English, Holste will duel for sheriff; Sewell re-elected DA

District Attorney John Sewell, who could not be reached for comment, defeated Brian Aaron by a margin of 2,925 (55 percent) to 2,390 (45 percent).

Aaron thanked those who supported his campaign, “I feel like I let them down,” referring to his April 29 DUI arrest in Stevenson. In his first court appearance, on May 15, Aaron was scheduled to enter a plea on May 29.

“I know that cost me a lot of votes,” he said of the DUI charge. “John Sewell owns me a great big ‘thank you.’”

Aaron said, “I’ll be looking ahead and continuing my legal practice. I’d still like to work for some of the programs I advocated for as a candidate.”

English and Holste will face each other in the Nov. 5 General Election.

“I’m gratified and humbled by all the support,” English said. “It validates my vision for what I want the Sheriff’s Office to do for the community.”

Asked about the reasons for the width of the vote margin over Holste, English said, “It’s hard to tell, without any polling. We just kept our heads down and stayed with our plan. We’ve been working since January 2011, and a lot of people were involved in the organization and planning.

“This is not about any personal recognition, but about our office providing better services with what we have available,” English said.

Holste could not be reached for comment.

In other Primary Election results from May 15:

In the House District 52 race, Democratic voters in Hood River County overwhelmingly went with Peter Nordbye of Rhododendron as their choice to face incumbent Mark Johnson of Hood River. Nordbye garnered 72.5 percent of the vote, with a 1,476-534 win over Marv Hollingsworth of Welches. District 52 includes portions of Clackamas County, where Nordbye also prevailed, gaining an overall 67 percent win. Johnson, running unopposed, had 1,604 votes, or 99.2 percent; there were 12 write-in votes.

Democrat Joyce Segers took 1,201 votes, or 76 percent, in her race for the nomination to the U.S. House District 2 race, compared to John Sweeney’s 388. Republican Greg Walden was unopposed, and received 992 percent of the vote (1,732, with 14 write-ins).

Hood River County voters gave 90 percent of the vote to Secretary of State Kate Brown in her Democratic runoff against Paul Wells, a 1,841 to 191 finish.

Ellen Rosenblum, who won the Attorney General race statewide, gained 1,320 votes compared to Dwight Holton’s 726, a 64-35 percent split.

Hood River Republicans gave Mitt Romney a 70 percent share of the vote, 1,239, with Ron Paul at 223 (12.5 percent), Rick Santorum 177 (9) and Newt Gingrich 121 (7).