Lamar surges past Rench in Latah County race

A late update to the vote count that came after midnight completely flipped the results in the District 2 Latah County Commission race, with incumbent Tom Lamar, D-Moscow, keeping his seat.

Lamar collected 12,645 votes, or 62.7 percent, while newcomer Gabriel Rench, R-Moscow, came away with 7,524 votes, or 37.3 percent.

Before the post-midnight update, it appeared that Rench had a lead. But a number of votes, which were apparently mail-in and absentee, were added to Latah County’s online results, which boosted Lamar into the lead.

Lamar, 60, said last month he will continue to represent Latah County residents and their interests at the county, state and federal level.

“I’m running again because I’ve been an effective commissioner and I would like to continue to serve all the people of Latah County and work well in a collaborative way with other leaders within Latah County and within our region,” Lamar said.

He is the executive director of the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute in Moscow and a former Moscow City Councilor.

Rench, 41, said last month he originally ran for the seat to stop property taxes from increasing and that Moscow’s face mask/social distancing order, which he said is unconstitutional, added fuel to his desire to run.

Rench and four others were cited for suspicion of violating the order at an anti-mask protest in September in the Moscow City Hall parking lot. Rench, host of CrossPolitic television show and podcast and public relations and media consultant of Rench Solutions, was also arrested but not charged for allegedly refusing to identify himself to police at the event.

Rench said he would ultimately like to see property taxes eliminated and a better tax structure implemented, but said the state Legislature would need to tackle that.

“In the meantime, I won’t raise taxes and we’ll figure out better ways to do things that are friendly to our community and instill freedom in our citizens,” Rench said.