Taxes, jobs and wolves are issues in 7th District House races

Democrats are rare in Northeast Washington’s 7th District. So rare that there are none on the ballot in the district’s state House races.

That doesn’t mean Reps. Joel Kretz and Shelly Short get a free ride back to Olympia. Five-term incumbent Kretz, of Wauconda, drew a challenge from Spokane-area defense attorney Ronnie Rae; three-term veteran Short, of Addy, faces Libertarian James Apker of north Spokane County.

All the candidates fit within the district’s general antipathy to tax increases and government regulation and are concerned about its long-term struggle with unemployment rates that are higher than the state average. And one new issue has developed: What should the state do about the growing number of wolves in the district?

Kretz, the No. 2 leader for House Republicans, said he struggles to get Puget Sound-area legislators and their constituencies to realize that jobs in mining, timber and ranching are as iconic in northeastern Washington as Boeing jobs are on the West Side. The state should do as much to support natural resources jobs in the 7th as it does to support aerospace jobs in Everett and Renton, he said.

“The public has no appetite for new taxes,” Kretz said. “It’s down to making choices, and nobody wants to cut.”

He favors setting aside the amount of money needed to satisfy court orders to adequately fund public schools, then dividing the remaining state revenue among other programs.

That’s an approach House Republicans have long advocated, but which has so far had little traction in a chamber controlled by Democrats who say health care, nutrition and other state programs work in concert with education to serve children and other state residents.

The “fund education first” system would be worth a try, Rae said. The state also should stimulate the economy by getting rid of some “stifling regulations that keep builders from building and loggers from logging.”

Rae is listed on the ballot as preferring the “Centralist Party,” but he says that’s a typographical error. He wrote down centrist, not as a party designation but a description of his philosophy. He says he hasn’t received many invitations to candidate forums, which he attributes at least in part to some voters’ reaction to him being gay.

Although Short and Apker list different party preferences, they differ less on issues than on the value of experience.

“He’s concerned about a lot of the same issues I am. For me, I think experience counts for something,” Short said, adding she’s the top Republican on the Natural Resources Committee, which handles legislation important to the district.

Apker counters that experience makes Short “a trained politician” with accompanying habits, including accepting campaign money from political action committees and special interest groups. Short should do a better job of representing the district’s interests in “a Legislature that’s either incapable or unwilling or flat-out ignores northeast Washington,” he said.

Both think the Legislature should come up with more money for public schools without raising taxes. Short also would give school districts more flexibility on spending the money, contending Kettle Falls, Northport and Mead school districts that are in the 7th have very different needs. Apker would set aside specific streams of money coming into the state, such as all proceeds from the lottery or a majority of property taxes, strictly for education.

All four want the state to do more to reduce the growing number of wolves and are critical of the way the Department of Fish and Wildlife responded to the loss of livestock from a pack in Stevens County. Kretz and Short say the state took too long to respond and didn’t follow the statutory plan when it only killed one wolf instead of the four originally planned. Apker said he thinks the state should open up hunting on wolves with a system of managed hunting tags.

Rae said any wolves attacking livestock should be destroyed.

“I’m still confused as to why they were introduced. It’s just wrong,” Rae said.