Powers behind the thrones: Tidbits about local campaign teams

If you listen hard, you can hear Clark County’s invisible primary cranking up. It sounds a little like the uphill trip on a roller coaster.

Now’s the time of year when serious candidates start having lots of coffee with well-to-do friends, talking solemnly about problems facing the county … and recruiting the best-connected folks they know to run their campaigns.

So let’s take a look at some local C1s. Those are the forms candidates file with the state to list their campaign officers and other details.

Of the ten candidates for local office, a few things caught my eye:

1) Sherry Parker (D) and Brent Boger (R) are the establishment. Political blue chips don’t get any bluer than Parker’s co-chairs, former state Rep. Val Ogden, the Queen Mother of the local Democratic party, and former state Sen. Al Bauer. And they don’t get any, um, redder than Boger’s co-chairs, former Vancouver police chief turned Republican supervolunteer Leland Davis and former Kiewit Pacific president Ed Lynch. Parker’s running for clerk, Boger for prosecutor.

2) Prosecutor candidate Curt Wyrick (D) is lining up supporters, too. Mover-shaker-lawyer Scott Horenstein is chairing his campaign. Horenstein used to run the county fair board and two of his brothers are big in the development community and the Vancouver school district. You get the picture.

3) Um, why is everybody still keeping their cash at the “Bank of Clark County”? The local bank was shut down by federal agents last year and Umpqua Bank was asked to take over its assets. But Bill Jameson (R), Greg Kimsey (R) and Steve Stuart (D) have it listed as their campaign’s deposit spot. Stuart, an incumbent commissioner, told me “old paperwork” is to blame and that he’s now with Umpqua. Better get that fixed, Steve: Umpqua spokeswoman Lani Hayward tells me Umpqua never does business as Bank of Clark County and doesn’t even own the brand name.

-Michael Andersen