The new 10th district, carved out by the Washington State Redistricting Commission to accommodate the growing state population, runs from Shelton to Olympia and north to include Pierce County communities as far north as University Place and Puyallup. Most of Thurston County except the town of Bucoda is in the new 10th, ending the decade-long split that put Olympia in the 3rd and Lacey in the 9th, but most of the population in the new 10th is in Pierce County.
The race has drawn two other announced Republican candidates – including Dick Muri of Steilacoom and Stan Fleming of University Place, both of whom are on the Pierce County Council.
Heck’s two events:
The “Pierce County Gives Congress Heck” event starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Lakewood Senior Activity Center, 9112 Lakewood Drive S.W., in Lakewood. The emcee is former state lawmaker Dawn Morrell and speakers include state Rep. Tami Green and Bates Technical College president Lyle Quasim.
Muri ran and lost to U.S. Rep. Adam Smith in the 9th district race in 2010. But Muri’s campaign chairman, Alex Hays, said the campaign was trying to raise $100,000 by year’s end, up from the $51,116 reported to the Federal Election Commission through September. Heck reported to the FEC that he raised $379,898 through September, but his campaign says he has more than $580,000 cash on hand after raising $240,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Heck is a former state House member who served as chief of staff for former Gov. Booth Gardner and co-founded TVW, the public affairs network. He has described himself as wealthy and an entrepreneur, and his campaign says he also loaned $100,000 to the campaign. Data on file with the Center for Responsive Politics’ opensecrets.org site show Heck raised and spent about $2 million in his 2010 race, including $350,000 of his own money.
The field could grow in the 10th. A third Republican considering a run is David Castillo, an Olympia based financial planner who ran in the 3rd district against Heck and eventual winner Jaime Herrera Beutler in 2010.
“I am still considering it …” Castillo said Tuesday by email. “We've given ourselves until the end of the month to make a final decision. The response I have been getting from past donors/supporters has been extremely positive, so we are weighing that against whether or not we want to put the family through another race.”
A Shelton man – Raymond Lee “Randy” Olson – sent me an email a while ago saying he is a retired school teacher and also is considering a run as a “Blue Dog Democrat.’’
Stay tuned.
