Position switch didn’t help incumbent Fire District 1 commissioner

Appointed incumbent Fire District 1 Commissioner Karen Dingmon is headed for defeat in results from the Nov. 5 election released through Friday, Nov. 15.

Her defeat comes despite an effort last spring to ease her path to election.

Dingmon took a position on the district board by appointment in February 2013 after former Commissioner Millie Judge, elected in 2009, resigned to become a Snohomish County Superior Court judge.

During the May filing period, Dingmon filed to run for the last two years of the term that she holds by appointment, but when the last day of filing came with Dingmon having three opponents and veteran Commissioner Bob Meador having only one for a full six-year term, each withdrew and refiled for the other position.

That meant that Dingmon didn’t need to run in the primary, but it didn’t save her from a tough campaign by challenger Jim McGaughey, who leads her 68 percent to 31 percent for the six-year term.

Meador is on his way to victory for the two-year term with a 59-41 percent margin over challenger Erica Ash.

Also on the ballot, Commissioner Jim Kenny won re-election without opposition to a six-year term for another position on the five-member board.

The results came with Snohomish County officials having already counted the expected number of ballots.

Officials had counted 26,682 ballots from Fire District 1 through Friday, 98.7 percent of 27,035 received.

They plan to release updated results Friday, Nov. 22.

Snohomish County Fire District 1 covers unincorporated areas of the county from south Everett to the King County line. It provides fire service by contract to Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Briee and Woodway, but none of those municipalities is part of the district.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.

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