Too many state legislators appeared to blindly observe Democratic management in Olympia this 12 months, passing the most important raft of taxes in state historical past with out fully vetting how they’ll increase the price of dwelling in Washington state.
Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, was not one in all them. The Home Democrat dared to query her credulous friends in a troublesome session, even proposing her personal detailed funds framework to manage spending whereas preserving Washington’s social security web. Obsessive about elevating new taxes, Democratic leaders had been having none of it.
“I feel we have now to vote our personal thoughts and coronary heart and conscience and never all the time observe the social gathering,” Walen instructed The Instances editorial board. “Extra voices make higher coverage.”
Voters ought to promote Walen to serve within the Senate, representing the forty eighth Legislative District, which spans Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland and the shores of Lake Washington.
Earlier than her election to the state Home in 2018, Walen served as a Kirkland Metropolis Council member with distinction. Her friends elevated her to mayor in 2014.
Within the Legislature, she has once more distinguished herself as an unbiased thinker nervous concerning the impacts of laws on constituents. Most dramatically, Walen voted in opposition to the Legislature’s working funds this 12 months, satisfied that traditionally excessive taxes, whereas revenues had been already on the rise, was the fallacious option to go. She argues persuasively that her social gathering, with extensive majorities in Olympia, isn’t producing “sustainable” budgets; lawmakers are too reliant on piecemeal taxes moderately than dwelling inside their means.
“We’ve received to return to sound funds ideas,” stated Walen, who warns that the burden of the brand new taxes will filter right down to these within the state who can least afford them.
Walen could also be a funds hawk, gleaned partly from her a long time of expertise balancing a funds as proprietor of Kirkland auto dealerships. However her Democratic credentials are sturdy. The self-styled “pragmatic progressive” has helped cross payments to create extra inexpensive housing, shield reproductive rights and strengthen gun laws. The breast most cancers survivor started a “fur fighters” caucus to advocate for better safety of animals within the state.
Walen’s opponent, Sen. Vandana Slatter, was appointed by the King County Council to the seat vacated by former Sen. Patty Kuderer, who was elected state insurance coverage commissioner. Slatter is a succesful public servant, and a pharmacist. Although she hardly ever veered from the social gathering line, she, like Walen, voted in opposition to the enterprise and occupation taxes this 12 months, anticipated to particularly impression their district.
However Walen’s abiding independence and willingness to vote in opposition to probably the most excessive positions of her majority social gathering, moderately than fall in line, earns her The Instances editorial board’s endorsement.
As an example, in contrast to Slatter, Walen voted in opposition to offering putting employees entry to unemployment insurance coverage, arguing not from an anti-labor stance however moderately one which it will weaken a key state security web.
Walen argues for a strategic strategy in combating the Trump administration’s insurance policies, together with tariffs and funds cuts that hurt Washington’s trade-dependent financial system. She fears greater than $9 billion in new taxes handed by the Legislature this 12 months handcuffs the state’s means to reply additional by backfilling assist to probably the most susceptible residents.
Fundraising within the race is skewed towards Walen, a business-backed candidate whose $641,000 is almost double Slatter’s $343,000. Regardless of a weak exhibiting within the main, Walen’s candidacy reinforces her perception that Democrats should typically problem one another to provide the very best coverage outcomes for the state’s residents, at a time once they management each lever of state authorities. A wholesome skepticism is an asset in Olympia, not a legal responsibility.
Vote for Walen to revive some steadiness, pragmatism and unbiased considering to the state Senate.
