Veterans, rancher, lawyer battle for state House seat representing Northeastern Washington

Two military veterans, a lawyer and a rancher are battling for an open state House seat representing northeastern Washington.

Interest in the seat was sparked when state Rep. Joel Kretz, who was first elected to the Legislature in 2004, opted not to seek re-election.

The mostly rural 7th Legislative District, which includes Pend Oreille, Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Douglas counties and part of Grant County, has three Republican legislators. The four candidates running to replace Kretz, three Republicans and one Democrat, said they were open to bipartisanship, especially in a Legislature dominated by Democrats.

“Nobody ever asked if we were Republican or Democrat. We worked for the common good of the people, and so that’s where I consider myself able to work with both sides of the aisle,” said Ron McCoy, a Republican.

Paul “Rocky” Dean refers to himself as a “moderate” Democrat, and said he wants to fix the same issues as his Republican opponents.

“There’s gonna be compromises, because there always is on both sides of the aisles,” Dean said. “I’m sure we can figure (out) some way that we can come together and fix some of these issues.”

All candidates in this race acknowledged Washington’s political split, and all agreed that working across the aisle is the best way to accomplish common goals.

“You have to give a little bit on some of what is your priority,” Bell said. “But for me, I will never compromise my values and principles, but I am willing to work in a bipartisan way to get things done for this district.”

The issues

The four candidates all agreed that public safety is a top priority.

“We’ve got ongoing indications of fentanyl-driven violence and increased crime, both throughout the state and here in the 7th district,” said Hunter Abell, a Republican.

Abell blames the Democratic Party as the source of the problem, saying “the Democrats’ failure to appropriately prioritize public safety and law and order issues” illustrates “the failed experiment with the decriminalization of drugs.”

Abell points to his experience as a judge for the Ferry County District Court.

“My background as a prosecutor and as a District Court judge gives me unique insight into the criminal justice issues that we face here in our state and the fentanyl-driven drug violence that we are struggling with.”

Preserving the rural way of life for people of the 7th district was another issue highlighted by candidates.

“The process to secure permission from DNR to harvest our own timber has become exponentially more burdensome and onerous,” Abell said, referring to the state Department of Natural Resources.

All four candidates said they support gun rights.

There is “a real lackadaisical attitude by the majority party in Olympia toward firearm rights,” Abell said.

McCoy voiced this same stance, being a concealed carry holder .

“Gun rights is an amendment, and I think all citizens … have a right to own firearms,” McCoy said.

Bell also voiced concern about firearm rights, given recent laws passed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature .

“The state has been eroding our Second Amendment rights now for over a decade,” Bell said. “People feel like they’ve completely infringed on the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms.”

Abell criticized the Legislature as well.

“Our legislature has shown a willingness to go after the firearm rights of law-abiding citizens here in Washington.”

Candidates voiced several concerns faced by small businesses.

McCoy said the state should relieve the burdens of small businesses by cutting taxes.

“I think that they need incentives and better tax reform for small businesses, because I think they’re being taxed out of business,” McCoy said.

Dean said many small businesses and farmers in the district are facing economic problems because they’ve sold their water rights.

“A lot of the farmers who were small mom-and-pop farmers that started out years and years ago, they’re in a hole right now because of the economy and other things that are going on, and corporations come in and they start waving these million-dollar bills in front of your face,” Dean said.

Dean said many smaller-scale businesses don’t realize that selling water rights means they won’t get them back.

“If you want to continue to do your agricultural business, you have to buy your water from the people that you sold your water rights to,” Dean said. “We need to figure out a way to cut down on the corporations moving in here.

“They’re taking advantage of some of these farmers. And the farmers deserve a lot better than that.”

Bell plans to cut “red tape” to help small businesses with the “2-for-1” rule – removing two regulations for every regulation added.

“You actually can take a couple of books and stack them on top of each other, and you can see over the last couple of years how many new regulations have been added,” Bell said.

Bell plans to target regulations “that just, you know, goes against common sense.”

Abell proposes reducing the gasoline tax and improving licensing requirements to help aid small businesses.

“There are hurdles to allowing licensure transfer here in Washington that make it difficult for professionals to be able to move from one state to another,” Abell said. “And we want more professionals here in Washington.”

Abell mentioned how harmful the gasoline tax is on small businesses, as “it has dramatically increased the price of pretty much everything.”

Dean said the state should boost funding for schools .

“I believe that the schools should be 100% fully funded the way they were when I was a kid.”

Dean said he is concerned that some schools have cut fine arts and trades training.

“They’re taking all these things away, and in my opinion,these are the stepping stones in the building blocks for our children today, and if they don’t have what they need to succeed, then what we’ve done is we have failed them,” Dean said.

Bell believes that public schools are facing another issue: various distractions in the classroom.

“Yeah, I’m very concerned when I talk to teachers about distractions in the classroom,” Bell said.

“A lot of those distractions are coming from cellphones.”

Bell is in favor of a “wait till eighth pledge,” which encourages parents not to give any sort of cellphone to their children are in the eighth grade.

Bell said he would like to shift more school decisions from the state to local school boards. He also believes there should be more accountability for students who disrupt learning.

“I would actually like to see local school boards have more freedom to pass their own policies that they think are in alignment with the communities when it comes to things like distractions in the classroom,” Bell said.

Dean, a veteran said officials should push the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to open satellite clinics to reduce the driving time for veterans within the district.

“It’s gonna take them about a 3½-hour drive one way, which puts a veteran in a car for, like, almost seven hours a day. And some of our veterans are at the age where they can’t handle a full day of driving,” Dean said.

Bell has worked on veterans issues at the state level, and is promising to help veterans if elected.

“I consider myself a veteran’s advocate,” Bell said.

Ballots for the primary election are being mailed this week. They need to be returned with a postmark of Aug. 6 or before if returned by mail, or dropped in official county ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. Aug. 6.

Editor’s note: This article was changed on July 19, 2024 to correct information about the “wait til eighth” pledge. The original version incorrectly described when the pledge encourages parents to start allowing their children to have a cellphone.