DEAR READER: Though the 2026 Primary Election is still six months away — Aug. 4, to be precise — campaign signs for three candidates are already sprouting around Grays Harbor County.

Charlee Paull wants our votes for county auditor; JR Streifel is a candidate for county commissioner in District 3, and Daniel Crawford aspires to be our next county prosecutor.

The three early birds have at least one thing in common: Their signs say they are Republicans, though the “R” on Paull’s signs is so small I had to pull to the side of the road, get out of the car and squint to be sure. I’m hoping that means she has mixed emotions about what an “R” stands for in 2026, because the President of the United States is hell bent on reshaping “The party of Lincoln” into “Love me or else!”

Trump carried Grays Harbor County in 2016, 2020 and 2024, capturing decisive votes from disillusioned Democrats and independents. Given the metastasizing chaos of the first year of his second term, local MAGAs should be worried about November. Real Republicans, meantime, are appalled by the fear and loathing from sea to shining sea.

On second thought, the three early birds have another thing in common: It takes courage and commitment to seek public office in times like these. Or in the immortal words of Bruce Springsteen: “Stay on the streets of this town and they’ll be carving you up alright!” Cat Stevens’ warning is worth remembering, too: “Oh, baby, baby, it’s a wild world; it’s hard to get by just upon a smile”— or the best signs.

So, God bless you Charlee, JR and Daniel. But fasten your seat belts and put your tray tables in the upright position. You’re in for a bumpy ride.

I’ll say a little prayer for my fellow voters as well. We’re living in the age of truth decay. Our duty as Americans is to ask these three and the other candidates who emerge in the weeks ahead what their labels mean to them, and to whom they owe their allegiance.

RECENTLY ACCUSED of being a Democrat (Oh, the humanity!), I want to make one thing clear: Since 1964, when at 21 I embraced my first opportunity to cast a ballot, I have voted for the person, not the party. I am not now and never have been a member of any political party, so help me God.

The anonymous (par for the course) person who sent me a letter declaring, “You’ve never written anything negative about a Democrat in your whole life!” apparently missed my Daily World columns about Bill Clinton’s pathological mendacity. I view William Jefferson Clinton and Donald John Trump as willful, narcissistic peas in a pod. Both should have been convicted for “high crimes and misdemeanors” and removed from office.

Also, for the record, I edited the autobiography of Daniel J. Evans, our great three-term Republican governor and U.S. Senator, and wrote a 400-page biography of U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, the scholarly constitutionalist who championed the plight of timber towns after Clinton broke his promises to mitigate the impact of the spotted owl set-asides that created generational poverty on the Harbor. The Daily World’s Editorial Board, of which I was then a member, endorsed Evans and Gorton at a time when Grays Harbor was a Democratic stronghold. I miss them now more than ever.

Trump maintains that anyone who opposes his agenda — anyone insufficiently MAGA’d — is a RINO: a Republican In Name Only. Evans and Gorton said Trump and his supporters are the real RINOs, betraying the party’s historic commitment to fiscal integrity, civil rights and constitutional norms.

SINCE THE 1930s, when the State Grange helped defeat the notion that voters must register by party preference, Washingtonians have fiercely defended being able to vote for the person, not the party. In 2000, after the U.S. Supreme Court declared California’s “blanket primary” unconstitutional, Washington’s open primary was in the crosshairs.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican intent on preserving the voters’ prerogatives, crafted a “Top 2” primary that, inexplicably, was vetoed by Gov. Gary Locke, a Democrat. While the voters were livid at having to pick a party, the chairmen of both major political parties were thrilled. It’s our party, each said, and you can cry if you want to.

Undeterred, Reed and Attorney General Rob McKenna, also a Republican, persevered in their defense of the state’s “Top 2” primary. Writing for a 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court majority in 2008, Justice Clarence Thomas noted that Washington’s plan had been overwhelmingly approved by the voters. Overturning it would be an “extraordinary and precipitous nullification of the will of the people,” Thomas wrote.

I voted for Reed, joining his staff that year. In my 17 years with the Office of the Secretary of State, I worked for two Republicans and a Democrat.

All three — Reed, Kim Wyman and Steve Hobbs — performed their constitutional duties as bipartisan stewards of free and fair elections. They demonstrated the same integrity that prompted Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, to tell Trump in 2021 that he was not about to just “find” enough votes to help the President carry the state and overturn the will of the electorate. Now running for governor of Georgia, Raffensperger is still hip-deep in trench warfare, rejecting right-wing election conspiracy theories as he fends off attempts by MAGA Republicans to hand over sensitive voter data to the Trump Administration. His emphatic response has been, “Hell no.”

ON AUG. 4, in addition to voting for a county auditor, we will pick the top two candidates for other partisan county offices, including clerk, assessor, treasurer, prosecutor, sheriff and the Third District’s county commissioner. Candidates for Congress and the state Legislature also will be on the ballot. The finalists will be the top two vote-getters in the primary. In other words, in the Nov. 3 General Election, barring an unopposed candidacy, you could be choosing between two Republicans or two Democrats.

We have plenty of homework to do. In this pivotal election year, it is particularly important to know what the candidates stand for beyond their statutory obligation to make clear their party preferences. The legal shorthand of “R” and “D” doesn’t begin to give us the shades of gray we deserve, let alone blue and red.

Charlee Paull’s candidacy seems especially intriguing, given the news coverage of worrisome audit findings involving the incumbent county auditor, also a Republican.

If Democrats enter this contest – or any of the other partisan races – I’ll have some timely questions for them as well.

For the present, given the conduct of the “R” in Chief, here are some things we have every right to know:

“What does it mean to be a Republican?”

The Republicans I know and admire were shocked and appalled when the President pardoned the criminal insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol, chanting that his vice president should be hanged for upholding the law.

The bedrock responsibility of a county auditor is to promote participatory democracy and ensure every vote legally cast is accurately counted, without fear or favor.

Any declared Republican running for county auditor, or any other office, should tell us whether he or she believes Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election, as he continues to claim, despite evidence adjudicated to the contrary by federal judges, including those he appointed, in courts around the nation.

I believe the voters also would like to know the candidates’ positions on the state GOP’s move to end the popular vote-by-mail system pioneered by Republican secretaries of state.

ONE OF JR Streifel’s challenges is that he wants to succeed Vickie Raines. I believe history will show she has been one of the greatest county commissioners in Grays Harbor County history; dedicated to bipartisan common sense; unafraid to shame President Trump for his betrayal of the county he carried three times.

The new county commissioner – “R,” “D” or “I” – will have a tough act to follow. In this case, the shoes to fill have high heels.

Streifel, active in the local GOP, was an also-ran in the 2024 primary for the House of Representatives in the 24th District. From what I can tell from the internet, he considers himself a Christian conservative.

I am a Christian. And I admire many conservatives. When I meet JR in person, hopefully soon, we can discuss what it means to be a conservative. Sen. Gorton, who was praying for America with his last breaths 10 weeks before the 2020 elections, once told a prayer breakfast that true apostles of American Exceptionalism support the principle of separation of church and state. In other words, is this a “Christian” nation or a nation where you are free to be a Christian?

DANIEL CRAWFORD, meantime, wants to be our prosecuting attorney, a job that requires a solemn commitment to promote equal justice under law. Together with discretionary powers in criminal matters, ensuring due process all the while, the county prosecutor has a host of civil duties, notably as legal adviser to our elected officials regarding all county business.

A county prosecutor takes an oath to support the Constitution of the state of Washington and the Constitution of the United States, uphold our laws and strictly abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct.

Being an attorney, Crawford should have thicker skin than the other rookie politicians. So, let’s jump right to cross-examination:

“What’s the difference between a Republican prosecuting attorney and a Democrat prosecuting attorney?”

We have seen what it means to be a loyal Attorney General or FBI Director in the Trump Administration.

The old saw that we are entitled to our own opinions, just not our own facts, has never been more relevant.

Though their ranks are sadly depleted by corporate greed, outright content theft by internet aggregators, and the notion that quality information should be available without a subscription, I challenge reporters and editors to offer no free rides this election year. Ask tough questions. Don’t endorse candidates who won’t tell us what they stand for and to whom, if anyone, they owe their political allegiance.

That goes for every office on the ballot, partisan and nonpartisan. And I don’t want to hear any cockamamie claims that your “personal” beliefs are not relevant to serving on the school board when they might speak volumes about our public schools’ duty to promote fact-based education instead of culture-warrior agendas, right or left. I’m concerned equally about science teachers who deny global warming and civics teachers who lump all conservatives as bigots.

One more thought: The voter turnout for primary elections is often pathetic. You have no right to complain about the outcome if you’re too lazy to vote. And if you’re too lazy to do your homework and just blindly pencil in the ovals for the “Rs” or “Ds,” that’s even worse.

John C. Hughes was chief historian for the Office of the Secretary of State for 17 years after retiring as editor and publisher of The Daily World in 2008.