Deer Park School Board incumbents face fall election challenges

June 11, 2011

The three Deer Park School Board races drew plenty of interest during last week’s candidate filing period.
DP School Board incumbents Jeff Whittle, Carri Breckner and Eric Keller will all face election challenges this fall.
Whittle and Breckner will face primary election challenges in August.
Whittle will meet Joshua Gilstrap and Paul Lewis in primary election while Breckner will face Linda Hjelm and Keith Reilly. The top two vote-getters in both races will advance to the Nov. 8 general election.
Keller will face off against Marie Layman in the general election.
In the Riverside School District incumbent Jim Fairbanks will not face an election challenge nor will Sandra Huggins, who filed for the seat being vacated by John Paul.
No one, however, filed for the seat currently held by Scott Robinson, who has made previous pronouncements that he was not going to seek re-election.
Only one Deer Park City Council seat drew any multi-candidate attention, the one previously held by Randy Bean, who decided not to seek a third term.
Former City Councilwoman Dee Cragun, who lost a re-election bid two years ago to challenger Mary Babb, will meet Fred Senn, who also lost a city council election in 2009, in this year’s general election.
Incumbent Councilmen Steve Hughes and Don Stevens will not face any election challenge this fall as is the case with Spokane County Fire District No. 4 Commissioners Roger Krieger and Jack Hensley.
In Stevens County, the only contested general election will be for a Mary Walker School District seat between April Steinbach and Bob Pierce.
The remainder of the Mary Walker School Board candidates, Kimberly Stricker, Justyn Turner and Diana Beckham, will run unopposed as will Loon Lake School Board candidates Amanda Stehlar and Kim Gillis and Valley School Board candidate Paul Voelker.
Springdale Town Council candidates John Kokinda and Nancy Hammer also face no opposition this fall as is the case with Stevens County Fire District No. 1 Commissioners Ken Wilson and Skip Wells.