Hottest south county legislative race is for Senate seat

The most hotly contested legislative race on South Snohomish County ballots in the November election is the 1st District state Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Rosemary McAuliffe and Republican challenger Dawn McCravey.

McAuliffe is chairwoman of the state Senate committee on education and a former member of the Northshore School Board. McCravey is a current Northshore board member.

McCravey charges McAuliffe with blocking needed school reform, including a bill that would have allowed school districts that make cutbacks to make layoffs on factors other than seniority, McAuliffe counters that she has sponsored the state’s landmark bill defining basic education.

McCravey said Thursday that McAuliffe is a tool of the Washington Education Association, but McAuliffe said Friday that she has defied the WEA on many issues, including changes in the way school districts evaluate teachers.

McAuliffe outpolled McCravey in the August primary 44 percent to 42 percent, with 14 percent for Democrat Guy Palumbo.

The contest has drawn a lot of money, with McCravey having raised $122,089 and spent $66,032 to McAuliffe’s $117,514 raised and $80,948 spent. The race has drawn independent expenditures of $93,272 supporting McAuliffe and $65,612 opposing her, Before the primary, Palumbo had raised $52,353 and spent $52,685.

McCravey said that the race has a lot of money from outside the 1st District because McAuliffe is drawing money from the Washington Education Association and other estate education groups and opposition from anti-establishment education groups. She also said that both political parties view the district as important to control of the Senate.

McAuliffe said that much of the money opposing her comes from out-of-state groups that want to promote charter schools at the expense of public schools.

The race has been nasty, with McAuliffe supporters linking McCravey with family interests in the oil industry and charging McCravey with avoiding taking stands on social issues like abortion and gay marriage.

Opponents charge McCravey with missing many candidate forums, but McCravey says that one conflicted with a school board meeting and others were outside the district.

The 1st District includes most of Mountlake Terrace, all of Brier and Bothell, part of Kirkland, unincorporated areas of King County between Bothell and Kirkland, and unincorporated areas of Snohomish County north and east of Bothell.

Palumbo first declared his candidacy as an independent, saying that he was a fiscal conservative and social liberal, but ran as a Democrat. After losing in the primary, he said that he hadn’t decided whom to endorse in the general election, but he said a few days ago that he would endorse incumbent Democrat McAuliffe because she understood the problems of small businesses and because she had taken progressive stands on same-sex marriage and other social issues.

McCravey said Thursday that Palumbo was seeking to advance his future political career.

McAuliffe said that she has been a major backer of State money for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, particularly in the middle grades. She said that the state couldn’t reach its mandate of future supporting basic education throughout the state without additional revenue, adding that cutting all money from social services and higher education wouldn’t provide the money to fully support basic education,

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.