Fournier wins commissioner race, Skaar leads

Paul Fournier prevailed in the May 21 primary election for position two on the Tillamook County Board of County Commissioners, while incumbent Erin Skaar leads with votes left to count in the race for position one.

State Representative Cyrus Javadi also fended off a challenger in the Republican primary, KaSandra Larson won election as Tillamook County Assessor and a levy ask by the Tillamook Fire District failed.

As of 5 p.m. on May 23, the Tillamook County clerk had received 7,860 ballots and accepted 7,783, meaning that 36.6% of eligible voters had successfully voted. Ballots postmarked by election day and received by 5 p.m. on May 28, will be counted, and voters whose ballots were not accepted have until June 11 to correct challenged or missing signatures on ballot envelopes.

Fournier, a longtime deputy with the Tillamook Sheriff’s Office, won a resounding victory in the race for position two, garnering 4,914 of 6,919 votes counted, amounting to 71.0%. Fournier defeated Darcy Jones in the race and will take over for Commissioner Doug Olson, who has been serving in a temporary capacity after the early retirement of Commissioner David Yamamoto at the end of 2023.

Skaar, the one term incumbent in position one, appeared on track to hold off two challengers in the election, having received 3792 of the 7111 votes counted in the race. That gave her over 53.3% of the votes counted while Jeff Spink had received 28% of the vote and Bruce Lovelin 18.1%.

If Skaar still commands more than 50% of votes cast when results are finalized in 30 days, she will win reelection, but if she falls below that threshold she will head to a runoff against the second-place vote getter in November.

Javadi took an easy victory against a primary challenge from retired corrections officer Glenn Gaither, winning 71.9% of votes counted across state house district 32 and 76.8% in Tillamook County.

Larson was set for a comfortable victory in the race to replace retiring Tillamook County Assessor Denise Vandecoevering, having received 65.0% of votes counted in the race against Kari Fleisher.

The Tillamook Fire District’s request that voters approve a bond of 84 cents per thousand dollars of assessed property value trailed with 1,606 of 2,773 or 57.9% of votes cast against the question.

The next round of tabulation results may not be released until after contested or missing signatures are corrected on June 11, according to Tillamook County Clerk Christy Nyseth. Official results must be submitted to the secretary of state’s office by 30 days after the election on June 20.