One of the fun little stories of last week’s election was the landslide victory of a write-in candidate for mayor of the picturesque little lower Columbia River town of Cathlamet in Wahkiakum County.

The story gets even better: the mayor-elect, George Wehrfritz, is a newcomer.  From Hong Kong. He only moved to town in March, after taking an early retirement from Newsweek.  He was bureau chief in Beijing, Tokyo and Hong Kong during his career. He and his wife, Diana Garrett, discovered Cathlamet while on a kayaking trip and they bought a little house as a vacation getaway.  After taking a Newsweek buyout, he moved over fulltime. Garrett  is a school principal in China and will work there for three more years before joining him.Wehrfritz, who was known only by his immediate neighbors when he started his quixotic race two months ago, defeated John Hannah with 61 percent of the vote – 112 to 71.  As the Daily News of Longview notes, “He wasn’t on the ballot and his name isn’t exactly easy to remember, let alone spell.”

His first campaign “rally” in the town park attracted exactly three people.  Eventually, he pounded on every door, ran ads in the Wahkiakum County Eagle newspaper, quickly got out his message. He takes over for Mayor Richard Swart, who didn’t run for re-election. His first goal is to fill empty storefronts on Main Street.