This election reporting is provided free to all readers as a public service by your locally owned Cascadia Daily News. Thanks for supporting truly local news by donating to CDN or subscribing here.
Editor’s note: Cascadia Daily News asked readers the Citizens Agenda’s prompt: What do you want candidates to be talking about as they compete for votes? Submitted questions were printed and published online, where readers voted for their top questions grouped into two subject categories: questions for candidates for federal and state offices, and regional questions for candidates for state legislative and local offices. The top reader questions were posed to candidates subject to CDN endorsement interviews; their answers — edited for length — are published below.
[ Read more: State Senate District 40 race is rematch of 2020 ]
What will you do about our housing crisis, not just the lack of stock but lack of average and middle-class affordability, and predatory investors and landlords?
Liz Lovelett
As chair of Local Government, Land Use, and Tribal Affairs, I have been involved in many of the policies we have passed related to housing diversity, comprehensive planning goals, first-time home buyers assistance, middle housing and ADUs, transit-oriented development, and protecting mobile home parks from conversion, to name a few. I will keep fighting for critical protections for renters, including rent stabilization. I believe strongly that we must sustain investments in permanent and other supportive housing to ensure our communities thrive. By encouraging a mix of market rate and subsidized units, and by investing in wrap-around support services for people in need, we can provide dignified housing to people at all income levels.
Charles Carrell
No answers submitted.
What will you do to bring fair and equitable funding to all public school districts in Washington? (Is the state’s “adjustment factor” working?)
Liz Lovelett
We are behind on education funding statewide, with school districts in the 40th hit hardest by changes in the levy formula. We must uphold the capital gains tax that supports both our K-12 and early childhood programs. We’ll need sustained emphasis as a region to help state budget writers understand our ongoing funding shortfalls — especially with regard to special education. Smaller pieces — like lowering insurance rates, increasing support for the cost of supplies and meals, money for school buses and energy upgrades, and increasing per-pupil reimbursement — will help at the margins as we work on more holistic investments in 2025.
Charles Carrell
No answers submitted.
Do you think the current state infrastructure (utilities, transportation, parks, etc.) is up to the standards that taxpayers expect? If not what specific things would you do to change that?
Liz Lovelett
Infrastructure solves so many problems at once — it ensures better climate resilience, provides more ways to get people out of their cars, helps us manage stormwater, provides us with recreational opportunities, and keeps the lights on and the toilets flushing. But it requires considerable ongoing investment to manage growth and keep it maintained. This is where taxpayers can be frustrated, especially regarding ferries. I serve on the Transportation Committee where I focus on state and county ferries, ADA access and multimodal expansion; I’m vice chair of Environment, Energy & Technology where I work on siting and regulation for our clean energy future; and I broadly work on conservation policies that protect our natural species and spaces. The reason people want to live here is because of all the cool places and businesses we get to enjoy in our community — infrastructure is key to delivering on all of that!
Charles Carrell
No answers submitted.
What is your stance on state Initiative 2117, which would repeal Washington’s Climate Commitment Act?
Liz Lovelett
Just, NOOOOOOOOO on 2117!!! We have made too much progress by investing proceeds from the CCA into the long-term health and resiliency of our communities to turn back now. Creating a program that uses an economy-wide solution to meet our emission goals, reduce pollution, invest in transit, build ferries, leverage federal funds to do big projects like a hydrogen generation hub — this is how we are going to build the economy of the future. Low-income families just started receiving rebates on their energy bills, our schools will be upgrading to electric buses, and projects are being realized in communities and Tribal Nations across Washington. Repealing the CCA does not guarantee our costs will be lowered, but it does guarantee we will lose all of these benefits.
Charles Carrell
No answers submitted.
For legislators and the state attorney general: What can you do to ensure PeaceHealth and other hospital groups in the state provide price transparency, and screen patients for financial assistance eligibility?
Liz Lovelett
While this is not my area of policy expertise, I believe strongly that patients deserve transparency in the cost of their treatment, and that they should be assisted to get the full range of benefits they are eligible for. I am also firmly supportive of requiring oversight of hospital mergers, regulation of benefit managers and increasing Medicare reimbursements for providers. I am looking forward to the state soon rolling out a single platform to access medical, food and other benefits, instead of expecting clients to fill out myriad applications to get the care and resources they need. Access to health care is a human right!
Charles Carrell
No answers submitted.
How did state, Whatcom Democrats win big in a US election swinging the other way?