Sen. Dan Swecker, 65, who has held the position for 18 years, is being challenged by John Braun, 45, president of Braun Northwest, an emergency vehicle business based in Chehalis.
Swecker said this is the first election in which he has faced a Republican.
“It’s kind of an interesting situation,” he said. “Two-thirds of the district of voters are Republicans. Just having that ‘Republican’ behind your name gives you a little bit of a boost; I’m taking my opponent very seriously.”
Swecker moved on in the August primary after garnering 46.97 percent of the district’s votes. Braun received 40.33 percent.
Swecker said he has raised more than $100,000 toward his campaign.
As a gun-rights and union supporter, Swecker said he feels he is an attractive candidate in the district.
Braun said it’s “tough” raising funds as a challenger. He said his biggest focus is getting into the district to connect with voters.
“I’m going to knock on their doors, talk to them, speak to groups – whatever it takes to get the message out,” he said.
The candidates agree with the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision, which says the state has not fulfilled its constitutional duty to fund basic education.
They also agree that the road to proper funding should begin by better defining basic education.
“The Supreme Court said we needed to properly fund education, but also said before you spend additional money, you need to change the way we fund education,” Braun said.
Braun said he hopes more government transparency would help lead to ways to tackle the issue, and he wants to involve educators, students and parents in the process.
“We spend an enormous amount of money on education right now … the largest single item in our budget, and we don’t know where it is all going,” he said.
Braun’s top priorities have been education, the state budget and improving the business climate.
If elected, he hopes to do something about the worker’s compensation system.
“Our worker’s compensation system is the most expensive in the nation, and our employment tax structure is the most complicated for businesses,” Braun said.
Swecker said one issue he aims to tackle if re-elected involves Labor & Industries.
“They are talking about not having a rate increase in general, but talking about increases in the logging industry,” he said.
One logging company that works in the district paid more than $500,000 in premiums in the past two years and had less than $10,00 in claims, Swecker said.
“That is very serious inequality,” he said. “I’m coming up with ideas for changing the way we calculate people’s obligations they have under the program … right now they use industry; I think experience ratings should be the primary consideration.”
Swecker has taken interest in the state’s Growth Management and Environmental Policy acts and said he hopes to work on updating both policies.
He also is starting to focus on ocean acidification and has served on the governor’s blue-ribbon task force that is investigating the issue.
“It’s a pretty dire for the future of our economy and our environment,” Swecker said. “The consequences to that to us in the Pacific Northwest will be greater than the consequences suggested for global warming.”
Chelsea Krotzer: 360-754-5476
ckrotzer@theolympian.com
theolympian.com/thisjustin
@chelseakrotzer
