Maybe it’s the Covid talking, but I thoroughly enjoyed the candidate forum at the KP Civic Center Sept. 17.
Eight candidates answered questions from the community in a nearly two-hour session sponsored by the Key Peninsula News, KP Community Council, KP Business Association, The Mustard Seed Project, and the civic center association.
I was going to moderate but, thanks to my first dance with Covid, at the last minute I had to tap my friend Chuck West. If somehow you don’t know him, he’s a retired KPFD battalion chief, Community Council director, Peninsula School board member, and all-around stalwart of the peninsula, who bravely took hold of a fistful of questions and a faltering sound system.
Though I couldn’t attend, I had two writers and one photographer there reporting back to me in sort of real-time, keeping a low profile as is our policy at public events so as not to influence them. I later read their notes and watched the video shot by Maureen Reilly for The Mustard Seed Project.
What I saw made me check the labels on my cold medicines. Maybe I shouldn’t be mixing this stuff?
Rep. Michelle Caldier (R-26th LD, Pos. 2) seemed to have switched bodies with former Rep. Jesse Young (R-26th LD, Pos. 1).
Gone was Young’s fiery rhetoric of two years ago when he attacked his opponent at this same forum, violating rules he had agreed to and refusing to surrender the microphone. Instead, he answered questions — dare I say it? — like a statesman while trying to wedge the word “bipartisan” into every other sentence. He even complained about fellow Republicans running attack ads accusing him of being too liberal.
This is the same guy who stood in a crowd of MAGA hats and semi-automatic rifles in Gig Harbor to denounce Black Lives Matter.
(The only attack ads I’ve seen lately target his opponent, Adison Richards.)
Caldier, on the other hand, took every opportunity to lay blame for all the ills of society at the feet of the Democratic Legislature, backing up her claims with her lived experience trying to reverse them, taking names, and showing us the receipts.
Meanwhile, at the far end of the dais, sat rivals for Derek Kilmer’s open seat for the 6th Congressional District. Sen. Drew MacEwen (R-35th LD) and Sen. Emily Randall (D-26th LD) chatted, laughed, and even took a selfie together, like a couple of kids on a field trip.
That didn’t stop them from articulating their agendas.
Here’s Randall on the federal budget and deficit spending: “My policy work in the Legislature has really been focused on making sure that families in Washington of all income levels have access to essentials like healthcare, education, childcare. We passed the capital gains tax and the working families tax credit, which is a state version of the federal child tax credit, and I would love to see us expand and strengthen that at the federal level. ... After the Great Recession, the Legislature severely cut safety net programs and we are still getting ourselves out of some of the holes those cuts made, particularly for people with disabilities. Before we talk about massive cuts, I want us to think about how we’re meeting the needs of our neighbors.”
And here’s her colleague in the Senate, MacEwen: “The economy is not working for a large number of working families. We’ve got family savings wiped out by massive inflation, and we’ve seen credit card debt spiking and soaring interest rates. Part of (the solution) at the federal level is getting back to having a budget. ... The last budget we had was 20 years ago. One of the things I appreciate at the state level is that we’ve gotta get it done and we have to balance it. In 2014 or ’15, I was the No. 2 Republican on the House Capital Budget Committee, and we were at the end of our fiscal year. It took all of us pulling in the same direction to get that budget done and the governor signed it at 11:30 p.m., June 30, and we averted a catastrophe for the state. ... Having served in the minority for the past 12 years, while that’s not desirable, it’s been a heck of a journey and a lesson on how to work together, and we need more of that at the federal level.”
What was going on here? Can we send them both to Congress? Now that would be a great field trip.
Closer to home was a question about rehabilitating the Purdy Bridge and State Route 302.
“I’ve driven over the bridge more times than I can count,” said Adison Richards, the Peninsula School District alumnus and local lawyer now in his second run for the House against Young. “It was really unhelpful when in 2015 our representatives did not get a single project for our district in the transportation package. It’s put us on the back burner for a lot of different projects. We need to make sure we have a representative in Olympia in the majority caucus fighting for solutions for our district.”
Caldier countered with: “In 2015, there were (local road) projects, but I did not vote for the gas tax that went with them. ... When I was first elected, I noticed that Port Orchard, Bremerton, Gig Harbor, all had lobbyists. Key Peninsula didn’t. Every year they come together and put forward all of these capital budget projects. I historically kept the light on any projects (here). I worked across the aisle with Emily (Randall) to help The Mustard Seed Project, the Longbranch Marina, and this building (the civic center). We did get other projects into the budget but, unfortunately, our current governor line-item vetoed them. I’m hoping that the new administration, whoever it is, will actually allow us to do more.”
Tiffiny Mitchell, a former Oregon state representative facing Caldier, said work needed on the bridge and SR 302 was part of a trend, emphasizing the need for better infrastructure, such as resolving water and septic issues in Key Center. “I think it just highlights overall how much has been ignored at the state level.” She also spoke against the four initiatives that will be on the ballot, as did most of her fellow Democrats, because they would repeal state funding in different ways. “All of these initiatives are funded by a hedge fund manager. It’s actually to help them, not regular people.”
Young weighed in on that, saying: “Believe it or not, the taxes these initiatives are going after were bipartisanly (sic) opposed all the way through. These taxes are driving up inflation, they’re hurting our poor and lower middle class. ... The truth is there’s a lot of bipartisanship opportunities if you’re willing to put in the work. Tonight for example in a number of the questions that we saw, I don’t think I heard a single issue where there wasn’t an opportunity for bipartisanship.”
And what forum would be complete without talking about crime, addiction, and homelessness? The two candidates for sheriff sat patiently until those issues came up.
Pierce County Patrol Chief Patti Jackson, a 35-year veteran, said “I’m here to tell you that I understand we don’t have enough deputies to cover the (Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas), and we are working to try not only to increase our department as a whole but to make sure that we are putting deputies in the places they’re needed. We currently are very understaffed in the jail, but that is not the reason individuals are not coming in and being held. Sometimes it’s because of the (incomplete) reports, and charges are not filed. As of yesterday, we were 42 positions short of the close to 300 people that are budgeted to work for the Pierce County Jail. I was allowed to start a new program and hired 55 in about six months; we were at 87 vacancies. ... We need first and foremost to make sure that people are held accountable for crimes. We can bring them into the criminal justice system, but we need wraparound services to treat them. We cannot police our way out of this.”
Her opponent, Keith Swank, a 33-year veteran and police officer from Seattle, said “The current (department) leadership is failing the deputies on the streets and the corrections officers; they (jail staff) had a no-confidence vote in the leadership (in April). Sometimes there’s only two deputies working this whole area, which is 720 square miles. ... I worked the streets as a patrol officer my first 15 years. I have lots of experience with the homeless. Most of those people are drug addicts or have mental health conditions and don’t want help because help comes with rules. We have to hold people accountable for the crimes they commit and give them an option to go to jail or go to treatment. And treatment can’t be something that’s just two weeks long. It has to be a continuous process.”
My observations are just some of the highlights of the evening, edited for length and clarity — at least for me. I urge everyone to read our political interviews and KPFD town hall coverage in this edition, to visit the candidates’ websites, to ask questions of them, of your friends and neighbors, and to listen.
Some of the answers at the forum were hard to hear, but I sensed something new in the political discourse.
There was disagreement of course — this is an election, after all — but I also heard a subtle call for cooperation.
And that reminded me of something else that feels new: Hope.
Watch the forum at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE5fAwCa5f4.
Associate Editor Ted Olinger contributed to this column.
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