All state legislative seats in 21st District up for grabs

EVERETT — All three seats in the state Legislature to represent Washington’s 21st District are up for grabs in the November election, as three Democratic incumbents look to retain their seats against a variety of challengers.

Democrat State Sen. Marko Liias is looking to retain his Senate seat against Republican Riaz Khan, while Democratic State Reps. Strom Peterson and Lillian Ortiz-Self are facing challenges from Democrat Jason Moon and Libertarian Bruce Guthrie, respectively.

All of the candidates automatically advanced through the August primary as each race had only two candidates. Liias and Ortiz-Self received over 70% of the vote in their races, while the race between Peterson and Moon was closer, as Peterson received about 54% of the vote compared to Moon’s 44%.

State House

Position 1

Jason Moon

Moon, 44, is a Democrat and serves on the Mukilteo City Council. He also works as the head of communications for a concrete company and as a real estate agent.

His top priorities include addressing homelessness, improving public safety, giving more control back to cities regarding housing requirements and pushing for economic development, he said in a Sept. 28 interview.

To address homelessness, Moon said that the state could allocate its resources better to invest more in social workers and in detox facilities. He also said that wraparound services for people experiencing homelessness need to be improved.

“We need to care for them, give them all the options, but at the same time, we need to make sure there is some accountability,” Moon said.

On public safety, Moon said that it is paramount to make sure that police officers, firefighters and prosecutors have enough resources to properly operate. He also said he would work to change the culture around law enforcement and encourage more events where police officers meet with community members.

In regard to housing, Moon said that state mandates requiring cities to zone for certain amounts of housing “handcuffs a lot of the local municipalities” and said that cities should retain more control over where housing can be built. He proposed a possible system where cities could earn more resources from the state for encouraging more housing, while cities uninterested in allowing more housing could choose not to.

“I think it would create a better solution because every city is different, every city has their different strengths and weaknesses,” Moon said.

To boost economic development, Moon said he would encourage the state to allow more data centers and nuclear energy facilities. He said the nuclear power facilities could improve the state of Washington’s electric grid, and that that data centers — while they would need to be closely regulated, he said — could also bring a boost to business in the state.

“I feel like if we get too far behind, our state will lost its economic touch, economic flair that’s bringing in a lot of these businesses,” Moon said.

On the state budget, Moon said he would look to make cuts to balance the budget and focus on maintaining funding for essential services.

To improve educational outcomes, Moon said the state should invest more funding into supports staff to work alongside teachers, including paraeducators and specialist staff. He said those investments would allow for teachers to do more in their classrooms.

Regarding transportation, Moon said the state should work to invest in large projects as soon as possible to prevent large cost increases that have affected agencies like Sound Transit.

Moon has been endorsed by State Sen. Jesse Salomon, Snohomish County Council members Jared Mead and Nate Nehring, Mukilteo Mayor Joe Marine, the Washington Council and Police and Sheriffs, and the Mukilteo police and fire unions, among others. As of Monday, he has reported receiving $54,857 in campaign contributions.

Strom Peterson

Peterson, 58, has served in the state House since 2015 and is also a Snohomish County Council member. He is a Democrat and serves as the chair of the state House’s Housing, Human Services and Veterans Committee.

His top priorities include improving housing affordability, implementing criminal justice reform and balancing the state’s budget, he said in a Sept. 28 interview.

To address housing costs, Peterson said he would work with the Legislature to prevent junk fees, ease the creation of subdivisions and look for ways to protect people living in manufactured housing communities from significant rent increases. He also said he is looking to strike a proper balance between statewide preemption and local control when it comes to land use zoning, but “the housing crisis is statewide,” he said.

“These are small, incremental changes that I think will ultimately improve our communities,” Peterson said. “Our communities can become more diverse, both socioeconomically and just welcoming new people. So I think that is worth the loss of some local control. Locals still have plenty that they can do when it comes to keeping a neighborhood character.”

Peterson said he hoped to implement reforms to parts of the criminal justice system, particularly to reduce the use of solitary confinement, which he said can make reentry more difficult and takes a toll on the individuals subjected to it. Regarding public safety, he said he would also encourage police and sheriff’s departments to do more public outreach to engage in preventative work. Peterson also touted the state’s new regional training centers as beneficial investments that are training more police officers.

“Those are really starting to pay dividends as far as getting good quality officers well-trained and in the field,” he said.

On the budget, Peterson said the decisions the state will make in regards to its spending could be “life or death” as cuts to certain services could cause harm to people across the state.

“I think that’s the lens I’m going to use, protecting those that are most vulnerable in our communities,” Peterson said. “…We want to make sure that we’re doing whatever we can to keep people in their homes and do that preventative piece before we’re faced with even more intensive costs.”

To address homelessness, Peterson said the state has already done work to improve shelter capacity through a bill last year that allowed emergency housing in cities across Washington, but more housing will need to get built in order to meet demand in the state. He said he would advocate for making more capital investments in low-income housing and in bridge housing like Snohomish County’s New Start Center.

On education, Peterson said the state needs to make more investments into core costs for school districts as they struggle with higher expenses. But he also said that in the long term, the state will need to look into its funding formulas for local districts, as some school districts that aren’t able to get levies approved can have difficulties making investments into students.

In regard to transportation, Peterson said looming megaprojects like the planned replacement of the U.S. 2 trestle will be critical to find funding for, but the state should also look for opportunities to provide more dollars to local communities for neighborhood connections like sidewalks and bike lanes.

Peterson has been endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington state employees union and the 21st Legislative District Democrats, among other organizations. He’s also received endorsements from Gov. Bob Ferguson, Reps. Rick Larsen and Suzan DelBene, Attorney General Nick Brown, Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson, Lynnwood Mayor George Hurst and Mountlake Terrace Mayor Steve Woodard, among others.

As of Tuesday, he has reported $125,724 in campaign contributions, state records show.

Position 2

Bruce Guthrie

Guthrie, 63, lives in the Edmonds area and is retired, having formerly worked in sales, marketing and as a teacher. He is a Libertarian and has previously sought a seat on the state House in the 21st District.

His top priorities include lowering taxes, reducing state spending, expanding school choice options, eliminating Flock cameras, building more lanes on interstate highways and implementing term limits, he said in a Sept. 30 interview.

Guthrie said that the “millionaire’s tax,” the 9.9% tax that will be levied on income over $1 million, will cause reductions in the state’s economic productivity and lead to job losses. He also said the legislature could use the tax as a starting point to get a more general income tax implemented in the state. He said he would oppose all efforts to increase taxes, especially an income tax.

Guthrie also called for lowering gas taxes, which he called “highly regressive.”

“The rich don’t care if they pay it, but it hurts the poor, they can’t avoid it,” he said.

To reduce state spending, Guthrie said he would cut the budgets of every department at the state except for police. He said he would propose a 2% reduction in spending each year while keeping police spending constant. He also said he would propose entirely de-funding public transportation and reallocating those dollars to investments in roads.

Guthrie said that buses in the region and Sound Transit’s Link light rail trains are often nearly empty, and argued those dollars could be better spent on expanding I-5 and I-405, which he said would help alleviate traffic on the highways.

“The people are the customers, and what are the customers demanding? The customers are demanding more lanes,” he said.

Sound Transit operates the highest-ridership light rail system in the United States; in September, the agency recorded an average of 115,400 boardings per weekday.

Guthrie said that he wants to remove Flock’s automated licence plate reader cameras from the state, which capture images of the backs of vehicles and creates searchable terms for police to use. They have been controversial across the country and in Washington.

“I don’t want to live in a dystopian, Orwellian surveillance state,” Guthrie said. “I want to live in a free country, and these Flock cameras are a threat.”

On education, Guthrie argued that public schools have no competition. He said he would advocate for opening up school district boundaries, allowing students to attend any school of their choice, and through offering vouchers for students to attend private schools.

“The same conditions that create excellent education in private schools, I want to bring that to the government schools,” he said.

To address housing costs, Guthrie said he would relax zoning laws and cut property taxes, as he said too many government regulations and taxes have prevented developers from building enough housing to keep up with demand.

Regarding homelessness, Guthrie said that the number of people experiencing homelessness across the state has increased because the state is subsidizing homelessness through harm reduction programs, he argued. He said he would advocate for more strict enforcement of shoplifting laws.

“It would be better for them, and it would be better for the rest of society, if it were a little bit more uncomfortable to be homeless, so that at the margin, fewer people would choose that lifestyle,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie said he would advocate for implementing term limits, limiting legislators to four terms in state office.

Guthrie is the recommended candidate of the the 21st Legislative District Republican Party Snohomish County Republican Party in the race. He filed a mini reporting campaign with the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Lillian Ortiz-Self

Ortiz-Self, 66, lives in Mukilteo and has spent 25 years working as a school counselor. She is a Democrat and has served in the state House since 2014.

Her top priorities include improving the economy, balancing the state’s budget and improving education, she said in a Oct. 2 interview.

To boost the state’s economy, Ortiz-Self said she would work to prevent increases to property taxes and taxes on small businesses. She also said she would work to develop more apprenticeship opportunities to get more people into the workforce, and advocate for building more housing to address the housing shortage.

“I’m very passionate about young people finding their career path and having living-wage jobs,” Ortiz-Self said. “And a lot of them do not want to go straight to a four-year university or one at all, they want to do something more creative, work with their hands. And we’ve got to get those opportunities opened up to them.”

On housing, Ortiz-Self said she would advocate for finding ways to increase the availability of condominiums and townhomes across the state to allow younger people to build equity.

Ortiz-Self said that “everything is on the table” when it comes to the budget cuts that will be needed to balance the state’s books, but she said she would focus on maintaining Washington’s basic services as much as possible, and focusing on making cuts that wouldn’t harm people with lower incomes.

“You try to make sure that our middle class that is working so hard and trying so hard to keep afloat isn’t being dragged down, and we’ve got to fight really hard to protect them,” she said.

Regarding education, Ortiz-Self said that school districts have been sharing concerns about maintenance and supply costs increasing and that it is a top priority for her to meet the needs of students, including through maintaining support services for students and adequate funding for special education. Ortiz-Self also said that she would advocate for school districts to include board members from all areas of the district to improve representation.

“We need someone who has a voice from the other side of the district that can speak to the needs of the families and the students in that part of the district as well, so we can have equal representation and make sure that all the voices are being heard,” she said.

To address homelessness, Ortiz-Self said that the state needs to take a “comprehensive look” at the issue, including through addressing mental health challenges, substance abuse issues and challenges with the current job and housing markets. She said the state has already taken steps like rent stabilization and could look at ways to support renters before they get behind on their payments.

“We have to stop trying to address problems in isolation and make sure we take a holistic approach to every one of these issues, because it takes a systemic approach,” Ortiz-Self said.

Ortiz-Self said that improving public safety would be critical and that she would support “common-sense, safe gun laws” including additional background checks. She also said that the state should work to give police departments more resources and additional training.

“It’s not an either/or,” Ortiz-Self said. “We need to keep our communities safe and do it in the right way.”

Ortiz-Self has been endorsed by the 21st Legislative District Democrats, the Washington State Labor Council and The Urbanist, among other organizations. She’s also been endorsed by State Reps. Julio Cortes, Mary Fosse, Cindy Ryu and Strom Peterson, along iwth State Sens. Marko Liias and John Lovick, among others.