🗳️ Your Klickitat 2026 Primary Ballot Preview - 7/9 & 7/14 Candidate Forums

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🏛 2026 Primary Candidate Round-Up: Klickitat County

Races covered: Klickitat County Sheriff (open seat) · County Commissioner, District 2 · PUD No. 1 Commissioner, Pos. 3 · a scan of the rest of the August 4 ballot.
The Bottom Line: Three county offices are actually contested this August, and the fight to replace retiring Sheriff Bob Songer is the marquee. Campaign-finance filings sort the three sheriff candidates as cleanly as any forum answer: the local fundraising leader, the self-funding independent, and the big-résumé newcomer funded largely from Texas.
The Vibe: Civil, even warm. At two forums a week apart, the same candidates got two completely different sets of questions depending on which end of the county was asking.

🔎 What changed

Bob Songer, the nationally known "constitutional sheriff" who has run the office since 2015, is retiring. He is 80 and says it is time for "younger blood." For the first time in a decade, the sheriff's seat is open.

⚠ What escalated

The money, and the surprise of who is spending it. Tony Warren leads fundraising at about $14,300, and PDC records list the outgoing sheriff's own household among his donors. John Bruce is raising roughly half his money out of state. Dwayne Matulovich is paying for nearly half of his campaign himself.

🧭 What's next

Ballots mail July 17. The August 4 primary trims each contested race to the top two, who advance to November. The forums are recorded. Watch before you vote.

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🚔 The Sheriff's Race: Life After Songer

For three terms the Klickitat County Sheriff's Office has been Bob Songer's. He built the volunteer "posse" in 2015, joined the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, drew national press, and spent the last two budget cycles in a very public tug-of-war with the county commissioners over staffing and money. Longtime readers watched that fight here: the commissioners' $136,020 cut to his 2025 budget, his warnings that the county sometimes runs just two deputies for the whole county, and the criminal-justice tax proposal that grew out of it. Now Songer is stepping down, and three career lawmen want the job.

John Bruce (Republican, johnbruceforsheriff.com) is the newcomer with the biggest résumé. He spent 35-plus years in law enforcement, starting in his Texas hometown and rising through Frisco, where he was hired as the 24th officer and climbed to chief of a large, fast-growing suburban department. He then served about two and a half years as chief in Richland, Washington, and now works as an assessor for CALEA, the national police-accreditation body. He and his wife Anita, married 38 years, chose to move here for the same rural beauty many transplants did. His pitch is management: a staffing study first, then a hiring plan built with the commissioners. As he puts it, "I understand management, I understand budgeting, I understand hiring, firing, discipline." (Bruce entered the race with a surprise announcement at a commissioners' meeting.)

Tony Warren (Republican, tonywarrenforsheriff.com) is the insider, and he comes from Gorge law-enforcement stock: he says his father spent a career at the Skamania County Sheriff's Office and retired as its sheriff. Warren has 29-plus years as a certified Washington peace officer, starting as a reserve in Skamania County, then 11 years at the White Salmon Police Department, and the last five at the Klickitat County Sheriff's Office, where he is now the detective sergeant and field-training coordinator. He lives in White Salmon, worked last year's Burdoin Fire, and casts himself as a "working sheriff" out on the road: "I am not one to work behind a desk."

Dwayne Matulovich (Independent, dwaynematulovich4sheriff.com) is the change candidate, and the only one not running as a Republican. He has lived in the county more than 22 years and put in 19 years of full-time local law enforcement, at the Bingen-White Salmon area, the Goldendale Police Department, and the Klickitat County Sheriff's Office, where his roles included firearms instructor, marine patrol, and union president. He left the department about three years ago and now works for BNSF Railroad, where he says he has worked up from laborer into supervisory roles. He casts himself as the candidate the working cops trust: "I'm the only candidate that has the support of the chiefs, past and present, working in this county."

Two forums, two different counties

The same three men sat at two forums about a week apart, and the questions could not have been more different depending on which end of the county was asking.

At the Dallesport forum on July 9, hosted by the Dallesport Community Council in a room the moderator noted was full of posse members, the questions were local and practical: deputy staffing, the posse, and a proposed data center. Nobody asked about national politics.

At the White Salmon forum on July 14, run by the League of Women Voters of Klickitat-Skamania (recorded here), the west-county audience went straight at the Songer legacy: the CSPOA, Flock surveillance cameras, immigration enforcement, and whether a sheriff can refuse to enforce laws he considers unconstitutional. On that ground, the three separated.

1. Will you join the CSPOA, like Sheriff Songer? All three said no. Bruce: "I will not be joining another national group." Warren: "I really don't have time for, nor do I intend to have time for." Matulovich: "My focus is going to be on the county. That's where it needs to be. Not on national politics."
2. Can a sheriff refuse to enforce laws he deems unconstitutional? Here the daylight showed. Matulovich was firmest: "My job is to enforce the law, it's not to interpret them, so I would leave it up to the judicial system." Bruce agreed the courts decide, not the sheriff: "The sheriff does not make that determination of whether something is unconstitutional. It is the courts that make those determinations." Warren left himself the most room: "Some of the laws that Olympia may pass may not be in the best interest of Klickitat County residents. If that's the case, and that's what people think, then we may not be enforcing those, within reason."
3. Flock cameras and warrantless surveillance. Bruce was a hard no for a first term, warning that the problem is how Flock handles the records: "They sell to the highest bidder." Matulovich was against it on privacy and public-records grounds: "Most of us don't want to be watched all the time. I don't want to be watched all the time." Warren was the mixed vote, noting the department has already used Flock data and that it "has been instrumental in solving a double homicide," while agreeing it needs strict rules and that officers who misuse it "need to go."
4. The posse. This is where the two rooms felt furthest apart. In Dallesport, all three thanked the volunteers and pledged to keep the program, splitting only on how clearly to separate a volunteer from a deputy. Warren, the strongest defender, said he does not "hear a whole lot of complaints about the posse" and likened the distinction to a mall cop and a cop: "We all know the mall cop is not a cop, so we can all get on board." Bruce said flatly, "We cannot police your county without the use of volunteers," but agreed their uniforms should be more distinct from a deputy's. Matulovich was the most reform-minded, floating a shift toward a Civilian Emergency Response Team model for fires, floods, and earthquakes: "I just don't want them to look like law enforcement." The backdrop for all of it is a new state law (see the Jargon Buster).

The throughline across both nights: three candidates who, to different degrees, are stepping back from the constitutional-sheriff posture after a decade of Songer. Matulovich put it in his White Salmon closing: "I will honor my oath to the Constitution by enforcing laws the way they are written, relying on the courts rather than personal bias ... never to bend the law, but to apply it wisely."

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💰 Follow the Money: A PDC Deep Dive

The campaign-finance filings sort these three as cleanly as any forum answer. Here is where the money stood on July 15.

Tony Warren has raised the most, about $14,300, and spent about $11,200, which leaves him the most cash for the final stretch, roughly $3,100. Almost none of it is his own. About 70 percent came from within Washington, nearly all of it from Klickitat County and the immediate area, and much of it in small amounts: a raffle brought in about $2,100, with t-shirt sales on top. The eye-catching entries are three contributions totaling $750 from the Songer household (more on that below).

Dwayne Matulovich has raised about $11,800 and spent about $9,800, leaving around $2,000 on hand. Nearly half of his total, 48 percent, is self-funded, and most of that is in-kind: the signs and materials he paid for himself. The rest comes from Goldendale neighbors, often in matched $250 pairs from couples. There is almost no money from outside the area.

John Bruce has raised the least, about $8,900, and holds about $1,800. He also has the most unusual map. Half his money came from out of state, and about $4,100 of it, 46 percent of his total, came from Texas alone, his old Frisco network. Only about 42 percent came from Washington donors. It is a striking contrast in a race where all three men run on local roots: the newcomer is funding his Washington sheriff's race substantially from Texas, while the two who never left fund theirs from inside the county or out of their own pockets.

Two things jump off the ledger:

First, the outgoing sheriff is funding his succession. PDC records show eight contributions totaling $1,200 to Warren from Robert Songer and Frances Finn-Songer of Goldendale, given in matched pairs: $250 apiece in November and again in March, then $50 apiece in May and June. Robert "Bob" Songer is the retiring sheriff. And the same records show $300 from "Bob Songer" of Goldendale to county commissioner candidate Andy Kallinen, in two gifts: $100 in late April and $200 on July 11. Put simply, the sheriff who spent two years at war with the commission over money is now spending his own to shape both his replacement and the board. It is a fair thing to ask all of them about.

Second, the résumé and the war chest run opposite. Bruce brings by far the most command experience and has raised the least, and the least locally. Warren, the inside candidate, has both the most money and the broadest local base. Matulovich is running a shoestring, self-funded campaign and has spent nearly everything he raised.

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🏛 The County Commission: District 2

The second contested county race is the District 2 seat on the Board of County Commissioners, where three Republicans are running. They shared the stage with the sheriff candidates in Dallesport.

Lori Zoller (campaign page) is the incumbent, seeking a second term, and running on stability. She came up through a timber and cattle family, worked for the Department of Natural Resources and the Forest Service, managed watershed and fisheries grants, sat on the Planning Commission for a decade, and represents the county on the Columbia River Gorge Commission. Her pitch is that the current board finally "works well together," and that a new commissioner could "destroy some of the work" mid-stream. She describes the job bluntly: "Our jobs are probably 10% political and 90% running a large corporation," with 23 departments and nearly 300 employees.

Andy Kallinen (Ballotpedia) is the challenger with the broadest campaign. A 33-year Washington State Parks ranger and Army Reserve officer who ran for the state Legislature in 2024, he tells voters, "I never intended to be a politician." Notably, he is also an elected officer on the executive board of his public-employee union local, which shows up in his finances (see below).

Gene Klejeski has been the county's building inspector for about ten years and runs as the approachable listener: the guy people already call when a permit stalls.

The money. Kallinen leads at about $4,813 and has the only broad small-donor base in the race. His PDC file shows 33 contribution entries, but 11 of those are lump-sum "small contributions" lines, together covering 36 unnamed donations totaling $1,585, and four are his own money, about $751. That leaves 18 itemized contributions from 10 outside donors totaling about $2,477, including a $250 gift from AFSCME Council 28 (consistent with his union role) and the $300 from Sheriff Songer noted above. Zoller raised about $3,693, but roughly 97% of it is her own money; filings show almost no outside donor base. Klejeski raised about $1,800, nearly all self-funded, and has reported no expenditures yet. All three advance through the same August 4 top-two primary.

Where they split: a Dallesport data center. Asked yes-or-no whether they support a data center proposed on the Dallesport peninsula, the three diverged. Klejeski was a clear no, citing water: "The constituents that I've talked to clearly don't want it," and "water is such a precious resource." Kallinen said data centers are needed somewhere but not there, and took a shot at how the county has zoned them: he said the county planner called a data center "the same as light industrial, like a warehouse," and countered, "I don't think a data center is like a warehouse at all." Zoller was the most guarded, noting the county has only proposals so far, and drawing a lesson from how wind and solar arrived: "There wasn't one public meeting, there wasn't any public input, and the solar and the wind came in through private leases with the landowners, and then we had to deal with that in the county."

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⚡ The Quietest Contested Race: PUD Commissioner

There is a third contested race almost nobody is talking about. Public Utility District No. 1, Commissioner Position 3 drew three candidates: Dan Christopher, incumbent Dan G. Gunkel (on the board since 1990), and Logan B. Siebert. It is nonpartisan, and none of the three shows up with itemized campaign-finance filings, which usually means they are "mini" filers raising and spending under the reporting threshold. No forum for this one that we could find. For a county where power rates and the PUD's role in siting energy and data-center loads keep coming up, a longtime incumbent (on the board since 1990) drawing two challengers is worth more attention than it is getting.

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🗳️ The Rest of the Ballot

Beyond those three contests, most of the county ballot is already settled. Running unopposed: Assessor Billi Jean Bare, Auditor Heather Jobe, Clerk Renea Campbell, and Treasurer Greg Gallagher (all Republican), plus Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Cranston (no party preference) and both District Court judges, Rick Hansen (East) and Jeff Baker (West), who run nonpartisan. The Coroner seat, a brand-new standalone office the state required the county to create, is not on this year's ballot.

Klickitat is split between two legislative districts, so the state races you see depend on where you live. Most of the county (White Salmon, Bingen, Goldendale, Trout Lake, Glenwood) sits in the 17th District, a long district that runs from Vancouver east along the Gorge. There, Rep. Kevin Waters (R) faces Ben Christly (D) and Thomas Everett Haynes (Pro Gun Liberal) for Position 1, and Rep. David Stuebe (R) faces Vancouver city councilor Diana Perez (D) for Position 2. The southeast corner (Lyle, Wishram, and Dallesport among them) is in the 14th District, where Rep. Gloria Mendoza (R) faces Chelsea Dimas (D) and William Chichenoff (no party preference) for Position 1, and Rep. Deb Manjarrez (R) faces Democrats Ezequiel Morfín and Tony Sandoval for Position 2. At the top of the ballot, Klickitat is in the 4th Congressional District, where Rep. Dan Newhouse (R) is not running again after six terms. Eleven candidates filed for the open seat, so the August 4 primary narrows a very crowded field to two. One local curiosity: former Republican gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp filed for a precinct committee officer post in the county.

Editor's note: a prior draft of this piece accidentally attributed Klickitat to WA-03 instead of WA-04, too many tabs open while I worked on both Skamania and Klickitat previews at once. Learned my lesson being too hurried to get them out before ballots hit the mailbox. Apologies!

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🔎 Why the Sheriff's Race Is the Only One With Its Own Forum

You noticed it, and you were mostly right. Of the three contested races, only the sheriff's contest drew a dedicated, standalone forum, the League event in White Salmon. The commissioner race got airtime only as the other half of the Dallesport community meeting. The PUD race, with a longtime incumbent and two challengers, drew none at all.

There is a reason the sheriff's race soaks up the oxygen. It is the only truly open, high-stakes, countywide seat on the ballot. Songer's exit closes a nationally watched chapter and left three credible candidates with real differences over the office's direction. That is exactly the kind of race a forum is built for. The commissioner primary is a contest among three Republicans, and the down-ballot offices are mostly uncontested. When a race is open and the candidates genuinely differ, the primary decides something, and that is where the civic energy goes. This year in Klickitat County, that race is for sheriff.

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🛠 Jargon Buster

• Top-two primary: Every candidate runs on one August ballot regardless of party, and the two highest vote-getters advance to November. With three candidates, one is eliminated August 4.
• Party preference: A self-label on the ballot, not a nomination. Matulovich prefers Independent; Warren and Bruce prefer Republican.
• CSPOA: The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which holds that a sheriff may decline to enforce laws the sheriff judges unconstitutional. Songer is a member; all three candidates declined to join.
• The posse, and the new law: Songer's 2015 volunteer program. A new state law, Senate Bill 5974, signed in April 2026, bars posse members who lack peace-officer training from carrying firearms, making arrests, running surveillance technology, or otherwise enforcing the law. The Washington State Sheriffs' Association and four eastern-Washington sheriffs are challenging it in court, so its fate is unsettled.
• Flock: An automated license-plate-reader camera system. The debate is over who stores the data, for how long, and who can search it.
• In-kind contribution: A donation of goods or services rather than cash. It counts toward a campaign's total.
• PDC: The Washington Public Disclosure Commission, which publishes campaign-finance filings. Every dollar figure here comes from PDC data.

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🗓 How to Vote & Learn More

• Ballots mailed: July 17. Register/update online or by mail by July 27; in person through 8 p.m. August 4.
• Primary Election Day: August 4. Top two in each race advance to the November 3 general.
• Hear the candidates: The League posts its White Salmon sheriff forum to its Facebook and YouTube pages, and the local podcast The Klickitat Voice has sit-down interviews with the sheriff candidates. Questions for the League: lwv.klickitat.skamania@gmail.com.

Sources: candidate forums hosted by the League of Women Voters of Klickitat-Skamania (White Salmon, July 14) and the Dallesport Community Council (July 9). Retirement and posse-law context via OPB. Campaign-finance figures from the Washington Public Disclosure Commission (data.wa.gov), pulled July 15, 2026.

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