Voters boot incumbent Bonner County commissioners, too

Kootenai County voters weren’t alone Tuesday in demanding change in county leadership. Bonner County voters also kicked out a pair of incumbent county commissioners, according to final, unofficial election results.

Former Commissioner Bud Mueller claimed 44 percent of the vote in a three-way Republican primary race, beating District 1 Commissioner Marcia Phillips (39 percent) and Lance Lane (17 percent).

Mueller will face Democrat Todd Crossett in November.

In the District 3 commissioner’s race, challenger Lewis Rich received 54 percent of the votes against Commissioner Karl Dye. Rich will run against Independent candidate Wayne Stotts in November.

“I thought I had a pretty good chance, and it looks like the voters agreed,” Rich said.

He said that while the close results are “not a clear mandate that everything is wrong,” it’s a sign that voters aren’t happy with the status quo and think things can be done differently.

If elected in November, Rich plans to move commission meetings from the daytime to the evening, allowing more citizens to attend.

“I want to see an openness like it used to be when I moved here 26 years ago, when you went in there and people were interested in your problem,” he said.

Dye could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Phillips said she was more than disappointed in the results.

“There was a concerted effort by the far right to take over,” Phillips said. “And they did.”

Phillips attributed her loss to low voter turnout and, among other things, the lack of significant property tax relief in the state Legislature this year.

“When you have a Legislature who doesn’t listen, then I think this is the only recourse that the voters have,” she said. “The only problem is they’ve made changes that I think will only serve to cause more challenges.”

When contacted by phone, all Mueller said was, “We made it.” He said he planned to send out a press release with additional comment.