By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – February 19, 2022 It looks like the kick off for the 2022 election marathon has commenced with the opening round of aspirants turning in their paperwork announcing their candidacy. The preliminary round of sparring which includes the offices of Supervisors for District's 3 and 4, the sheriff, the district attorney, tax collector/assessor, county clerk/recorder, and the superintendent of schools, has now officially opened as of this past Monday. Thus far the political victims to be sliced and diced over the coming election season have resulted in mostly familiar names, Katherine Micks to remain as the County's District Attorney, and Randy Waltz as Sheriff. Looks like Gerry Hemmingsen has decided to hang up his spurs in District 4 and two new contenders are set to face off for the soon to be empty seat. Both Brian Stone of Harbor Commission Fame, and local realtor Patty Adams are set to duke it out should Gerry Hemmingsen ride off into the sunset and no other steps forward. Thus far a pretty lean stable of potential contenders for any of the above mentioned seats have come forward. It would be nice to have a "a few more good candidates" to step forward into the ring to see what our County's next round of community leadership might look like. Never fear as according to our current Clerk/recorder, Allissa Northrup, potential candidates have until March 11th to submit their paperwork, and five days longer if current incumbents fail to re up. Ms. Northrup also added that she and Clinton Schaad will be filing paperwork to retain their respective offices. Thus far no one has filed for the offices of tax collector, assessor, or superintendent of schools, currently held by Barbara Lopez, Jennifer Perry, and Jeff Harris, who is also the School District's superintendent. District 3's supervisor, Chris Howard has also failed to file as of the current posting. Normally most of the County's positions do not offer much in the way of variety, and as such we as voters do not have the luxury of determining whether or not the best person suited for that position is the current occupant. Can we do better becomes the age old question? If we had others to choose from, one never knows. Certain current officeholders have thus far not covered themselves in glory and could likely be replaced by others who would. Running for office to replace current office holders could spark new and renewed faith in the government process. Something that had certainly been tarnished by current office holders nation wide. Even at this local level a growing sense of the public becoming orphans at the behest of local officer holders has been revealed. Ever thought of giving it a try, now might just be the time. Current direction by the County's leadership and bureaucracy is listless and without direction. Too many decisions made like robots with little consideration for how it might affect local citizens. The remedy might just be that dedicated person who actually has the citizenry's welfare as a priority instead of the County's "elite".