In the Aug. 19 top-two primary, Democrat Bill Turner trailed Republican Ron Wesen by 16 percentage points as both advanced in the race for Skagit County District 1 commissioner. Since then, Turner has gone on the offensive.

He hopes to pick up votes from the 15 percent who supported Leo Jacobs, the other Democrat in the primary.

A builder who specializes in “environmentally sound” homes, Turner says that it is he, not Wesen — a fourth-generation dairy farmer — who can best preserve farmland.

Turner said he would require cities to prove they’ve used up the available space within their boundaries before allowing them to expand into farmland.

“I actually believe my policies are better for farmland,” he said.

Turner pointed to Wesen’s support in 2006 of Initiative 933, touted by supporters as a “property rights” measure. It failed by a 59-41 margin statewide and 71-29 in this county.

I-933 would have required governments to compensate farmers for lost property value if they were required to add habitat buffers along streams. Opponents said the initiative would have discouraged governments from enforcing the zoning code, exposing farmland to development.

“‘Property-rights advocate’ is really a smoke screen for people who want to make as much money as they can off their land,” Turner said.

Wesen said Turner is misrepresenting his position on farmland preservation. He said his support of I-933 was born out of frustration over government regulation, not as a convoluted way to encourage development.

“To say that I’m not in favor of ag land was not a true statement,” Wesen said. “It does get frustrating for the farmer to get hit with new rules and regulations when they’re just trying to keep the ground open.”

After I-933 failed, Wesen testified in Olympia for a bill that put a halt to the county’s enforcement of buffer requirements on agricultural land until 2010. He also testified in support of the formation of the new state Office of Farmland Preservation.

Turner has cast himself as the farmer’s candidate after discouraging primary results in agricultural precincts. In the Edison, Bow and Allen precincts that surround Wesen’s farm, the Republican received 544 votes to Turner’s 164. Wesen also won some of the more upscale precincts, including Samish Island and in west Anacortes.

Wesen took 30 precincts out of 40 in District 1. Turner won the precincts in the more dense and more commercial east end of Anacortes, and he won La Conner and Guemes Island.

The two candidates seek to replace two-term commissioner Don Munks, a Republican who announced earlier this year he would not seek another term for health reasons.

A race this close in District 1 may be decided upriver and in the urban areas not included in that district — Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro-Woolley.

Turner has been ringing doorbells in the cities, promoting himself as the candidate for change by telling voters he would represent the people of Skagit County, not special interests.

On his Web site, Wesen presents himself as a populist who listens to his neighbors and as someone who will advocate for farmers and property owners.

Wesen said he has established relationships with members of the upriver community in his roles as president of the county Farm Bureau and Dairy Federation. He’s also worked with upriver farmers on the buffer issue.

“There are 61,000 ballots in the county, so we got to go out and get them all,” Wesen said.

Turner said he has posted campaign signs upriver and has been in contact with Democratic precinct officers there, but he admitted he has struggled to make connections at that end of the county.

Turner and Wesen are likely to get an upriver audience Monday night at a League of Women Voters forum in Sedro-Woolley. The forum features candidates for county commissioner and from Legislative District 39.

The forum begins at 6 p.m. at the Sedro-Woolley Community Center, 703 Pacific St.

One of the candidates will become a county commissioner at a time when the county’s need to build major projects is bumping up against a tight economy and voters’ aversion to more taxes.

Local taxpayers may be asked to pay a large part of the bill for a comprehensive flood-protection package for the Skagit Valley. Voters almost certainly will be asked for an additional sales or property tax to pay for a new county jail in downtown Mount Vernon.

The jail could cost $100 million. The total cost of the countywide suite of flood-control measures will exceed that, according to the latest estimates.

Wesen puts the jail ahead of flood control on his priority list. County public safety officials have repeatedly stressed that the jail is a dire need because the current lock-up is filled to capacity, and suspected criminals are being turned away regularly.

“The jail is more important than flooding at the current time,” Wesen said. “We need to make sure the citizens are safe. That’s our job. The flood, if it comes, we’re going to have at least 12 to 14 hours of warning. People are going to be able to evacuate.”

Turner said that global warming has made flooding the pre-eminent issue. The Lewis County flood of last December may have been a portent of the type of flooding we can expect in the future, he said.

“I just firmly believe that we just barely missed the flood this past winter. ... We may be seeing a lot more unusual, larger rain events over time,” Turner said.

Turner’s top priority as commissioner would be to open up the county’s books and assess just how troubled the budget is.

Declining tax revenues and fees, coupled with escalating employee costs, will result in a $550,000 budget shortfall at the end of 2009, according to the latest projection. By the end of 2010, the gap between expenses and revenues is projected to be $3 million.

Turner said the county commissioners have been too hesitant to “get in the trenches” and improve efficiency by laying people off.

“We have skilled personnel, and we need to keep those people,” Turner said. “On the other hand, there are people in every department you haven’t invested a lot of time and money in yet and that you can let go.”

Wesen said he’s familiar with difficult budget decisions. He wasn’t as adamant about making staff cuts if necessary, but he didn’t rule them out.

“On the farm here, you have to make tough decisions, make priorities, see what things are working,” he said. “With 65 percent of the county’s costs in labor, you have to look at it.”

• Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .

Primary election results
Ron Wesen 6,381 (50.4%)
Bill Turner 4,412 (34.9%)
Leo Jacobs 1,850 (14.6%)