Republican Brian Travis starts campaign in 1st Legislative District

Published 9:45 am Monday, January 11, 2016

Republican Brian Travis has started the campaign for the 2016 election in the 1st Legislative District.

Travis said Jan. 4 that he intends to seek the position that incumbent Democratic State Rep. Derek Stanford now holds.

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

Travis, who describes himself as a local political activist, lost a bid for the same position in 2012, when he placed third in the primary behind Stanford and Republican Sandy Guinn, who lost to Stanford in the general election. Travis ran unsuccessfully in 2015 for a place on the Snohomish County Charter Review Commission. He twice has run unsuccessfully for positions on the Alderwood Water and Wastewater District board.

Stanford already has reported raising $20,580 and spending $249 for a run for a fourth two-year term in the State House of Representatives. Travis has not registered with the state Public Disclosure Commission, a step that would allow him to raise and spend money for the August primary and November general election. Candidates file in May 16-20 for ballot positions.

State law will prevent Stanford and other incumbent legislators from fundraising during the legislative session that starts Monday, Jan. 11.

Also in the 1st Legislative District, Republican Ed Barton has registered with the Public Disclosure Commission as a challenger to Democratic State Sen. Rosemay McAullife, and Democrat Ronda Metcalf has registered as a challenger to either Stanford or Democratic State Rep. Luis Moscoso.

All candidates for partisan offices run in the Aug. 2 primary, with two qualifying for the Nov. 8 general-election ballot.

Bothell Republican Travis said, in a campaign announcement that his campaign would emphasize his opposition to freeway tolls on Interstate 405 and reforming the state business-and-occupations tax.

“It’s quite simple in my opinion” Travis says, “We need to keep freeways, free.”

He also said, “Any business that isn’t earning a profit shouldn’t pay taxes. The B &O tax system is incredibly outdated and just plain unfair; it takes an entire page to list all the different rates different kinds of businesses have to pay. We need a simple state corporate income tax with two or maybe three brackets at most; it’s bizarre that a business can owe thousands in taxes all while losing money and struggling to keep its employees and survive, we need to fix that.”

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