Close nods: Richter, Moscoso
Published 9:09 am Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Voters will choose from an unusually wide open field this year in the 1st Legislative District, which straddles the county line and includes Mountlake Terrace, Brier, Bothell and the Maltby area.
Neither House race includes an incumbent, with Rep. Al O’Brien choosing not to run for another term and Rep. Mark Ericks resigning recently to become the region’s U.S. Marshal. Both are Democrats.
Four engaging, thoughtful candidates emerged from the primary, none of whom have held elected office: Democrat Derek Stanford and Republican Dennis Richter for Position 1, and Democrat Luis Moscoso and Republican Heidi Munson for Position 2. Both races are close calls, and our recommendations rest in part on what we see as the benefit of a more even distribution from each party in a House currently dominated by Democrats.
We endorse Richter, a longtime electrical engineer for Boeing who is making a second run after losing a bid two years ago to unseat Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe. We also endorse Moscoso, whose background as a union leader, management negotiator, public agency board member and community volunteer give him a broad perspective that will come in handy during a session that must focus on huge budget cuts and serious government reform.
Richter’s platform is straightforward: Democrats increased spending at an unsustainable pace in recent years, and it’s time to prioritize basic services state government needs to provide — primarily education and public safety — and reduce or eliminate others.
He supports widely-held GOP ideas for making K-12 education more effective while reducing overall costs by shrinking administrative layers, directing more existing dollars into the classroom and giving principals greater authority over teacher hiring. He also argues strongly for maintaining adequate funding for higher education because of its foundational impact on the state economy.
Stanford, a statistician who works in telecommunications and has owned a small business, argues for sustainable budgeting and has interesting ideas for streamlining government operations — such as consolidating departments and agencies that offer related services. If he’s elected, we suspect Stanford’s analytical skills would serve him well. This race is particularly close, in our view. More than anything, our choice comes down to an opportunity to give minority Republicans more leverage, better enabling a fair hearing for good ideas from both parties.
Moscoso has worked on both sides of the table in public sector employee contract talks, giving him valuable insight to a process in which big savings need to be found. He says he won’t be afraid to “buck the system where the system needs to be bucked,” a promise we’ll hold him to if he’s elected.
Munson, who owns a housecleaning business, would bring decidedly conservative values to the seat, and a critical eye on spending. We’re concerned, though, that she undervalues the contribution higher education must make to the state’s long-term economic vitality, and underestimates the investment that needs to be made in coming years on transportation projects to support job growth.
