As 2023 folded to 2024, the race for the next county commissioner to represent East Grays Harbor County heated up as three Democrats filed to replace Republican Jill Warne, who announced she will not run in November to retain her District 1 seat.

Most recently, on Jan. 1, Jim Sorensen, the former mayor of Elma who chose not to seek reelection for that office in 2023, filed with the Public Disclosure Commissioner to run for county commissioner on the Democratic ticket.

Sorensen joins Ron Mullins, a former Elma City Council member and hospital commissioner, and Chris Thomas, a former county auditor who serves on two local boards, who each filed with the PDC in December.

Warne, who was elected to the District 1 seat in 2020, said in an email to The Daily World on Wednesday that she does not plan to run again in 2024.

“My objective was always to stop the enabling of addicts and fix whatever else I could and then go back to my previous life,” Warne said. “I don’t want to see the progress we’ve made go backwards so I’m really hoping to see a strong conservative step up but so far they haven’t.”

The three Democrats who have thrown their hat in the ring to replace Warne, and will appear on the Aug. 6 primary ballot should they file in May, each carry experience as former elected officials and knowledge from service on various boards and committees.

Perhaps most notably, Sorensen, who filed with the PDC on Jan. 1, just wrapped up his two terms of service as mayor of Elma. He continues to serve as chair of the Grays Harbor Council of Governments, on the Enhanced 911 board, the Grays Harbor Transit Board of Directors, and on an advisory board for the Elma School District.

The work of those boards overlaps with county commissioner business, Sorensen said. The former Elma mayor also ran for commissioner in 2020, but his campaign suffered as he devoted most of his time to navigating the East County town through the early stages of the pandemic. With more time to campaign, Sorensen said, he feels his odds are better.

Sorensen said he also helped improve Elma’s cash reserves from where they were eight years ago — an experience he would lean on in addressing the county’s $3 million budget deficit.

“I was able to be part of fixing the budget in the city of Elma, and I would devote myself as county commissioner to do the same there,” Sorensen said.

Thomas pointed to a similar experience as a member of the Harbor Regional Health hospital board, of which he is still a member, as skills he could use to remedy the county’s budget crisis. When he joined the Grays Harbor Hospital District #2 as a commissioner before the pandemic, Thomas said, “we were projected to go into the black” financially, but they were able to “still look forward, kind of right the ship, and look at improving services by providing more clinics and working to provide more services.”

Mullins also served as a hospital commissioner in the early 2000’s for the hospital district in East Grays Harbor County. He said he helped develop a policy that allowed district taxpayers to deduct hospital taxes from medical bills.

Mullins, a retired entrepreneur and employee of the state, acknowledged many voters might already be familiar with his name: he has run and lost races for school board, Grays Harbor County Commissioner, state legislature and U.S. Congress. In addition to serving on the Elma City Council. Mullins, a member of the Chinook Indian Tribe, advised on the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe health board. He is a “stand up person for people’s rights,” he said, “whether that’s same sex marriage or carrying a gun,” and has run on both Democratic and Republican tickets.

Sorensen’s 2020 campaign was unaffiliated with a political party but chose the Democratic ticket this year, although he considers himself a centrist. He pointed to the county’s homelessness problem as his top priority, citing experience with the issue through his work as a landlord liaison with the Coastal Community Action Program, the county’s coordinated entry housing agency. He said he would be in favor of providing a low-barrier shelter in the county — although not necessarily a “no-barrier” shelter — and would ramp up pursuit of grants by working with other agencies.

“Homelessness is more than just a socioeconomic problem right now, because we have a major lack of housing at all levels,” Sorensen said.

Thomas also said homelessness was one of his top issues, and talked about the link between housing shortages, behavioral health and substance use disorders as major drivers of the problem. He acknowledged improved capacity for behavioral health in recent years. He would be in favor of a low-barrier shelter, although he would be “looking at it very carefully.”

“There’s a lot of services here, if we all work together and coordinate, I think we can make a lot more progress,” he said.

Thomas also said he would look for ways to fund infrastructure improvements in the county, and light manufacturing to boost the economy. In his career, Thomas, a current Montesano School Board member, worked as an economic analyst for the state of Washington, producing labor reports and tracking mass layoffs. In 2019 he was appointed to serve as Grays Harbor County Auditor.

According to Thomas, his 2024 county commissioner campaign has been endorsed by state Sen. Kevin Van De Wege and Rep. Mike Chapman.

Thomas talked about his love for public service: “It’s purposeful to do, to help, to improve things. These are critical times.”

He added, “There’s a real hunger for action, and it kind of pushed me to run for the county position.”

Sorensen and Mullins also said economic development would be a focus if elected county commissioner.

Mullins said he would encourage cruise ship tourism through the Port of Grays Harbor, as well as enhancing the oyster industry to reap not only its benefits of food and clean water, but to produce pearls for sale. With growing economic development, however, he advocated for railroad safety, especially at Elma’s crossing near town.

Mullins said he wants to adjust the county’s foreclosure system to allow more time for people to bid on delinquent properties before they are sold.

Mullins also said the county “shouldn’t be buying properties up, because it’s taking it out of the tax base.”

“Every time you take a property out of the tax rolls, you’re lowering your revenues,” he said.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.