By Deb Murphy

As the nation slogs its way through what has to be the weirdest Presidential election in a very long time, local races in Inyo and Mono counties may be less contentious, let’s hope.

Here’s the rundown for Inyo:

Four candidates are running for three seats on Bishop’s City Council: Howard Wu and incumbents Laura Smith, Jim Ellis and Pat Gardner.

Lone Pine Unified School District has two seats on its Board of Trustees up for election. Candidates are Leigh Miller and incumbents Susan Patton and Marjianne Yonge.

Owens Valley Unified School District has the longest slate with four hopefuls running for two seats. Incumbent Sandra Anderson and challengers Nathan Reade, Raymond Naylor-Hunter and Keith Scott Leon.

Director for Northern Inyo Healthcare District, Mary Mae Kilpatrick, is the only candidate vying for Zone 4.

Zone 1 incumbent John Ungersma and Zone 2’s Denise Hayden will be running against Richard Mattingly and Philip Hartz, respectively.

Big Pine, Bishop, Death Valley and Round Valley’s school district openings will be filled by appointment as the number of candidates match the number of board openings.

Southern Inyo Healthcare District will have all five seats filled following the Nov. 8 election. The district changed from zone to at-large board members.

Incumbents Mark Lacey will be joined by Carma Roper and Chuck Carson for four-year terms. Incumbents Richard Fedchenko and Jaque Hickman will serve two-year terms.

Four local measures will be on Inyo’s ballot: three advisory measures on marijuana: Measure G on allowing medical marijuana businesses; Measure H on allowing recreational marijuana businesses and Measure I on levying a 5-percent sales tax on marijuana businesses; the latter two measures are predicated on Prop. 64 passing.

Mono County has even fewer local elections as just enough candidates stepped up to fill the available openings. The three local openings are:

Kathryn Mandichak, incumbent, and Gary Nelson are facing off for Mono County Office of Education, Area 1 Trustee.

John Peters will be challenging incumbent Tim Fesko for Mono Board of Supervisor’s fourth district.

Five candidates are running for three seats on the June Lake Public Utility District: incumbents Cheri Bromberger, Patti Heinrich and Dale Greiner are being challenged by Vikki Bauer and Doug Smith.

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