The 2022 candidate filing ended last Friday afternoon and 2022 looks to be one of the most competitive elections in recent history at the state level, with voters deciding who will control the Washington State Legislature and who will serve the next two years as Washington’s Secretary of State.  Many qualified moderate and conservative candidates have filed to take on liberal incumbent legislators and run for open seats. Republicans will need to win nine seats in the House and four seats in the Senate to gain control in the legislature. In talking with GOP candidates and strategists,  there is no shortage of issues where there is a clear difference between the views of the candidates.

Republican candidates plan to challenge Democrat incumbents for their disastrous anti-police package, poorly developed Long-Term Care payroll tax, expensive and inefficient energy policies, refusal to end Governor Inslee’s undemocratic abuse of emergency orders and the governor’s discriminatory application of the vaccine mandate, unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains, failure to provide any type of tax relief despite a $15 billion in unexpected revenue surplus, dramatic expansion of state government (and multiple pay raises given to state employees), failing education policies, failure to condemn political violence conducted by their liberal supporters, and the repetitive attacks on the state’s family farmers. Polls indicate anywhere between a 4% to 10% bump for generic Republican candidates in most swing suburban legislative districts because of voters’ dissatisfaction with Democrat policies.

Yet just because Republicans have recruited strong candidates across the state and their positions are strongly favored by the voters, this does not guarantee success in November. The Democrats will be well funded due large contributions from wealthy urban environmental groups and government employee unions, which have profited from the amount of taxpayer money the Democrats have poured into their bank accounts. These groups will not want their gravy train to end, and we can expect them to go all out to make sure they can continue to profit from taxpayer money.

Republicans have been successful in the past only when they are able to overcome the Democrat’s large bank accounts by mounting stronger grassroots campaign.  Candidates will need people to doorbell, put up yard signs, make phone calls, walk in parades, attend rallies, stuff envelopes, and make contributions.  The Secretary of State’s file of registered candidates include the emails for each campaign. If you would like to volunteer or contribute, you can do so by emailing the candidate. (Note: if the legislative district for a candidate is only within one county, then you will need to enter that county in the top of the page search filter.) (Secretary of State list of filed candidates)

Governor Jay Inslee continues to remain unconcerned about the impact gas prices are having on Washington State residents, while he pushes false narratives to defend his actions. The governor says he will not support temporarily reducing or eliminating the state’s 49.4 cent a gallon gas tax because he believes oil companies will simply increase their rates and eliminate the savings.  If this is true, then why aren’t gas prices as high as Washington’s in other states which have lower gas taxes?  The governor then provides a second false argument that the state needs the money to fund existing transportation projects. Yet the state already has this money available due to ongoing revenue surpluses and it would only take a special session of the legislature a couple of votes to switch the funds to the transportation budget.   The governor continues to make such false comments on a regular basis because Washington political reporters are unwilling to challenge Democrat officials. Meanwhile, gas in Seattle is averaging $5.28 a gallon. (KONA Radio and KOMO News)

It is estimated that well over a billion dollars of tax money is spent every year on the state’s homelessness crisis and Democrat Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy says her office is currently investigating whether this is being done efficiently.  Since homelessness has steadily increased since the issue was declared an emergency over six years ago, the answer is clearly that much of the money is wasted in achieving Democrat goals of expanding the number of people employed by government entities (thus more union dues money that can be taken from paychecks which then is spent helping Democrats get elected) and not in solving the homeless problem. (Northwest News Radio)

Despite all levels of government (city, county, and federal) massively increasing their budgets to address the homelessness issue in King County, the number of homeless increased by 14% during the past two years. Liberal homeless policies were successful in increasing the size and cost of the region’s homeless bureaucracies but failed to achieve any of their stated goals (something that is also true with liberal climate policies). While there is debate about the differing methods used to count homeless individuals, there is no doubt the number of people experiencing the cruel brutality of living on the streets continues to climb in the region as liberal officials continue to throw (our) money at the problem.   (MyNorthwest)

House Republican Leader JT Wilcox points out the interesting fact that not one Democrat filed to run in the hotly disputed 15^th Legislative District which currently takes in the Yakima Valley, a portion of the Tri-Cities and includes Othello in Adams County.  This is the district which Democrats have long sought to dramatically alter as they attempt to erode the support the GOP has in Eastern Washington. Currently nine of the 10 districts are served by Republicans, with only Spokane’s 3^rd LD electing any Democrats.  Democrat redistricting commissioners, under the false belief that Hispanic voters will be more likely to support liberal candidates, attempted to gerrymander the 15th LD to include more Latino voters.  The district is also where liberal special interest groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to throw out the public redistricting process to replace the boundaries to fit the needs of Seattle Democrats.

Representative Wilcox pointed to a recent survey which suggests why the Democrats will not run a candidate in the 15^th LD. Quinnipiac University released a poll last week that reveals Hispanic support for Democrat President Joe Biden has plummeted in the past year from 55% down to 26%. This corresponds with other polls which show Hispanic voters are increasingly supporting Republican candidates. (JT Wilcox Twitter, 15^th Legislative District map, NWPD, and Fox News)

The candidate filings in the 15^th Legislative District also revealed the news that Senator Jim Honeyford (R – Sunnyside} will be retiring from the Washington legislature after serving 28 years, including 24 years in the Washington Senate.  Sen. Honeyford lists being a police officer, teacher, coach, and farmer as his non-legislative professions. In announcing his retirement Honeyford said, “it is now time for me to move on, spend time with my family, and leave the joys and challenges of legislative work to a new generation, with new ideas and solutions, and a new leader to serve as the voice of our communities.”  Senator Honeyford has already endorsed his fellow Republican Nikki Torres to replace him. (Senator Honeyford retirement announcement)

Analysts say that Oregon is phasing in its agriculture overtime rates in a much fairer manner than then how the urban Democrats who control the Washington Legislature implemented their new wage requirements for farmers.  Not only is Oregon phasing in the new wage scale over five years, as  compared to three years in Washington, but it also included a tax break for the farmers and an economic study at the end of five years to see how the new wages impact both the farmers and the workers. (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with 44^th Legislative District Republican House candidate Mark Harmsworth, who is running against Democrat Representative Brandy Donaghy, the incumbent appointed earlier this year.  This race in Central Snohomish County is targeted by both parties as the Republicans seek to take control of the legislature this November.  Harmsworth served the 44^th District in the House from 2015 to 2019, after completing two terms on the Mill Creek City Council.  Recently Harmsworth has worked as the Center for Small Business Director for the Washington Policy Center and runs his own IT consulting company. Like many of his fellow GOP candidates, Harmsworth is highlighting public safety issues in his campaign after the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police legislation led to a significant rise in crime across Washington.  In his interview Harmsworth discusses making the state a more affordable place to live and work, repealing the Long-Term Care payroll tax, public safety, helping small businesses, and providing Shift readers with his very unique, yet worthy favorite book. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

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