Candidates Night 2020

We made lemonade at the virtual candidate's night on Thursday, Sept. 17, cosponsored by the Broadview Bitterlake Community Council (BBCC).  So far, it's the only candidate's forum for our districts!

We had great turnout by the candidates.  Here are all the candidates in our districts:

District Position Incumbent Challenger
32 1 Cindy Ryu Shirley Sutton
32 2 Lauren Davis Tamara Smilanich
46 2 Javier Valdez Beth Daranciang
46 1 Gerry Pollet Eric J. Brown

Beth Daranciang and Eric J. Brown are Republicans, Tamara Smalanich is independent, and all the rest are Democrats.  All of them showed up except Ms. Smilanich, and we are very grateful to them all.

The candidates all gave their backgrounds, but this scribe didn't type fast enough to do them justice; best you get them from their web sites (linked above).  

All the candidates agreed the state will be facing a roughly nine billion dollar deficit due to the COVID-19 economic impact.  Most of the Democratic candidates felt that will require additional taxes, that balancing the budget only with cuts during the previous recession caused serious problems for the state.  Beth Daranciang said the state should call an earlier special session to reduce the time under the current budget, so that less extreme cuts or revenue increases will need to be made later.  Eric J. Brown said that an independent financial audit could find places to cut spending.

Most of the Democratic candidates supported some kind of income, capital gains, or corporate activities tax to counteract Washington state having the most regressive net tax rate in the country.  Beth Daranciang said income taxes are less stable through a recession than Washington's current taxes.

All the candidates agreed that police need to be accountable for any misdeeds.  Ms. Daranciang said there needs to be more prosecution of crimes against police.  Mr. Brown said this shouldn't be politicized.  Mr. Pollet said police unions protect bad apples.  Mr. Valdez said the state patrol is too white and male, both rank and file and leadership.  Ms. Davis said more issues need to be handled by mental health professionals, but the police station is always open and they don't ask for an insurance card.  Ms. Sutton said people of color shouldn't need to worry when they call the police.

All the candidates agreed there should be some sort of protection and support for renters and mortgage holders in this crisis.  Ms. Sutton and Mr. Valdez said the state should release some state land to non-profit developers for low-income housing.  Ms. Davis said the homeless population is diverse, with many coming from domestic violence, and that most youth homeless have been released in the last year from treatment or jail.  Mr. Pollet and Ms. Ryu said this needs support from the federal level that the senate is blocking.  Ms. Daranciang said we need fewer regulations on how housing can be built.

All the candidates agreed that Washington's bipartisan redistricting commission is a good thing.  Mr. Valdez said it needs more diversity.  Ms. Sutton said districts need to be set up so that representatives have backgrounds like their constituents.  Ms. Ryu said that candidates in safe districts like ours are raising money for candidates in more competitive districts.  Mr. Pollet said we all need to fill out the census and oppose Trump's war on the census.  Ms. Daranciang said districts must match natural boundaries.  Mr. Brown said that despite D.'s saying they're for inclusion, they still imposed the unpopular sex-ed bill on the public.  Ms. Davis said we need to center equity; despite the large Hispanic community in eastern Washington, there's only one Hispanic representative from there.

I was pleasantly surprised at how the technology treated us, except for very unfortunate hassling by a troll of our second speaker (Eric J. Brown).  Our meeting managers finally managed to knock the troll out and keep him out.

Thank you very much to the organizers, Karen Craddick (Haller Lake Community Club President), Anastasiya Smirnova (HLCC Vice-president), Angela Fava (BBCC President), Jayne Williamson (BBCC Treasurer), and Jim Jensen (BBCC Board).

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