Rasor, Orr, Wheeler victorious in primary vote

SANDPOINT — Cornel Rasor and Brian Orr emerged victorious from their contested primary races for Bonner County commission seats early Wednesday morning.

Rasor defeated John Reuter by a 312-vote margin to secure the Republican nomination for the District 1 seat on the board. Rasor amassed 2,310 votes to Reuter’s 1,998. Rasor goes up against incumbent Democrat Todd Crossett in the November general election.

Crossett tallied 1,259 votes in his uncontested race.

Rasor said he was humbled by his victory.

“I thought it would be hard-fought and expected it to be close,” Rasor said on Wednesday afternoon.

Rasor, an ardent opponent of bloated government, hopes to amplify the conservative voice on the commission, but challenges perceptions in some circles that he is an extremist.

“Everybody thinks I’m Godzilla — that I’m going to come in and fire everybody; I’m going to come in and fire everybody; I’m going to shoot people at the borders; I’m going to send out cops to stop the ambulances so people die. But that ain’t me,” said Rasor, who has stated he would rather see EMS here privatized rather than in the county’s hands.

Rasor’s primary opponent, John Reuter, was in good spirits Wednesday despite his race’s outcome. He believes a better voter turnout could have earned him the GOP nomination.

“We expected these results with this level of turnout,” Reuter said of the primary’s 31 percent voter turnout. “If another 500 to 1,000 people had come out, we think those numbers would have resulted in victory.”

Reuter has not decided if he’ll make another run for public office, but he said he would continue to shepherd the issues he promoted in the campaign, such as appropriate land use regulation.

“I’m not going to stop working on these issues just because I’m not running for public office. I’m still going to move forward with these things because they’re important issues,” he said.

In the contested race for the commission’s District 2 seat, former Commissioner Brian Orr beat Patty Palmer for the Democrat nomination by 211 votes. Orr won 780 votes to Palmer’s 569, setting the stage for another match-up with incumbent Joe Young, a Republican who had no primary challenger.

Orr, who could not be reached for comment on Wednesday, lost the seat to Young in 2004 by 361 votes. Young picked up 3,504 votes in Tuesday’s primary.

The race for Bonner County sheriff produced the county primary’s only landslide victory. Sandpoint Police Officer Daryl Wheeler won 2,093 votes, more than 1,000 votes than any other candidate in the sheriff’s GOP contest.

Democrat Larry Hanna, who ran unopposed for his party’s nod in the sheriff’s race, collected 960 votes.

Wheeler’s closest challenger was former Deputy Geoff Rusho, who ended the primary with 901 votes. Neither Wheeler nor Rusho responded to messages seeking comment on the race’s outcome on Wednesday.

Incumbent Republican Sheriff Elaine Savage finished third with 853 votes. Former Sheriff Chip Roos and Deputy Rocky Jordan rounded out the race with 757 and 471 votes, respectively.

“I’m disappointed, of course. But the voters have spoken and I will spend the next seven months continuing to be a good sheriff and running a professional law enforcement agency,” Savage said.

Savage said she would continue her support of the county’s plan to replace the juvenile detention facility and build a work release center. Deposing the plan was a centerpiece in other sheriff’s candidates’ campaign platforms.

“It’s a worthwhile investment and I’m really sorry it got blown out of proportion and used for political fodder,” she said. “If you don’t really know all the facts and haven’t watched the jail, you won’t understand how important it is to the future.”