Too many state legislators appeared to blindly comply with Democratic management in Olympia this yr, passing the most important raft of taxes in state historical past with out fully vetting how they’ll elevate the price of dwelling in Washington state.
Rep. Amy Walen, D-Kirkland, was not certainly one of them. The Home Democrat dared to query her credulous friends in a tough 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’ve to vote our personal thoughts and coronary heart and conscience and never all the time comply with the occasion,” Walen advised The Occasions 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 apprehensive concerning the impacts of laws on constituents. Most dramatically, Walen voted towards the Legislature’s working funds this yr, satisfied that traditionally excessive taxes, whereas revenues had been already on the rise, was the unsuitable option to go. She argues persuasively that her occasion, with huge majorities in Olympia, isn’t producing “sustainable” budgets; lawmakers are too reliant on piecemeal taxes moderately than dwelling inside their means.
“We’ve acquired to return to sound funds rules,” mentioned Walen, who warns that the burden of the brand new taxes will filter all the way down to these within the state who can least afford them.
Walen could also be a funds hawk, gleaned partially from her a long time of expertise balancing a funds as proprietor of Kirkland auto dealerships. However her Democratic credentials are robust. The self-styled “pragmatic progressive” has helped move 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 occasion line, she, like Walen, voted towards the enterprise and occupation taxes this yr, anticipated to particularly influence their district.
However Walen’s abiding independence and willingness to vote towards probably the most excessive positions of her majority occasion, moderately than fall in line, earns her The Occasions editorial board’s endorsement.
For example, not like Slatter, Walen voted towards offering placing employees entry to unemployment insurance coverage, arguing not from an anti-labor stance however moderately one which it might 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 yr handcuffs the state’s means to reply additional by backfilling help to probably the most susceptible residents.
Fundraising within the race is skewed towards Walen, a business-backed candidate whose $641,000 is sort of double Slatter’s $343,000. Regardless of a weak displaying within the main, Walen’s candidacy reinforces her perception that Democrats should generally problem one another to supply one of the best coverage outcomes for the state’s residents, at a time after 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 stability, pragmatism and unbiased considering to the state Senate.
