their incumbent opponents from office bringing about an all-GOP county board.
As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, approximately 90 percent of the county’s ballots had been counted and the news was not good for the incumbents.
In the race for District 1 County Commissioner, Republican Stoltz defeated Democrat Jim Rokosch by a margin of more than 30 percent with a count of 8,949 votes to 4,787.
In the District 2 commission race, Republican Matt Kanenwisher defeated Democrat Kathleen Driscoll by a 21 percent margin with a count of 8,390 votes to 5,471.
And in the District 3 commission race, Republican Suzy Foss defeated Independent Carlotta Grandstaff by an 18 percent margin with a count of 8,128 votes to 5,618.
The three races for county commissioner produced considerable friction this campaign season, with a new crop of political action committees and organizations flooding the airwaves, newspapers, mailboxes and roadsides of Ravalli County with endless political ads and attacks.
Carrying momentum over from the 2008 defeat of the county's growth policy, anti-zoning activists worked to paint the incumbent commissioners as anti-property rights, anti-growth and pro-big government while many across the aisle labeled the Republican challengers as inexperienced, incompetent and irrationally paranoid of the federal government.
Issues such as jobs, local wolf management, subdivision regulation, growth and property rights and grant funding all made repeated appearances in both political ads and candidate-attended forums throughout the campaign season.
As polls closed Tuesday evening, many of the candidates were feeling optimistic about their prospects while spending time with family and friends. All were looking forward to the end of the election season.
"I'm in complete peace that I will be where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to do. So, it's whatever the will of the voters is and that's what's important," said Republican Suzy Foss. "So, I'm fine ... actually, I'm the calmest person I've met in the last week."
Foss said she spent the day running errands and visiting with family and friends, including her new grandson who was born in the final week of the campaign, and would catch the election results while celebrating with her Republican brethren at the Roxy Theater in Hamilton.
"This is something that I have a passion to do and I believe that I'll do a good job if given the opportunity, but it's not up to me," Foss said. "I've really just done the best job I can trying to stick to issues and run a clean campaign and I've worked my tail off. So, I have no regrets on anything and am just looking forward to having it over."
Independent incumbent commissioner Carlotta Grandstaff echoed her challenger's optimism Tuesday evening.
"Actually, I feel pretty confident," she said. "I really decided at the beginning of the campaign that I was just going to run a very positive campaign, that I was just going to run on my record and talk about what I want to do in my next term. So, I just stayed that course and I think it paid off because a lot of people have told me that they appreciated the positive tone of my advertising and my whole campaign."
Despite that optimism, Grandstaff did admit that the campaign season was "extremely stressful" for a number of reasons.
"There was really a lot of rancor in the national elections and I think that trickled down," Grandstaff said. "Also, I'm sorry that this very long campaign season coincided with an extremely beautiful fall that I didn't get a chance to enjoy as much as I would have normally."
Democratic incumbent commissioner Jim Rokosch was busy cutting up some recently felled game at home with his two sons Tuesday afternoon and said that he also felt optimistic about the voters' impending decision.
"I give a lot of credit to the voters for using their heads," he said. "In every election season there's always a lot of generalities and a lot of dogmatic type of rhetoric that goes on, but I'm really both hopeful and optimistic that people will go beyond that and look to the substance of the candidates who are running and the challenges that are facing the county and then use their heads to make good decisions about which candidates have the substance to meet those challenges."
Reflecting on the campaign season, Rokosch said that he was somewhat disappointed with his challenger's apparent lack of interest in debate and public appearances.
"In my own race, it's been, frankly, very disappointing in terms of my opponent doing his impression of the invisible man," he said.
But, Rokosch added, overall he hoped that Ravalli County voters would recognize what he sees as a balanced and capable commission and vote to preserve it.
"I think we've got a really good track record - both in depth and breadth - of trying to address the important challenges facing the county and I'm just hopeful that we'll be able to continue in that mode," he said.
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