Describe your local elections this fall

[frihetsivrare]

My town in Whatcom County is having a mayoral election.  It may as well be uncontested because the hugely unpopular incumbent, Jerry Landcastle, received only 15.3% in the primary.  His main challenger, Gary Jensen, received 76.2% of the vote.  The town is nearly covered in Gary Jesnen signs.  The city has just over 10,000 residents.  About 1500 people voted.  Unfortunately, due to my age I could not vote.

The mayor is very unpopular because of many things.  Several housing developments of 60 houses or more have gone up in the last few years with little to no road improvements.  There is a road near my house with housing construction on which drivers have to be careful because if they do not, they could drive off the road.  That is because of the angle going away from the centre of the road.  A roundabout was finished in the last month.  I admit that was an improvement, but other streets are in serious need of repair.  Also some city employees were fired at the beginning of the term for no apparent reason.  The mayor also said a couple things publicly that offended some people.  He publicly used profanity to describe the county newspaper and said that it was the nature of one council member to whine and complain.

The results are in large part due to the huge contingent of Ferndale citizens that is opposed to that kind of growth.  The big city in my county, Bellingham (population 75000), has a similar citzenry.  Growth is a very important issue in northwestern Washington.  However the election for Bellingham mayor is much, much closer.  In the primary the top candidate won 26% of the vote.