Candidates line up for county commissioner, assessor and sheriff’s office.

Though the results of the November election aren’t yet official, some well-known islanders are already throwing their hats into the political arena and gearing up for races next year.

Don Mason is pressing for change in the beleaguered Island County Assessor’s Office.

Mason says citizens have been getting more frustrated with the county assessor’s office since 1997. He cites a dramatic increase in the number of appeals, the recall effort, and a backlog of corrections to the county tax system.

Assessor Tom Baenen was the target of an unsuccessful recall effort earlier this year led by former Island County Assessor Roy Compton. Problems in the assessor’s office were also cited in a recent state audit of Island County.

It’s not the tax system itself that’s the problem, Mason said, but how it is being run.

“How we manage the process here locally is broken, and that needs to be fixed,” Mason said.

Mason said the assessor’s office has not made correct assessments in recent years; assessments should be the right value at the right time, using the right process, he said. And the public should be easily able to figure out how assessments are finalized.

“We need to make a transparent process,” he said.

Mason filed as a Republican candidate Sept. 20. Baenen, also a Republican, was unopposed in 2002 and has not yet filed to run for re-election.

Mason, 46, has been a program coordinator with Island County since 1995.

His educational background includes the U.S. Naval Academy, 1979 to 1981, where he studied military science, and Chapman College, 1988 to 1991, where he studied business administration.

Mason worked for the San Diego police department from 1982 to 1984, and served in the Navy from 1977 to 1982, and from 1984 to 1991. He retired as a petty officer second class.

Two candidates are already in the running for the county sheriff and board of commissioners.

Leonard C. Marlborough, Jr. is running to replace Island County Sheriff Mike Hawley as the county’s top law enforcement officer.

Marlborough registered as a Republican candidate for the sheriff’s office Sept. 8.

It’s early, but a wide-open race for Marlborough, town marshall for Coupeville. Hawley has said he won’t seek re-election, and some expect the race to go through a primary contest next year.

John Dean of Camano Island, the editor and assistant publisher of the Stanwood-Camano News, filed as a candidate for county commissioner on Oct. 27.

Dean, who is a Democrat, has already pulled several well-known people into his camp.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen is the chairwoman of his campaign committee, according to his registration filing with the Public Disclosure Commission. And former county commissioner Bill Thorn is a Dean campaign advisor, as is Basil Badley.

All three campaigns have modest bankrolls at this point, with the bulk of the money in two campaigns so far coming from the candidates themselves.

Mason has made two loans to himself, totaling $5,100, on Sept. 26; $4,000 for the primary, and the rest for the 2006 general election.

Like Mason, Dean has also dug into his own pocket to launch his campaign. He has loaned his campaign $2,000, according to financial disclosure records on file with the state.