Mary Benton throws support behind Julie Olson

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Mary Benton, a Republican who lost her bid for Clark County council District 2, announced Friday that she’ll be throwing her support behind Republican Julie Olson, who will advance to the general election after winning the primary.

“Now we must turn our attention to unifying the Republican party behind Julie Olson,” Benton wrote in an email update. “I have spoken with Julie and have encouraged her to use my sign locations. My husband (Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver) and I will certainly be contributing to her campaign.”

Early numbers show Olson with an edge over Democrat Chuck Green, who she’ll compete against in the general. Assuming Olson, who received 31.11 percent of the 17,841 primary votes, picks up Benton’s supporters–Benton received 17.84 percent of the ballots–she’s looking at 48.95 percent of the votes.

“I am urging all of my supporters to now support Julie for the general election,” Benton wrote. “We simply cannot allow this new county council seat in the 2nd district be taken by a Democrat.”

Assuming Green, who received 26.25 percent of the votes, picks up Democrat Mike Pond’s supporters–Pond received 19.25 percent of the ballots–he’ll receive 45.5 percent of the vote.

There’s also the 965 votes, or 5.41 percent, that Tanner Martin received. Martin ran with no party preference, and though it’s unclear whether he appealed to liberals or conservatives, he and Green both spoke highly of each other throughout the election.

There’s still plenty of time to campaign for both candidates, however. The general election is Nov. 3.