🗳 Your Klickitat Nov Ballot, Decoded: Candidate Nights in Goldendale 10/14 & Lyle 10/15

Enjoy the audio edition on Buzzsprout, or look for "Open Gorge" wherever you get your podcasts.

🕯️ Halloween Cabinet of Curiosities: Election Edition

Before we get to the ballot, a Klickitat election that came down to one vote.

In its early days, Klickitat County's seat was at Rockland, across the river from The Dalles, and the courthouse was a rented building there. In 1872 the county put the question to voters: should the county seat move to Goldendale?

The farmers in the valley mostly wanted Goldendale. The cattlemen didn't. And the cattlemen won. The count: seventy-eight for Rockland... seventy-seven for Goldendale. One vote.

Goldendale's backers played the long game. Over the next few years they quietly laid out as many county roads into Goldendale as they could, until most roads in the county led there. The 1904 county history says they pulled it off "without the opposition's even suspecting its object."

In 1878, the question went back on the ballot. This time about five-sixths of the votes went to Goldendale. That February, the sheriff hauled the county's property to its new home through about thirty inches of snow. And the settlers built the new courthouse with donated money, materials and labor, without a dollar of taxes.

So if you've ever wondered whether one vote matters... ask Goldendale. Make sure to get your ballots in early!

🗳 Special Edition: Your 2026 General Election Ballot

Klickitat had two candidate nights back to back. On Wednesday, October 14, the Goldendale Grange held its Candidates Night at the new grange building in Goldendale, with the county candidates and three of the four 17th District state House candidates. The next evening, Thursday, October 15, the League of Women Voters of Klickitat and Skamania held a forum at the Lyle Lions Club, with the Lyle Community Council, the Goldendale Sentinel and Columbia Gorge News, which photographed a packed room. Bill Weiler of the Lyle Community Council moderated in Lyle, and Columbia Gorge News wrote up that forum. All six candidates in the county's three contested races spoke at both. Here is who said what, what the record shows, and the rest of your ballot.

Quick Facts

• Races covered: U.S. House (4th District), State Representative (14th and 17th Districts), County Commissioner District 2, Sheriff, Klickitat PUD Commissioner Position 3, the Washington Supreme Court, the county offices with one candidate, and the measures on your ballot.
• The Bottom Line: The PUD race is the one to watch. The incumbent, first elected in 1991, finished second in the primary, and he opened his closing statement in Lyle by correcting what he called misinformation about Lyle.
• The Vibe: Polite and quick in Lyle, where clapping wasn't allowed and timekeepers held up yellow and red cards. Looser in Goldendale, where the audience's written questions ran hotter: gun confiscation, mask mandates, girls' sports, and why the county hasn't paused data centers.

🔎 What Changed

The primary cut each county race to two. The sheriff's seat is open for the first time in years, and so is the 4th Congressional District seat, where Rep. Dan Newhouse is retiring. The PUD has stopped signing new non-disclosure agreements for data centers.

⚠ What Escalated

Data centers. The Washington State Standard counted at least six hyperscale proposals in the county in October; as of October 20 the county had not adopted a moratorium, and its interim zoning rules were with the county's lawyers. The challenger for commissioner wants a pause now; the incumbent says there is no emergency, but will support one if county counsel clears it.

🧭 What's Next

Ballots went out in mid-October. Register or update your registration online or by mail by October 26, or in person through Election Day. Return your ballot to an official drop box by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3, or mail it postmarked by that date. The county certifies the results on November 24.

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🏛 U.S. House, 4th District: Amanda McKinney (R) vs. John Duresky (D)

All of Klickitat County is in the 4th District. (Skamania County is in the 3rd.) It is an open seat: Rep. Dan Newhouse is retiring after six terms and is not endorsing anyone. Neither candidate spoke at the Lyle forum, which was for county races, and neither is on the Goldendale recording. McKinney is a Yakima County commissioner who grew up in a farming family in the Yakima and Kittitas valleys and worked in finance; President Trump endorsed her in the primary, and her endorsers include Klickitat County Commissioner Lori Zoller. Duresky retired from a 24-year Air Force career as a major, then worked for the Energy Department's Hanford Field Office; he has not held elected office, and his endorsers include the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington Education Association and the Yakama Nation. In the August primary, McKinney led district-wide, 34.8% to 29.9%. Klickitat County went the other way: Duresky 37.7%, McKinney 30.2%.

They met once, on September 30, at WSU Tri-Cities, in a debate produced by Northwest Public Broadcasting with AARP Washington and the Leagues of Women Voters of Benton-Franklin and Yakima counties. You can watch it on PBS.

• Rural hospitals. The question cited a University of North Carolina analysis that the Medicaid cuts in the 2025 federal budget law put most of the district's hospitals at risk. Duresky agreed, blamed low Medicaid and Medicare payment rates, cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies and the law's new Medicaid work requirements, and said the law "broke a lot" and it's time to undo it. McKinney said she agrees "in part": hospitals are under duress, but not only because of the bill, and the Affordable Care Act made things worse. She said Duresky wants universal health care, and his campaign says he does: it calls for moving "toward universal healthcare access so coverage doesn't depend on your employer or your ZIP code." McKinney pointed instead to Yakima's privately founded medical university and to student-loan incentives for rural providers.
• What the record shows for Klickitat. The analysis, by UNC's Sheps Center, looked at the House-passed version of the bill. The list senators released in June 2025 names 9 of the district's 13 rural hospitals, including Klickitat Valley Health in Goldendale, as facing "greater risk of being forced to stop providing some services, converting, or closing." Skyline Health in White Salmon is not on it. KVH said in August 2025 that it "currently has no plans to cut services or close," the Goldendale Sentinel reported.
• Women's Reproductive Healthcare. It did not come up in the debate. McKinney's campaign website says: "I believe that all life has meaning and value and must be protected from conception." It does not say whether she would support exceptions or a national ban, or address contraception or IVF. Duresky has not published a position on abortion or contraception access: neither his campaign's issues page nor his voters' pamphlet statement mentions them. Planned Parenthood's political arm in Washington has made no endorsement in this race.
• Cost of living. Duresky blamed tariffs and the war with Iran, and said tariffs should be set by Congress, not the president. McKinney blamed state energy policy, called for the Trump administration's energy agenda and more nuclear power, and said it is "false to say that the tariffs and the war in Iran" are behind farmers' diesel costs.
• Farm labor and immigration. Both back expanding the H-2A farmworker visa program; McKinney would add dairy and let workers move from crop to crop, but said they "must go home." McKinney supports the administration's immigration enforcement and opposes the state's sanctuary policies. Duresky called the deportation program "immoral and deeply un-American," and said nobody should be for open borders.
• Social Security. Duresky would lift the cap on income subject to the payroll tax and keep the program out of Wall Street's hands. McKinney said no one should cut benefits and the answer is rooting out fraud, citing Yakima County's pandemic rental-assistance screening; the Yakima Herald-Republic reported in 2023 that the county's contractor flagged nearly $6.3 million in fraudulent applications.
• Elections. McKinney supports requiring ID and proof of citizenship to vote. Duresky called that "a solution looking for a problem." Secretary of State Steve Hobbs has counted five fraud cases from 2008 through 2025 out of 90 million ballots cast, KOMO reported.
• Data centers. Both told the Tri-City Herald that communities should decide where they go. In the debate, McKinney said local communities should have "the final say" and that data centers belong beside new nuclear power at Hanford. Duresky said data centers should bring their own power so ratepayers don't pay more, and that no public utility or city council "should be signing non-disclosure agreements" with the companies building them.
• McKinney's record on data centers and energy siting. As a Yakima County commissioner, she was part of the unanimous August 11 vote for a six-month data center moratorium in unincorporated Yakima County, the pause Klickitat's board has not taken; at that meeting she called data centers on farm-zoned land an "industrialization of agriculture land," the Sunnyside Sun reported. In April she cast the lone vote against the county's new solar ordinance, objecting to solar on irrigated farmland, the Yakima Herald-Republic reported.
• Checks on the president. Duresky said Congress has given up its powers over war, spending and tariffs, and that the administration's TV ads during football games broke the Hatch Act; neither the Government Accountability Office nor the Office of Special Counsel has ruled on that, though House Democrats asked both to look into it. McKinney said members of Congress have been briefed in secure settings, and that if Congress hasn't acted on the war, it is because what they have heard "continues to convince them" to support the president.
• What they'd do first. McKinney wants a seat on Appropriations. Duresky named Agriculture, Energy and Veterans' Affairs, and said he has signed a pledge that includes congressional term limits, a ban on stock trading by members and an ethics code for the Supreme Court.
• In Klickitat. Duresky held town halls in Goldendale and Bingen in February.

🏛 State Representative, 14th and 17th Districts

Klickitat County is split between two legislative districts, so depending on where you live, your ballot carries one pair of these races. All four Republicans are the sitting representatives.

14th District: Gloria Mendoza (R) vs. Chelsea Dimas (D), and Deb Manjarrez (R) vs. Ezequiel Morfin (D)

Neither race came to a Klickitat forum we covered. In the August primary, Mendoza led Position 1 with 51.4% district-wide, and Manjarrez led Position 2 with 51.0%. The Klickitat part of the district voted more heavily Republican: about 65% for each incumbent.

17th District: Kevin Waters (R) vs. Ben Christly (D), and David Stuebe (R) vs. Diana H. Perez (D)

Perez, Stuebe and Waters spoke at the Goldendale Grange; Christly is not on the recording, which begins partway into the evening. All four met at Skamania County's Underwood candidates night on October 9, which our Skamania edition covers. Both Republican incumbents trailed district-wide in August: Christly 52.3% to Waters 43.9%, and Perez 54.9% to Stuebe 45.0%. Klickitat's part of the district was close: Waters 48.4% to Christly 46.7%, and Stuebe ahead of Perez by 15 votes.

• Position 1. Waters, the Skamania County economic development director, is running for a third term; Christly is a Navy veteran. At Underwood, Waters said he helped win about $100 million for the Hood River Bridge. State budgets have set aside about $57 million for it since he took office; he voted for the 2024 budget that added $15 million, and against the 2025-27 transportation budget, which carried $40 million (ESSB 5161). In Goldendale he said the Legislature got the town's schools money for heating and cooling; the state school superintendent's office lists Goldendale among its 2026 small-district construction grants, on a $6 million request for HVAC and electrical systems.
• Position 2. Stuebe, a retired Marine Corps colonel from Washougal, is finishing his first term; Perez is a Vancouver City Councilmember who spent 35 years with the Forest Service. At Underwood, both said women should make their own health care decisions. Stuebe's record is mixed: in 2025 he voted for a law requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortion care (ESSB 5557) and for 12-month contraceptive coverage, and against expanding the state's shield law for abortion patients and providers (SB 5632) and a 2026 grant program for abortion clinics (2SSB 6182).
• The millionaires' tax. In Goldendale, Perez said she supports the 9.9% tax on income over $1 million and will not support lowering the threshold. Stuebe and Waters opposed it; Waters said he would have traded it for a three-point cut in the sales tax.
• Girls' sports. Waters and Stuebe backed IL26-638. Perez said the issue needs a thoughtful conversation with districts, doctors, parents and girls, and objected to "some absurd way to check" a student's sex. As printed on the ballot, the measure would require verification of biological sex by students' health care providers.

🏛 County Commissioner District 2: Lori Zoller (R) vs. Andy Kallinen (R)

Zoller is the incumbent, finishing her first term. She came to Trout Lake with the Forest Service in the 1980s and has worked for the county on and off for about 30 years, including salmon recovery and watershed planning. Kallinen is a Washington State Parks ranger and 33-year county resident who spent 20 years in the Army Reserve, ending as a captain commanding a tank company (the Sentinel's profile). Both list a Republican preference. The primary was district-only, and Zoller led it 44% to 29%. In November the whole county votes.

• The moratorium. The clearest split at both forums. Kallinen wants one now: county staff, he said, are racing teams worth billions, and "there's no sense to race against them when we can't see the clock." He pointed to a petition with over a thousand signatures as "the will of the people." Zoller said it is not an emergency, since a data center needs years to get through the Bonneville Power Administration's process, and that Commissioner Todd Andrews' proposal reached the board without review by legal counsel. In Goldendale, the night before Lyle, she went further: if counsel clears one, "yes I will, in whatever way, shape or form that she says we could support." She also warned that a misstep could invite a lawsuit from a developer who has already invested heavily.
• What the record shows. Andrews has moved for a six-month moratorium, and neither of his colleagues seconded it; our August edition, The County That Didn't Pause Data Centers, covered how the board steered toward a policy statement instead. On October 13 the board took up interim zoning controls and adopted neither those nor a moratorium, sending the interim rules to the prosecuting attorney for a full legal review, Columbia Gorge News reported. On October 20, staff told the board both drafts were still with legal counsel. Rallies on October 4 drew about 90 people in Goldendale, Dallesport, Bingen and Lyle.
• What the law says. Zoller called a moratorium "a 60 to 90 day pause at most." The statute allows up to six months, or a year with a work plan, renewable after a hearing; it also requires a public hearing within 60 days and findings of fact, and does not mention a legal review (RCW 36.70.795). The prosecuting attorney is the board's legal adviser, with a written opinion when the board asks for one (RCW 36.27.020).
• EFSEC. Zoller said that because the county had no solar ordinance, the state's Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council overran its land-use planning, and that with one on the books the council "would have had to adhere" to it. Under state law, the council must decide whether a project fits the county's land-use plans and zoning in effect on the date of the application (RCW 80.50.090); if it does not, the council can consider whether those local rules "should be preempted," and the state preempts the siting of the projects under its jurisdiction (RCW 80.50.110). Whether an ordinance would have changed any one project's outcome is a question no one has put to a court.
• Kallinen, then and now. At the July 9 Dallesport forum, before a moratorium came before the board, Kallinen said of data centers, "they're needed. We need to keep up with China. They need to be somewhere," but not on the Dallesport orchard site, and that they should bring their own power and water.
• Money and taxes. Zoller pointed to a balanced budget, reserves and no layoffs, and said the county isn't "working at raising taxes." In December 2024 she moved the resolution setting the 2025 property tax levy, which took the 1% annual increase state law allows. The county's foundational public health money from the state fell from $1,552,000 for the state fiscal year that ended in June 2026 to $1,172,000 for the one that began in July, according to the September 8 packet. Kallinen would hold the line on property taxes, look again at how wind and solar are taxed, make more of the county's campgrounds, and add at least two deputies; if a data center does come, he wants a public safety endowment big enough to pay for two deputies from its interest.
• The jail. Neither candidate took up jail costs directly, though Kallinen named the jail among his public-safety priorities in Goldendale. The jail moved from the Sheriff's Office to a county Department of Corrections in January 2025, and Bingen, for one, is being asked to pay more: its minutes record the jail administrator putting the city's 2025 fair share at about $52,000, against the $7,650 it paid under its contract.
• Mental health. Zoller said the county now has designated crisis responders, but on grant money that state cuts threaten. Kallinen said crisis-responder and case-manager jobs have sat open.
• Disputes in the papers. On October 14 the Sentinel reported a whistleblower complaint filed with State Parks over Kallinen's 2018 small-claims testimony; he told the paper his memory was mistaken but he did not mean to deceive. The same day it covered a public back-and-forth between Sheriff Songer and Zoller, and found a Public Disclosure Commission complaint against Zoller at the initial-assessment stage. Neither had produced a finding as of those reports.

🏛 Sheriff: Dwayne Matulovich (Independent) vs. Tony Warren (R)

Sheriff Bob Songer is retiring, and both finalists have worked for him. Matulovich has 19 years in law enforcement in the county, with the Bingen-White Salmon and Goldendale police departments and the Sheriff's Office, which he left in 2023 for a job with BNSF Railway, Columbia Gorge News reported. He says he has the support of current and past police chiefs, and is on the ballot as "Prefers Independent Party." Warren is the Sheriff's Office detective sergeant; he started as a reserve deputy and joined the office in 2021. The Sentinel profiled Matulovich and Warren. Matulovich led the August primary, 57% to 27%.

• On Songer. Warren: "Make no mistake, I'm not Bob 2.0." He said Songer "has lost his focus" on the deputies, and wants three or four more deputies and an audit of the department's spending. In July he had said "nobody can quite be like Bob" and that he agrees with him on a lot, "just not quite as vocal about it." Matulovich: "I don't think I look good in a cowboy hat." Then the substance: liability, which he said he raised before and was told not to worry about, and an administration that takes calls itself when staffing is short.
• Laws they disagree with. The sharpest contrast came in Lyle. Matulovich said laws he disagrees with go to the courts, and closed by promising to enforce the law "relying on the courts for interpretation rather than personal bias," nearly word for word what he said in July. Warren said the call is not his alone, that he would follow the community and the state sheriffs' association, and that while court challenges play out he would not enforce what he called "obvious, blatant" unconstitutional laws. In July, as we reported, he had put it more broadly: if the state passes a bill that is bad for the county, "I have no issue with not enforcing those things."
• Guns and mandates, in Goldendale. Asked about a state law requiring people to turn in their firearms, both said no. Matulovich said "it's not going to happen," that "we're not giving up our guns," and that "I stand behind the judicial system." Warren said the state "does pass bills that are blatantly unconstitutional," and that while they are challenged in court, "we'll oppose it and not enforce it." On business closures and mask mandates, Warren said "absolutely not"; Matulovich said the office would never have the resources to enforce them.
• What the law says. Since 2026, state law says a sheriff and deputies "shall uphold and enforce the Constitution and laws of the state of Washington, as interpreted and applied by the state supreme court" (RCW 36.28.010). How that applies to a law while it is being challenged is a question no court has been asked here. Other parts of the same law, on who may serve as sheriff, were partly blocked by a judge in April, and the state plans to appeal.
• The posse. Both would keep it and change it. Matulovich would turn it toward disaster work, such as fire camps, and lean on commissioned reserve deputies. Warren wants the public to know a posse member is not a deputy: "They do not have any legal authority." The 2026 law spells that out: without peace-officer training, volunteers may not enforce criminal laws, detain or arrest anyone, use force, or carry weapons.
• Staffing. Warren said he had just worked 28 hours himself, and that deputies recently worked a 20-hour shift, got four hours off, then worked 18 more. At a September 10 budget workshop, the Sheriff's Office's 2027 request was read into the record: two more patrol deputies at $267,300 each, because staffing is under one deputy per thousand residents. Someone at the table suggested waiting for the new sheriff. On September 22, the office reported 17 deputies working.
• Flock cameras and schools. Both oppose license-plate cameras; the Sheriff's Office has none, and Goldendale's police department uses them, according to the city council's minutes. Both want deputies spending regular time in schools.
• Warren's record in the papers. In August, Columbia Gorge News reported, in a story the Sentinel also carried, that Warren was suspended for two days in 2014 at the Bingen-White Salmon Police Department and resigned in 2019, a week after an internal investigation opened; the story noted that neither incident kept him from continuing in law enforcement. Warren called it a political attack. Asked in Lyle about his ethics, he said, "I'm not without fault. I've made mistakes of my own. I'll admit that. I own that."

⚡ Klickitat PUD Commissioner Position 3: Logan Siebert vs. Dan Gunkel

This seat is nonpartisan. Siebert, 31, who owns a state-licensed custom slaughter business in Goldendale, finished first with 49%. Gunkel, a Maryhill fruit grower first elected to the PUD board in 1991, finished second with 35%. Siebert is listed first on your ballot, and the whole county votes in November. Siebert: "I'm not a career politician, and I'm not a utility insider. I'm a ratepayer just like everyone in this room." Gunkel: "This election is not about what I've built. This election is truly about what is coming." The Sentinel has run longer pieces on Siebert and Gunkel.

• The NDAs. Asked whether the PUD's September 22 decision to stop signing non-disclosure agreements came too late, Gunkel said the board heard "loudly and clearly that NDAs were unacceptable" and acted quickly, and that the PUD is working through a process to end the ones already in place. Siebert said there should never have been an NDA at a public utility.
• What the record shows on NDAs. The PUD's minutes record NDAs going back to at least 2020, including one in May 2025 "executed with a potential large power use tenant." When residents raised them on August 11, the general manager said they "are common in many types of agreements." Six weeks later, Gunkel made the motion himself: the September 22 minutes record him moving to "discontinue the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements" for data centers and other new loads of 10 megawatts or more. It carried. The PUD's announcement says existing agreements stay in effect through their terms and will not be renewed.
• Data centers and your bill. Gunkel said he is "not a cheerleader" for data centers, that the county decides where they go, and that a developer would buy its own power and pay for every line and substation; he put the PUD's fees from a fully built 1,000-megawatt center at $7 million to $14 million a year, to offset rates, and said "these data centers cannot touch our tier one power," the low-cost federal power that serves current customers. He said the board adopted an updated large-load policy, Policy No. 54, on October 13; it was on that day's agenda, and its minutes were not yet posted as of October 22. Siebert said he had not read it. He wants a take-or-pay floor of about 80% and costs passed through to the developer, and said data centers elsewhere in Washington have pushed rates up. Personally, he said, he doesn't want one spoiling the view over Maryhill, but "given the right spot, with the right policy, and the good community support," one could earn the PUD money.
• The low-density discount. Siebert asked whether a giant new load could cost the PUD its federal power-rate break for rural utilities, which he put at close to $80,000 a month. That matches PUD staff's September report, which also said the PUD "will need to monitor the impact of load growth on continued eligibility."
• Who decides siting. The county's own documents agree with Gunkel for now: a 2023 Planning Commission interpretation lets a data center go in the Industrial Park zone as a permitted use. Every draft of the county's new ordinance would make data centers of 20 megawatts or more (the number is still bracketed) a conditional use in the two industrial zones and ban them elsewhere; the drafts are on the county's data center information page. The Washington State Standard reported at least six hyperscale proposals in the county, with no site permits filed.
• The Lyle substation. Gunkel opened his closing in Lyle by saying there is no data center substation planned there, "completely not true." In May, the Goldendale Sentinel reported that a Dallesport data center developer's filing with Bonneville offered to "construct a new 230 kV substation near the southwest corner of our property," and placed the site on 1.65 acres of PUD-owned land north of Lyle. The project is in Bonneville's feasibility study, and nothing has been approved or built.
• Rates. Gunkel said the PUD's rates have moved from the third-highest in the state when he started to tenth, and are 18% below Skamania PUD's; PUD staff told the board in December 2025 the district was likely to stay "around the #9 spot." His case rests on revenue that holds rates down, but the board still raised residential rates 3.55% for 2025 and 3% for 2026, and he spoke in support of the 3%. The PUD's Fitch rating rose to A, from A-minus, in August 2025. Siebert said he doesn't yet know how he would lower rates, and wants to learn before making big changes.
• Seniors. Gunkel said the PUD's low-income assistance program dates to about 1990 and that its budget went up in 2026; on September 22 the board continued its low-income senior discount and raised the funding cap to $88,000. Siebert said that if seniors aren't getting what they need, he would look into it.

⚖️ Washington Supreme Court and Court of Appeals

Five Supreme Court seats are on your ballot, none of them at either forum: Position 1 (Justice Colleen Melody vs. Scott Edwards, a two-year unexpired term), Position 3 (an open seat: David Stevens vs. Jaime Michelle Hawk), Position 4 (an open seat: Ian Birk vs. Sean O'Donnell), Position 5 (Justice Theo Angelis vs. Dave Larson, a two-year unexpired term) and Position 7 (Chief Justice Debra L. Stephens vs. Todd A. Bloom). Judge Megan K. Murphy is unopposed for the Court of Appeals, Division 3, District 3, Position 1.

🏛 One Candidate Each

Seven county offices have a single candidate: Assessor Billi Jean Bare (R), Auditor Heather Jobe (R), Clerk Renea Campbell (R), Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Cranston (States No Party Preference, for a short and full four-year term), Treasurer Greg Gallagher (R), East District Court Judge Rick L. Hansen and West District Court Judge Jeff Baker.

💰 Follow the Money

• County races, from Public Disclosure Commission filings through October 17 (cash on hand from the October 12 reports):

Candidate	Raised	Spent	Cash on hand (Oct. 12)	Own money
Lori Zoller	$11,808	$10,014	$2,019	about half
Andy Kallinen	$17,421	$10,892	$6,545	5%
Dwayne Matulovich	$16,465	$14,198	$1,578	39%
Tony Warren	$23,134	$15,740	$4,637	8%

• The county Republicans gave to the challenger. Klickitat County Republicans gave Kallinen $1,500, even though Zoller also lists a Republican preference. The Klickitat County Republican Central Committee gave Warren $1,500 on October 13, the only contribution in these races over $1,000 since the last-minute reporting window opened.
• Kallinen's union. The Washington Federation of State Employees has given him $2,400 in all. He is a State Parks employee.
• The Songers. Bob Songer and Frances Finn-Songer gave Warren $1,200, and Bob Songer gave Kallinen $500, as we reported in August. Neither has given since the primary.
• Zoller's own share is falling. At the primary, 77% of her money was her own. In mid-October filings it was about half.
• Matulovich's campaign owes him money. He reports $5,382 in debts, mostly signs and booth fees he bought himself and logged as loans to the campaign.
• The PUD race reports no dollars. Both candidates chose the state's mini-reporting option. Gunkel told the Sentinel he takes no contributions. No outside spending has been reported in any of the three county races.
• Congress. Through September 30, McKinney had raised $1.31 million and had $166,664 on hand; Duresky had raised $388,289 and had $128,727 on hand, according to their Federal Election Commission reports. Duresky out-raised her from individual donors over the summer, the Tri-City Herald reported. Outside groups spent about $2.1 million supporting McKinney in the primary; since then, filings show about $41,000 more for her, from the NRA Political Victory Fund and Save American Freedom, and nothing for or against Duresky.
• The 17th District. Through about October 8, Waters had raised about $399,000 and Christly about $164,000; Perez about $226,000 and Stuebe about $124,000. Outside groups have reported about $209,000 against Christly and $156,000 against Perez. Look up any filing at the PDC.

🛠 Jargon Buster

• Hyperscale data center: a very large computing center, often hundreds of megawatts, built for cloud or AI companies.
• Moratorium: a temporary pause on accepting applications. A county that adopts one without a hearing first must hold one within 60 days. It can last six months, or a year with a work plan.
• Conditional use: a use allowed in a zone only after a public hearing and with conditions attached, rather than by right.
• NDA: a non-disclosure agreement, a contract that keeps certain information confidential.
• Low-density discount: a break on federal power rates for utilities serving rural, spread-out customers.
• Posse: the Sheriff's Office volunteer group. Members are not deputies and have no arrest powers.
• Take-or-pay: a contract term that makes a large customer pay for a set share of the power it reserved, whether it uses it or not.
• EFSEC: the state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which can permit large energy projects in place of the county.
• Mini-reporting: a Public Disclosure Commission option for small campaigns that skips itemized reports.

✅ How to Vote

• Mid-October: Ballots mailed to registered voters.
• By October 26: Register or update online, or by mail so it arrives by then.
• Through November 3: Register or update in person at the Auditor's Office, 205 S. Columbus Ave., Room 203, Goldendale.
• By 8 p.m., November 3: Return your ballot to an official drop box, or mail it postmarked by that day. The League's advice from the stage in Lyle: mail at least a week early, because Klickitat mail is processed in Portland.
• Your ballot also carries three statewide measures: IP26-645, which would repeal the 9.9% tax on income over $1 million; IL26-001, which concerns parental rights in public schools; and IL26-638, which concerns participation in school athletics. The voters' pamphlet explains each. If you live in Emergency Medical Services District No. 1, it also carries Proposition No. 1, a permanent EMS property tax levy of up to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value; no one submitted an argument for or against it for the voters' pamphlet.
• See your full ballot, drop box locations and every candidate's statement on the Klickitat County elections page and at VoteWA. For where these county candidates started, see our primary editions on the Dallesport and White Salmon forums and the Goldendale forum.