Plager ahead; Hailey and Schmick win

ADAMS COUNTY - Adams County incumbent Commissioner Rudy Plager remains ahead of his opponent in the commissioner district 1 election.

The most recent ballot count was late Thursday afternoon and there are 450 ballots left to count, according to the Adams County Auditor's Office.

Plager accumulated 2,110 votes, or 55.66 percent, and opponent John N. Marshal has 1,681 votes, or 44.34 percent.

The final 450 ballots will be counted today, the auditor's office reported.

During the previous count Plager was ahead by 353 votes and he is now ahead by 429 votes.

"I'm very pleased with the voters of Adams County that they decided to re-elect me," Plager said.

During the days leading up to the election he's been anxious and endured a few sleepless nights.

"It's not an easy thing to run for an election," he said.

Plager said his goals for Adams County include balancing the county budget, working on solutions for the Odessa sub-aquifer water depletion by expanding development of the Columbia Basin Project and he wants to prevent non-funded state mandates from affecting Adams County.

For a short period, the election results posted for the commissioner race on the Adams County Web site were incorrect. The auditor's office advised the results were swapped due to an electronic error.

Rep. Steve Hailey, R-Mesa, beat challenger Ken Caylor, D-Othello, for state representative position one. Hailey received 71.11 percent of the votes with 2,784 while Caylor received 28.89 percent with 1,131 votes, according to the auditor's office.

Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, won with 73.78 percent of the votes with 2,898 for state representative position two. Opponent Tyana Kelley, D-Pullman, received 26.22 percent of the votes with 1,030, according to the auditor's office.