Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Whitman County’s finish in the Democrats’ column for the Nov. 6 general election is reflected in the solid return on the blue side for candidates in all 27 Pullman precincts.
The return for this year’s general election follows a county return for the Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Whitman County was the lone county east of the Cascade ridge in the state to log a return in the blue category
Clinton took Washington state with 54.4 percent of the vote in 2016 with strong returns in the west side of the state.
Spokane Democrat Lisa Brown, who trailed on the first count here of early ballots in the Fifth Congressional District, wound up taking Whitman County with 51.9 percent of the votes with 8,953.
Six-term Republican incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers finished with 8,285 votes in the county.
Also, Democrat Matthew Sutherland of Pullman wound up edging Republican incumbent Joe Schmick of Colfax in the county race for the Ninth District State legislative seat. Sutherland landed 50.34 percent of the vote at 8,544 compared to 49.66 for Schmick.
The narrow win by Sutherland was also posted in the last count when the elections office was counting ballots which were returned closer to the election ballot deadline.
Out of the 69 precincts in Whitman County, 27 are in Pullman.
Colfax has four in-town precincts.
Lisa Brown, Matt Sutherland and Jennifer Goulet, a Democrat challenging Rep. Mary Dye for the second time, won in each of the 27 Pullman precincts.
Albion and Palouse in-town precincts also favored Brown. Albion also favored Sutherland, but Palouse gave an edge to Schmick.
Pullman, Albion and Palouse rural precincts went along with all other precincts in the county to favor the Republicans.
Overall, 72.56 percent of Brown’s votes in the county were from the Pullman precincts, 74.72 percent of Goulet’s votes were out of Pullman and 74.05 percent of Sutherland’s votes were from Pullman.
The 27 Pullman precincts only accounted for 32.31 percent of the 8,285 of Cathy McMorris Rodger’s votes in the county, and only 31.85 percent of Joe Schmick’s 8,427 votes.
McMorris Rodgers and Schmick both posted strong wins in their overall district races. McMorris Rodgers finished with 54.76 of the vote in the 12-county Fifth Congressional District. She posted a 52.52 percent in Spokane County. Schmick finished with a 60.5 percent win in the five-county Ninth Legislative District with 31,749 votes.
County Commissioner Art Swannack, who serves as State Republican state committeeman, said he believes the loss sustained by the Democrats in the presidential election two years ago inspired local Democrats to make a concerted effort to increase voter registration. He added he feels the Republican’s haven’t been as active and need more members to get involved to help register voters throughout the county.
John Brabb, county Republican chair, believes Whitman County is still a fairly conservative area, but with election returns skewed by thousands of students attending WSU.
“What people consider home has changed Whitman County from a red county to a purple, or even a blue county, depending on what race you’re watching,” said Brabb.
While a high voter turnout is a good thing, Brab said he is more interested in the turnout for the county’s rural communities.
“I like it when people take an active interest in their government,” Brabb added.
The main trend that Brab has noticed is that local elected officials are no longer running unopposed, where in the past keeping a position was something of a sure deal.
County Auditor Eunice Coker noted impact from the growth in Pullman’s population is believed to have changed the balance of populations in the three county commissioner districts which are required to have equal voter populations.
The three county districts are now drawn in a spoke pattern, each with a piece of Pullman, but Coker believes the spokes now going into Pullman are out of balance.
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