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If Hollywood ever makes a movie about Michael Phelps, don't look for the latest Tinseltown heart throb to play the lead role. He just wouldn't fit the profile.

Phelps is an unassuming, average-looking guy with a long body and arms, short legs and big feet -- a combination made for swimming. He's hardly Hollywood handsome but he can swim: He just won a record eight gold medals in five individual and three team events in the Beijing Olympics.

What makes his accomplishments even more remarkable is the fact that Phelps raced 17 times over nine days.

How refreshing it is. At a time when major sports are routinely rocked by doping scandals and cheaters, Phelps appears to have actually earned his gold mine the hard way -- with lots of hard work and preparation and by being better than everyone else at what he does in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

And even at 23, the Baltimore Bullet is no johnny-come-lately.

Phelps has won 14 gold medals, the most of any Olympian ever. Eight of those were at the Beijing Olympics, which end Sunday. That broke American swimmer Mark Spitz's record of seven golds at the 1972 games in Munich for most won in a single Olympics. Behind Phelps, with nine golds total, are Spitz, U.S. track star Carl Lewis, Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi and Soviet gymnast Larissa Latynina.

Prior to his success in Beijing, Phelps reportedly was already pulling in an estimated $5 million in endorsements, and sports marketing experts predict that now he will haul down more than $30 million in sponsorships. Everyone loves a (multiple) winner.

He'll make so much money, in fact, that he doesn't really have to worry about future security, which will give him time to pursue what he sees as a broader goal.

"I'm not in it for the money," Phelps said. "I swim because I love it, and I don't want it to be an every-four-year sport. I want to raise the profile of swimming," he said in a Miami (Fla.) Herald interview after his record-setting final event.

Well, if anyone can raise the profile, Phelps should be able to pull it off. He's planning on being back for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and it will be interesting to see what he could possibly do for an encore. Seven of the gold medal-winning events in which he participated were won in world-record time. He settled for a mere Olympic record in the 100-meter butterfly.

So, one more world record to go? Eight does seem to be a good number for this guy.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.

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A vote is a terrible thing to waste.

Yet way too many people in Yakima
County are on the verge of blowing off
today's primary election. As of Monday morning's mail, county election officials reported that only 26,466 of the 93,989 ballots sent out by the county auditor to registered voters had been returned. That's about 28 percent.

Or, put another way, on the eve of today's Primary Election, not even three out of 10 people who had their ballots mailed to them 20 days ago had bothered to mark and return them. C'mon, we can do better than that.

There's a nonpartisan Yakima County Superior Court race that will be decided in today's election. Yakima attorneys David Elofson and Rob Lawrence-Berrey are vying for the seat being vacated by Bob Hackett and state election law provides that whoever gets a majority (50 percent plus one) in today's final count wins the seat. There will be no General Election vote.

A state Supreme Court seat is also up for grabs today. Incumbent Mary Fairhurst is opposed by challenger Michael Bond, and if one gets a majority vote, he or she goes on to the General Election ballot alone, which is tantamount to election.

Today's primary is the first "Top Two" partisan election held in the state, which means the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the Nov. 4 General Election.

That has set the stage for two spirited races today in Yakima County.

A 14th Legislative District race will determine a successor for retiring Mary Skinner, Yakima Republican, and voters will pick from a field of five Republicans and one Democrat to select the two November finalists.

The Republican candidates are Scott Hess, Norm Johnson, Bob McLaughlin, Aubrey Reeves and Al Schweppe. The Democrat is Vickie Ybarra.

The race for the District 2 seat on the county commission is also crowded, with one Democrat and three Republicans vying for two spots on the fall ballot. Republicans are Kevin Bouchey, Ron Gamache and Dan Olson. The Democrat is Jesse Farias.

Granted, the legislative race is limited to the 14th District and the commissioner race to District 2 voters, but both are important first steps. The Superior Court race is countywide and the Supreme Court contest is a statewide vote.

Yakima County officials have predicted that 48 percent of eligible county voters will cast ballots. Secretary of State Sam Reed was even more optimistic and predicted a turnout of about 57 percent or 58 percent statewide.

If you got a ballot in the mail, you're eligible to vote it and have until midnight to get it postmarked -- or, drop it off today at the auditor's office in Yakima or at designated areas at Sunnyside Community Center and Toppenish High School before 8 p.m.

Obviously, we have a way to go in Yakima County to even reach those modest numbers. And there's not much time to get there.

A turnout of 50 percent or so is nothing to brag about. Anything less is embarrassing.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.