Benson, Dolan differ on issues
The two candidates vying for the 6th District Senate seat couldn’t be more different.
Republican Brad Benson is a major in the Washington Air National Guard, a conservative lawmaker who just finished his fourth term in the state House of Representatives. A former banker, small-business owner and Sunday school teacher, he blames excessive government regulation for the poor economy.
Democrat Laurie Dolan is a retired administrator who started her 30 years in education as a first-grade teacher at a school with the highest number of poor children in the city. Two years ago, she lost her first bid for the state Senate in what became the most expensive race in state history. But Dolan eventually won an even bigger fight: her own battle with cancer.
For the past few months, both candidates have campaigned vigorously for the remaining two years of a seat that belonged to Jim West for 17 years. That Senate post – which Dolan ran for in 2000 – was briefly filled by Brian Murray after West was elected Spokane’s mayor last year. Murray wanted to keep the job, but Benson beat him in the Republican primary.
Since then, Dolan and Benson have appeared regularly at candidate forums and debates, with each encounter emphasizing how the two are poles apart on an array of issues.
When it comes to the economy, Benson thinks businesses are taking flight from Washington state or not coming here because regulations make it too expensive. He cites Washington’s business and occupation tax, which taxes a company’s gross revenue instead of profits, unemployment insurance and the minimum wage of $7.16 an hour.
“Unemployment has gone up outrageously because we have created all these benefits,” he said.
Since money for unemployment benefits comes from taxes on businesses, Benson said, “you may think you’re helping workers, but you’re eliminating jobs.”
For Dolan, the key to economic development lies in collaboration, the ability to bring diverse groups together – from the Chamber of Commerce to higher education – to find solutions for Spokane.
She mentioned several possibilities for bringing employment to Eastern Washington, including attaining more research grants for the area’s higher education institutions. These grants bring new jobs for those who have been recently laid off and are returning to college for retraining.
She also noted Eastern Washington’s potential to profit from a biodiesel industry, given the area’s agriculture, and the proximity of the Spokane International Airport as another draw for businesses.
Ideological differences
As far as education is concerned, Dolan said, she knows from experience what works and what doesn’t in the state’s K-12 system. She’s been part of “groundbreaking” efforts that have raised the level of teaching in classrooms. Dolan also strongly supports more funding for higher education, particularly since access and affordability are preventing a number of high school graduates from entering public universities and even community colleges. “We haven’t kept up with the need,” she said.
Benson, whose children attend public schools in the Spokane and Mead school districts, has been a longtime critic of the way districts spend money. Except for special education, K-12 gets more than enough money from the state as well as from property taxes, he said.
Despite all the funding, Benson said, he has seen little improvement in student achievement. Actual school reform has little to do with class size, Benson argued; it’s about the quality of teachers. Administration costs and bureaucracy are taking money away from the classrooms, he said.
Instead of additional funding for K-12, Benson wants to take that money and use it for higher education because so many talented and hard-working students aren’t getting access to the state’s universities.
The two candidates also strongly disagree on social issues, including how sex education is taught in public schools.
“Sex education isn’t animal husbandry, it’s about values,” said Benson. Government should support families and never come between parents and kids, he said. But that’s what happens when schools teach anything more than abstinence, he said. Dolan believes abstinence is an important part of sex ed, but thinks that teens need to have information on all aspects of sexuality, including birth control.
Growing up
A Spokane native whose family came to town in 1897, Dolan speaks fondly of her childhood and her years as a student attending Spokane Public Schools.
She often tells stories of her mother and role model, the late Spokane “Spokie” Hutchison, a longtime teacher at Lewis and Clark High School.
“If we believe in our children, they believe in themselves and they succeed – that’s the biggest lesson she taught me,” said Dolan, who’s 52.
Benson grew up poor in San Diego. His dad abandoned the family so his mom, Susie Niswonger, was forced to be a single mom, raising him while working as a grocery checker. They had so little money, he recalled, there were times they couldn’t even afford to see a movie at the 25-cent theater.
Benson started earning money as an 8-year-old by catching snakes and lizards and selling them to pet stores. As a fifth-grader, he mowed the lawn for the public library. By the time he was 15, he had a part-time job as a cook at a fast-food restaurant called Foster’s Freeze. His mother, whom he considers his hero, taught him to be honest, to work hard and to save at least half of what little he earned. “My work ethic comes from my mom,” said Benson, who’s 45.
In addition to their politics and philosophy, the candidates are also a contrast in personalities. Although he said he’s willing to work with others (“I know liberals exist, they’re my friends and I work with them”), Benson isn’t afraid to stand out and be in the minority. He won’t compromise his principles, he said, even in the face of criticism and loss of support.
Dolan, on the other hand, often calls herself a “team player” and a “person who lives in the middle.” Throughout her campaign, she has emphasized that her support comes from both Republicans and Democrats and that she is able to lead diverse groups toward consensus.
“Laurie is very kind, she listens to people and she gets things done,” said Gretchen Horton Kuch, a longtime Republican activist in Spokane who keeps a “Laurie Dolan” sign on her lawn amid all the others endorsing Republicans. “She has the right personality and temperament to get things done. She gives back to the community.”
Union backing
While Dolan has Republicans willing to vote for her, Benson has garnered the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union, a labor group that has historically supported Democrats. “When somebody stands up for our members in the way that Brad Benson has, we have to support them and go to the mat for them,” said Adam Glickman, spokesman for Local 775, which represents the nursing home workers.
Two years ago, the SEIU endorsed Dolan in her bid for the Senate against West. The union changed its mind, however, after Benson supported a raise for home-care workers despite protests from Republican Party leadership.
“While we recognize we’re not going to agree with him on every issue and he doesn’t have a perfect labor record, over and over again, Brad Benson has been there for us,” Glickman said.
Both candidates say they’re friends – even if Dolan says Benson is “more conservative than the 6th District,” or if Benson says Dolan is “naïve” to think she’s a moderate. (“She’s a moderate only when she compares herself to school administrators and members of the teachers union,” Benson said recently.)
Both become emotional as they speak of the people who have touched their lives, of the work they are most proud of.
For Benson, it’s his wife and four children, his years in the U.S. Air Force and his Christianity. “I can’t remember a time when God wasn’t real to me,” said Benson, who held back tears. “I can’t remember a time when he wasn’t working in my life.”
Working in the Legislature has been the best job he’s ever had, he said, and he will do all he can to continue protecting taxpayers in his district.
Dolan also mentioned her family. “I am a better mother than I am anything else,” said the mother of two. But she’s also proud to have worked with all the people at Spokane Public Schools and other organizations, including the downtown Rotary Club.
Now cancer free after a stem-cell transplant last summer, Dolan said she feels she has a second chance at life.
“Scarier than dying is not living well,” she said.
Battling cancer deepened her spirituality, she said, and helped her focus on all her blessings.
“I want to grow old with my husband, be a grandmother, become the state senator for Spokane,” she said. “Part of my passion in life is to make a difference in the community.”