Congrats, Tom... and welcome aboard.
Mielke’s long fight succeeds
He wins county post after three elections
Monday, December 8 6:55 p.m.
BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
Four years after he left the state legislature to make the first of three runs for county commissioner, Tom Mielke’s dream came true Monday.
By 209 votes, the Battle Ground-area Republican finally cracked through the ribbon in his photo-finish recount against Democrat Pam Brokaw. That was 2 votes ahead of his lead before the recount.
“This has been the longest, hardest campaign in my life,” Mielke said Monday.
Mielke, 65, will take office Jan. 2, replacing Democrat Betty Sue Morris of Felida.
Mielke and Marc Boldt of Hockinson will form the first Republican majority in 32 years on the county’s top board, and they’re likely to be pro-development, anti-regulation voices as the county enters a major overhaul of its rural development patterns.
Mielke said Monday that he’s been following the county’s budget process and has already found “five departments” in the county that seemed to duplicate one another's’ services and might be merged.
He said he wasn’t ready to specify which.
Mielke ran his campaign on a call for freer markets, no bridge tolls and scrapping the Interstate 5 bridge replacement project in favor of a third bridge across the Columbia River.
Mielke also criticized the Cowlitz Tribe’s plans for a casino near La Center and said he’d oppose tax or fee increases in the immediate future.
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