Election update: Library levy fate unknown; Van Nortwick widens lead

With about 8,700 more Clark County votes tallied Wednesday, the fate of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District levy still hangs in the balance, while a second candidate for the county assessor seat may have cemented his position.

Across four counties in the library district — Clark, Skamania, Klickitat and a portion of Cowlitz — the property tax hike measure gained no new traction. It was failing by the same 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent as on election night, but trailed by 295 votes — 37,241 to 36,946 — an increase from Tuesday’s 270-vote gap.

In Clark County alone, the library measure was losing by 1,649 votes, compared to 1,493 votes on Tuesday.

At stake is restoration of full hours and days of operation at 13 branch libraries, starting next spring. Should it pass, the measure will increase Clark County property tax rates about 8 cents per $1,000 assessed value in 2011. That’s $16 more for a home worth $200,000.

In the race for county assessor, Democrat Janet Seekins easily advanced with 43.46 percent of votes to the Nov. 2 general election, but the race for second place was too close to call Tuesday. After Wednesday’s counting, Republican Peter Van Nortwick widened his lead over Republican David Horowitz.

Van Nortwick, a self-employed appraiser, leads Horowitz, a financial consultant who specializes in real estate, by 1,263 votes to claim 24.04 percent of the votes. Horowitz holds 22.12 percent of the votes.

Van Nortwick will likely face Seekins, a senior residential appraiser in the assessor’s office, in the contest to replace Assessor Linda Franklin, who did not run for a third term.

Clark County elections supervisor Tim Likness said that more than 11,000 votes remain to be counted today, and then his office will have to deal with small numbers of stragglers. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, a total of 71,649 ballots had been tallied.

Likness said that local school levies tend to gain support as later votes are brought in, but he couldn’t say how library levies have tracked, as they are much less common.

“It’s too soon to say, one way or another,” he said.

In other races today, margins and leads between the top two vote getters remained relatively the same:

o State Representative 17th District Position No. 1: Brian Peck (R), 52.6 percent, and Tim Probst (D), 47.2 percent.

o State Representative 17th District Position No. 2: Paul Harris (R) 55.3 percent, and Monica Stonier (D) 33.0 percent.

o State Representative 18th District: Dennis Kampe (D) 33.0 percent, and Ann Rivers (R) 27.0 percent.

o State Representative 49th District Position No. 1 Jim Jacks (D), 55.9 percent, and Bill Cismar (R), 43.8 percent.

o State Representative 49th District Position No. 2: Jim Moeller (D), 53.4 percent, and Craig Riley (R), 46.4 percent.

o Clark County Clerk: Scott Weber (R), 51.1 percent, and Sherry Parker (D), 48.7 percent.

o Clark County Commissioner: Steve Stuart (D), 57.7 percent, and Alan Svehaug (R), 42.0 percent.

o County Prosecuting Attorney: Tony Golik (D), 49.5 percent, and Brent Boger (R), 43.0 percent.

o Clark County Sheriff: Garry Lucas (R), 61.0 percent, and Timothy Shotwell (D), 38.8 percent.

o County Treasurer: Doug Lasher (D), 53.4 percent, and Mike Appel (R), 46.5 percent.

o Clark County Public Utility District Commissioner, District 2 (nonpartisan): Nancy Barnes, 36.7 percent, and Mike Lyons, 24.4 percent. (Robert Nichols trails at 23.5 percent).

o Vancouver City Council (nonpartisan): Bart Hansen, 48.1 percent, and John Jenkins, 42.0 percent.

Columbian reporters Stephanie Rice and Howard Buck contributed to this story.