Rep. Christian faces challenge from law student Valencia in bid for state Senate seat

Voters in and around Spokane Valley are about to elect a new state senator for the first time in more than a decade, and the choice has come down to a pair of veterans from each of the major political parties.

Mike Padden won the seat in 2011 in a special election, then secured a four-year term the next year before another two successful re-election bids. The respected conservative announced his retirement in early April.

Candidates of many backgrounds and experience levels threw their hats in the rings to replace him.

State Rep. Leonard Christian, a Republican, and law student Miguel Valencia, a Democrat, eked out of a crowded primary field to qualify for the general election. Valencia secured the most votes with 22%, while Christian edged out fellow conservative Mike Kelly with 21% – despite Kelly’s endorsements from Padden and the Spokane County Republican Party.

Voters in the district have elected conservative leaders for decades, giving Christian an advantage in November. The majority of votes in the primary were split among the four Republicans in the race, which also included Spokane Valley Councilman Al Merkel, fellow council member Mayor Pam Haley.

Critiques and pitches to the voters

Valencia, a first-time candidate, said his lack of legislative experience is more than made up for by his work ethic and his policy positions. While his opponent has more elected experience, Valencia said he does not believe Christian has been an effective representative for the district.

“Let’s say I get elected, and in four years, I want to run for re-election,” Valencia said. “If I didn’t do anything, if I didn’t pass a single bill, or the things I was supporting are things that everybody is against, that experience to the voters should be kind of like a negative, should be like, ‘Well, he didn’t do anything.’ I think it’s the same thing with Leonard.”

If elected, Valencia said he would advocate for the working class on issues like lowering the costs of health care and child care, and increasing paths to home ownership.

Christian is seeking his first term in the state Senate after being elected to the House in 2022. He previously was appointed to an empty seat in 2014, but later lost his election bid that same year.

Johnathan Curley

The real estate broker said his experience in the Legislature and the relationships he’s built with other lawmakers across party lines will help him make progress on issues such as public safety, housing and development and responsible stewardship of public funds.

In response to criticism that he’s been ineffective as a leader, Christian said there’s more to being an effective legislator than getting bills in front of the governor, especially in a Democratic majority Legislature.

Valencia also criticized Christian’s stance on abortion, after the representative voiced support for more stringent abortion restrictions in the state in past elections.

Johnathan Curley

Christian described himself as “100% pro-life,” in a 2022 survey conducted by the conservative Christian nonprofit We Believe, We Vote. He opposes exceptions that allow for abortions for women who are raped, noting that he was conceived when his mother was raped.

Valencia said it would be “detrimental to women’s health and reproductive rights” if Christian’s ideas got any traction at the state level.

“We feel a good hit of what an abortion ban is like living in the Fourth right next door to Idaho where they do have an abortion ban, and we’ve seen the effects,” Valencia said. “Twenty-five percent of OBGYNs have left Idaho. In northern Idaho, they lost a maternal health care center. Those people are coming here now for health care.”

On housing

Homelessness has been on the rise in Washington since 2016, with more than 28,000 people statewide experiencing homelessness last year, according to a Department of Commerce report. Industry experts say that figure is likely much higher.

The state’s lack of affordable housing options for low-income residents is often pointed to as a contributing factor in the crisis, and Commerce’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board said in May more than 1 million new homes will need to be built in the next two decades to accommodate the current need and projected statewide population growth.

Christian said Washington’s building regulations are driving up the costs of development and home ownership, leading many to decide to build elsewhere, like neighboring Idaho. If elected, he would like to do away with some of the red tape in the permitting process and remove some associated builder’s fees.

“When you start adding all these impact fees together, the builder has to pay them in advance and then pass that cost on to the home buyer,” Christian said. “So it gets more expensive for folks to buy a house in our state.”

On homelessness, Christian said he would like to see more done at the regional level. He believes there should be more collaboration among elected leaders at the county level and from Spokane, Spokane Valley and the surrounding smaller cities to create a coordinated response.

Valencia said he is supportive of legislation passed in recent years that has allowed for and incentivized more mixed-use and denser development, and lauded the city of Spokane “as a leader in trying to address the housing issue.”

He pointed to action taken by the Spokane City Council that allowed developers and property owners to subdivide smaller lots and build residences with up to six units in any residential area and did away with parking requirements. Doing so is key to addressing homelessness, he said, citing research conducted by a University of Washington professor that a region’s housing market, including prices and available stock, are the key factors exacerbating homelessness.

“I think that needs to be, like, a statewide thing,” Valencia said. “Let’s just let people build housing where they want to build housing and promote density as much as we can so that overall that will end up lowering the cost of housing for people.”

The candidates mostly agree on protections for renters that have been floated in past legislative sessions, a discussion legislators may revive next year.

Valencia said he is mostly supportive of placing a statewide cap on how much rents can be increased annually, but would need to learn more to see if the 7% floated last year would be the right limit.

Christian believes placing restrictions on annual rent increases “goes against some free-market principles,” but said he could be supportive of “a reasonable limit.” He said 7% might be too limiting in the event of rampant inflation.

“I think finding some equitable solution and a solution that is flexible enough to work in unforeseen circumstances is really key for something like that,” Christian said.

On public safety

Valencia places much of his campaign issues under the larger umbrella of public safety, arguing that providing health care, child care, affordable housing and employment opportunities can all increase safety in the district.

“I think when you take care of people’s health care, when you take care of people’s education, when you take care of people’s wages, that’s when you’re going to see a society that has good public safety,” Valencia said. “Because the people are already being taken care of, they’re not resorting to some other fast way of making money that might be illegal.”

Spokane Valley is actively trying to bolster its police force. While Valencia said he understands those efforts, he also supports investments in programs to pair first responders with mental health professionals for mental health and drug use calls.

Christian has touted his record of endorsing and sponsoring legislation aimed at reversing actions taken by the Legislature in recent years intended to increase police accountability, saying those actions have hamstrung law enforcement from doing their jobs to the best of their abilities.

If elected, Christian said he would advocate for more stringent penalties for criminal activities and increased funding at the state level for local law enforcement agencies and detention centers.

“You can have all the law enforcement officers in the world, but without the ability to hold somebody, the criminal, accountable, it doesn’t do any good,” Christian said. “And I think that’s one of our problems with our current leadership for the state, is that the officers have not been respected.”

On education

Christian said supporting public education was not originally one of his campaign issues, but it’s become an area of focus because his constituents have stressed its importance to him.

Christian is supportive of efforts to increase state funding for schools, particularly for special education departments. He also wants more investment in mental health services.

“Everyone’s entitled to an education,” Christian said. “But if you have a special needs child that has to have special transportation to the school and from the school, and nursed from the moment they get picked up to the moment that they are brought home, that gets expensive, and that’s not all covered by the state.”

Valencia said he would also like to see increased investment in education to take some of the financial burden off of local districts and property owners, who help fund public education through property taxes.

As for families of the students in the schools, Valencia would like to enact a statewide free lunch program to ease their financial struggles. He’s also supportive of removing the costs at public universities and colleges in Washington, something he believes has the support of Democrats and Republicans alike.

“We usually agree that our kids deserve to have a good education, and they shouldn’t go into tens of thousands of dollars of student debt to be able to get that education,” Valencia said.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to accurately list the Republican candidates in the August primary election.