3rd Legislative District, position 2

Hector E. Martinet

Personal: 46, no party preference. Born in California. Moved to Spokane in 1990. Divorced. Has three grown children.

Education: Graduated from Glen A. Wilson High School in Hacienda Heights, Calif., in 1982.

Career: Pit bull breeder, caretaker of adult son who has lupus. Worked at Men’s Wearhouse as a wardrobe consultant for about 10 years until 2004.

Political: First run for office. Campaign website is under his name on Facebook.com.

Why do you feel you are the best candidate? The incumbent at present – it just seems like he’s been in there forever and the city keeps getting worse and worse. We keep losing more and more of our freedoms. They keep penny pinching us on everything. They’re going after candy and soda now – and tanning salons. … The last seven years he’s done nothing for the city but increase taxes, take away our freedoms, and violence has just soared through the roof. I don’t see that they are doing anything, and it’s gotten me very upset, and I would like to go in there and change things, maybe get something done. I figure if you can’t get it done in two years, maybe you shouldn’t apply for the job.

Would you support a gas tax to pay for the extension of the north Spokane freeway south of Francis Avenue? No I wouldn’t. No new taxes. No, we are taxed to death. I would look for another way to fund it or we would have to put it on hold. No new taxes. We’re going berserk with these taxes.

Would you support tax increases to help deal with the $3 billion shortfall over the next two years? I wouldn’t even consider any tax increases. If we have a budget shortfall we need to start shortening our staff or shortening our pay or shortening something. If you can’t afford it, you go without until you can afford it.

How would you cut the budget? Pay for … legislators, senators, congress people. It has to start at the top with the people who make the most. … That’s where I would cut, is pay on anybody that we could. After that, we’ll look at cutting staff, cutting programs, but the programs themselves should be left alone, just offer pay cuts to everybody. … People have to have a living wage and the people that are making in excess of that can have their pay scaled back until times are better. I’m not saying, you know, cut people, make everyone poor and broke. I’m not some socialist. But I’m saying these people need to look: “Am I making too much in this hard of a time?”

Should the state allow gay marriage? I am not going to force my views on other citizens or halt their pursuit of happiness. If that’s what they want, let them have it. How is that going to bother or affect me as a person? I don’t understand that. So, I do not approve of it, but at the same time, let them have it. We’re here to serve the people, not dictate to the people, so if they want something, give it to them.

Do you believe that there is enough evidence to indicate that human activity is a significant cause of global warming? No. Absolutely not. I think that’s all B.S. … This is just more rhetoric from whomever. These are lobbies and Greenpeace and whatnot that want to stop any entrepreneurship. They’re trying to stop the world and go back, maybe 100 years. I’m all for green energy, but to stop things, to rely on other countries and whatnot, it’s just ridiculous.

Do you support the state law that allows cities to install red light cameras? No I do not. Personally, I think the state is just looking to nickel and dime the citizens any way they can. … It’s just more Big Brother and I’m totally opposed to it.

Do you support Initiative 1098, which would create an income tax on people earning $200,000 or more a year while cutting the business and occupation tax and property taxes? No I do not. No new taxes. I absolutely oppose punishing anybody because they are successful. … We’re losing business after business after business here.

Should the state require students to pass a standardized test in order to graduate high school? No standardized testing should be done on any child. The children are not standard. They come in all different shapes, sizes. There are some geniuses out there that could not pass a standard test. … They should be evaluated individually, find out where their strengths are and work on the things that they are not strong on.

Timm Ormsby

Personal: 51, incumbent Democrat. Born in Spokane. Divorced and remarried. Has three grown children. Education: Graduated from North Central High School in 1977.

Career: Business representative for the Northeastern Washington-Northern Idaho Building and Construction Trades Council, affiliated with AFL-CIO for 10 years. Previously worked as a cement finisher for 17 years.

Political: Appointed to current House seat in 2003. Elected to seat every two years since 2004.

Why do you feel you are the best candidate? Having been born and raised in Spokane and lived here virtually my entire life, I think that I have a keen sense of the struggles and the needs of the 3rd District, of the demographics, how we’ve evolved and changed and how state government impacts and has a role in trying to provide relief to those pressures and tensions that folks feel. And it is understanding the role of state government and our obligations for education and for the safety, health and welfare of the citizens and what specific state government roles there are and that connection between the community where I was born and raised and still live … that qualifies me to be a good spokesman (and) someone qualified for the job.

Would you support a gas tax to pay for the extension of the north Spokane freeway south of Francis Avenue? We have a point of diminishing returns on fuel taxes in general because of the efficiencies of cars. … I will support a revenue source to complete the north-south corridor, and I think we don’t want to handcuff ourselves by saying it’s just a fuel tax. I think we have to be imaginative and creative in funding transportation projects because transportation looks different now than it did in 2005 when the Legislature passed and the voters approved the 9  1/2 cent (gas tax). … The fuel tax certainly has a role to play, but it’s certainly a diminishing role.

Would you support tax increases to help deal with the $3 billion shortfall over the next two years? Do we have to consider revenue as a way to do it? I would absolutely consider revenue as a way to do it. … What will the Legislature do? It will be a process much like we’ve done in the last two years when there’s been a shortfall in revenue. Cuts will be considered. Efficiencies will be considered, and revenue – all the things that have been the last two years – all those things will be considered, and appropriately.

How would you cut the budget ? I think anything’s on the table. I think anything and everything. … Good ideas evolve organically, and I think they have to be considered as they come in the context of the big picture and based on the merits of each one of them individually. … We have to catch up with the technology that’s available and see how we can use it to deliver services. That would be a focus, using technology.

Should the state allow gay marriage? We absolutely have to pursue the treating of our family units – regardless of what they look like – fairly and equitably. … Personally, I support gay marriage, but as a function of public policy, it hasn’t been vetted.

Do you believe that there is enough evidence to indicate that human activity is a significant cause of global warming? We absolutely have an impact. … We can absolutely be much more efficient in the use of our resources, and that’s going to reduce our carbon footprint and that is going to lower our human impact on the natural environment.

Do you support the state law that allows cities to install red light cameras? I do. I know that it’s not particularly popular, but each municipality acts on its own. The state law just enabled them to consider doing it. I think that it’s very appropriate in a multitude of circumstances for the state to allow local, political subdivisions of the state to make some determinations on their own.

Do you support Initiative 1098, which would create an income tax on people earning $200,000 or more a year while cutting the business and occupation tax and property taxes? Yes I do. I think that we have a very inequitable tax structure in this state that is very vulnerable in times of economic downturns. I think we saw that in this last two-year budget where we lost nearly a third of our revenue because it’s a very consumption-based tax structure. … In my mind we need to constantly be mindful of what is the fairest, most reasonable way to fund state services.

Should the state require students to pass a standardized test in order to graduate high school? Students need to be able to demonstrate mastery of skills that we want them to have leaving school. I’m less and less enamored with how we’ve used the test in order to determine that. I do think that we as taxpayers have to have an expectation that students are leaving with a minimum amount of knowledge.

Morgan Oyler

Personal: 27, Republican. Born in California. Single. No kids.

Education: Graduated from Crossroads School in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2001. Received bachelor’s degree in history from Gonzaga University in 2005.

Career: Currently unemployed. Supervised two homes for Helping Hands, which operates group homes for at-risk youths. Worked as a counselor for Excelsior Youth Center in Spokane for about two years.

Political: First run for office. Campaign website: voteoyler.com.

Why do you feel you are the best candidate? I would focus on what the 3rd District needs and what Eastern Washington needs. The current officeholder I think is concerned with things on the other side of the state because that’s where a lot of his financing comes from and that’s kind of where his allegiance is. His record has shown that. … He consistently votes with the voting bloc from Seattle, from Pierce County, King County, that whole power structure on that side of the state.

Would you support a gas tax to pay for the extension of the north Spokane freeway south of Francis Avenue? No. … I don’t think adding gas taxes right now is the best thing we can do. … I think the taxes are there already. The gas tax is pretty high.

Would you support tax increases to help deal with the $3 billion shortfall over the next two years? Not at this time.

How would you cut the budget? Cut staffing levels, get out of the stuff we shouldn’t be doing. … The government printing office that they have in Olympia, we could privatize that and save a whole bunch. … It’s going to be a lot of these little things, consolidating agencies, getting rid of some agencies and combining some others. You can put the Superintendent of Public Instruction into a Cabinet post rather than an elected office. That would cut the staffing in half and create another level of accountability. … Personally I’d like to see staffing levels reduced at a lot of these agencies and then salaries frozen, salaries cut.

Would you support gay marriage? If it came up (for a vote), probably not. I think it should stay where it is right now. (The law) serves the purpose and it provides the legal rights that married couples have – if not in name, then in practice. … As a private citizen I voted to uphold the Legislature’s decision for the domestic partnerships.

Do you believe that there is enough evidence to indicate that human activity is a significant cause of global warming? I am not a big global warming person. I think that it’s cover for an agenda that wouldn’t have popular support, so it’s guised in environmentalism so it will get more support. I think we should have a strong environmental policy. I think we should protect the environment, but I think it should be a reasonable, sane solution. It shouldn’t be based on some numbers that we don’t even know what they mean. … The evidence (of human impact) now is less than credible.

Do you support the state law that allows cities to install red light cameras? Yes, I don’t have a problem with that. I think it’s a public safety issue and it’s a revenue issue. If you have a camera at one of these lights, you can’t have an officer parked out there 24 hours a day, giving tickets to everybody. It’s one of these things that forces people to behave well.

Do you support Initiative 1098, which would create an income tax on people earning $200,000 or more a year while cutting the business and occupation tax and property taxes? No. I oppose the income tax. … At the state level it’s really the one thing that makes Washington competitive in the region. We have high taxes on businesses. … This is just adding a tax that would hurt jobs. It would hurt businesses and it doesn’t solve the fundamental issues that our state is facing. It’s just another cash cow for the government so that they don’t have to make hard decisions.

Should the state require students to pass a standardized test in order to graduate high school? Yes, in the broadest possible sense. The state has a mandate for education, and it can fulfill that mandate through funding. I think the funds can be tied to performance, that we’re not going to spend all this money just so kids can play tiddlywinks all day. There should be minimum standards. … I think the state can set those minimum standards, but should be challenging the districts to get up to those standards. … That’s really what I’d like to see, is the state funding it, setting minimum standards and then letting the individual districts go to work.