Ballots are in the mail, the county commissioner race is tight, and social media does what it does best: amplify the fights, the failures, and the occasional sharp reminder that local government answers to the people who live here. From a mysterious truck taking out downtown lights to Health Officer lectures that sound more like economics seminars than public health, here’s what Clallam County has been talking about.
Return Your Ballot. Please Vote.
Ballots are out. Mark yours, seal it, and return it. Every election is decided by the people who actually show up. This one is no different.
Mystery Truck Damages Downtown Port Angeles Lights
The occupants of a pickup truck are suspected of causing thousands of dollars in damage to lights in downtown Port Angeles. Guess who covers the repair bill? If you live or shop in Port Angeles, you do. The city will pass the cost along to residents and businesses through taxes and fees. No public identification of the driver has been released yet.
Will Jake Win? New Supporters Are Speaking Up
It’s going to be close. What’s new is that people who have never publicly backed a candidate before are choosing Jake Seegers. First-time endorsers are stepping forward. Every vote will matter.
Read the Grim Reporter on the Board of Health Meeting
The latest Grim Reporter piece covers the Board of Health meeting and Commissioner Mike French’s vehement defense of Health Officer Allison Berry. It also notes the sanctimonious lectures Commissioners French and Ozias delivered to the gallery, along with French’s misrepresentation of the law.
The commissioners would do well to reread the county’s employee code of conduct before selectively applying it to protect the activist ideologues they favor.
Hiking Mount Storm King in Election Season
While the campaign noise fills the feeds, some locals are still heading for the trail.
When Will “Harm Reduction” Reduce Harm for Citizens?
The question keeps coming up: when does the harm-reduction model start measuring harm to the people who live and work around the programs, not just the people receiving supplies?
Will Port Angeles Declare a Humanitarian Crisis?
Downtown merchants and residents keep asking when Port Angeles will treat homelessness and the street-level crisis with the urgency it applies to other issues.
French on France
A Message from Someone Who Loves This County
One resident put it simply: this election matters to people who intend to stay here. The outcome will shape the county for years.
Jim Stoffer Goes After a Jake Supporter—and Gets an Answer
Jim Stoffer, featured as a Mike French endorser on French’s website and safety lead for Indivisible, has spent his time criticizing Jake Seegers supporters rather than discussing French’s record. He suggested supporter Kelly Johnson has a “crush on Jake” and is wealthy enough to own property on Freshwater Bay, implying her support is about real-estate interests.
Kelly saw the post. She wants Stoffer and Debra to know the rest of the story: she was in a 25-year relationship with her former husband. They built a dream home together. He died unexpectedly. After that loss, she inherited the house. She is still coming to terms with the tragedy. She wouldn't wish that path to acquiring property on anyone.
David Rogers recorded an exchange with Mike French at the county fair in which French said, “It’s really important that we police people on our own side.”
Stoffer has compared Seegers to the KKK and to Nazis during the Holocaust, and is now attacking Seegers’ supporters with personal speculation. The question follows: will Commissioner French police his own side?
Sign Theft Celebrated
Sign theft is increasing as Election Day nears. Alexandria Fermanis, one of the people previously identified in sticker-bandit activity, has celebrated a French supporter having a trunk full of Jake Seegers signs.
Fermanis has also posted artwork referencing a time Jake Seegers helped me recover from a hangover while Mitch Zenobi, Stacey Richards, a mystery nurse, and the President visited me in bed.
Is Anyone Talking About Mike French’s Achievements?
Here’s a direct question for Mike French supporters: Is anyone highlighting what he's accomplished in four years, or is the campaign purely criticism of Jake Seegers? A post from Indivisible Sequim drew comparisons involving Jake Seegers and the “banality of evil,” with Miriam Rose writing that Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, and others used metaphor to further genocidal programs.
Banality of evil aside, how has Mike French made Clallam County better?
More Sign Theft
Additional reports of campaign signs disappearing continue to circulate.
Wales Moves Toward Voter Recall for Deliberate Deception
Wales has strengthened standards, requiring members to avoid deliberately misleading statements and to correct factual inaccuracies. It is also advancing measures aimed at election candidates who knowingly make false claims. Serious misconduct would not automatically remove a politician; it would trigger a formal recall process in which voters decide whether the person keeps the seat.
Wouldn’t that be nice for Clallam County?
Health Officer Deflects to Macroeconomics—Satire from the Strait Shooter
The satirical Strait Shooter has a new piece titled “Health Officer Deflects Harm Reduction Backlash to Mystery Forces of Macroeconomics.”
It portrays Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry telling the Board of Health that the overdose crisis and encampments are the result of complex macroeconomic forces—supply-chain disruptions, yield-curve shifts, liquidity traps—rather than the daily distribution of foil, pipes, and injection kits.
While reading, you have to remind yourself that it’s satire.
Sequim’s Halloween Birthday Is Almost Here—Has Anyone Noticed?
Sequim was incorporated on October 31, 1913—the only municipality in Washington with a Halloween birthday. Clallamity Jen at the Sequim Monitor has pointed out that Monday’s city council agenda contains a proclamation for Native American Heritage Month but no mention of the city’s own 113th birthday.
The city’s 2027 budget book also omits the October 31 date from its history section. The October newsletter also stays silent. Bucoda calls itself the “World’s Tiniest Town with the Biggest Halloween Spirit,” yet Sequim has the Halloween incorporation date. Whether the council acknowledges it Monday night is anyone’s guess; the agenda and recent city communications do not. Read the Sequim Monitor for the full account.
Jim Stoffer calls a Seegers supporter a Hugh (huge?) fan girl who works as a Realitor (Realtor?) I charge him with "Word Crimes". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc Skip the ad if you can.
Oh, and if you haven't already voted, do so now. This one will be determined by turn out.