Handy holds slim lead

COLFAX – Challenger Tom Handy led the Whitman County commissioner’s race after the first ballot count Tuesday by 63 votes.

Handy had 6,746 votes and incumbent Dean Kinzer had 6,683 votes for the county commissioner, district two position.

Kinzer, a Republican, is running for a third term. Handy, an independent, is in his first run for political office.

Kinzer is a farmer outside of Pullman and a former 16-year Pullman school board member. Handy, the proprietor of Paradise Creek Brewery in Pullman, served as a board member for Pullman Chamber of Commerce and the Whitman County Business Development Association.