Businessman Jimmy Sherrell Running for Douglas County Commissioner

Small business owner Jimmy Sherrell, of East Wenatchee, is running for an open commission seat in Douglas County.

Five candidates have emerged in the race to replace outgoing District 2 Commissioner Kyle Steinburg. First elected in 2016, Steinburg has a blustery, flamboyant reputation; he is not running for reelection.

Of those five candidates, Mayor Randy Agnew (of Rock Island) doubtless enjoys the most name recognition - but Sherrell's candidacy is not to be discounted or taken lightly, he says.

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Sherrell is the head of Midland Trucking, a family-operated cargo and freight company. He feels that the present environment, regulatorily speaking, is not conducive to business ownership.

"That's one of the things I'm going to focus on if I'm elected," he says. "We're growing. We're growing at such a pace that it needs, in my opinion, to be regulated to a certain extent." But in Sherrell's view, overregulation "depletes the value" of small business.

Sherrell's pro-business convictions are eclipsed only by his fealty to the police. He says it's important to balance budgets, but Douglas County ought not skimp on public safety.

"Every time we turn around, we want to defund law enforcement," Sherrell laments. "My goal would be to move the budget around enough to where we're not defunding it."

"We've lived here all of our lives. We love the feeling that we're safe - that's a huge commodity to us as a family." Sherrell has four children and three grandchildren.

Besides Agnew, Sherrell's other opponents in the District 2 race are Austin Flemens, Katie Shafer and Paula Lamanna - the most recent to file.