Meet the candidates: 32nd District, Senate
Published 4:49 pm Friday, October 15, 2010
What’s the job?
At stake is a four-year term as a senator in the state Legislature. The 32nd Legislative District covers the cities of Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell, Edmonds, the town of Woodway and portions of unincorporated King and Snohomish counties.The annual salary is $42,106.
Election Day: Nov. 2, with ballots scheduled to be mailed out Oct. 15.
Notable: The senate incumbent who held this seat since 1995, Darlene Fairley, retired from the Legislature this spring. After her announcement, Maralyn Chase, 32nd District state representative from Shoreline, declared her intention to seek Fairley’s senate seat.
David Baker
Age: 66
Occupation: Kenmore mayor, business owner
Party: Republican
Residence: Kenmore
Web site: bakerinthesenate.com
Education: Doctorate, Iowa State University
In his own words: “We need to go through this budget line by line and figure out what do we really need — what is the core purpose of government?”
Baker’s priorities: Said the state needs to operate more efficiently. He said Kenmore managed to build a new City Hall and paid for it with cash. “We live within our budget,” he said.
Wants to consolidate the region’s transportation agencies. “We’ve got seven different transit agencies all collecting revenues,” he said. “Government has gotten way too big. People are upset.”
Maralyn Chase
Age: 68
Party: Democratic
Hometown: Edmonds
Occupation: State representative
Education: Masters degree, political science and critical social theory, University of Washington.
Website: maralynchase.org
In her own words: “I think there is a different culture in the Senate. I’m one of these issues persons. I believe the Senate is more receptive to more individual initiatives of the members than is the House. I like that a lot.”
Chase’s priorities: Economic development. Says the advent of a knowledge-based economy has received a lot of media attention but is the wrong place to focus. “It doesn’t contribute to our economic base,” she said. “We can work to develop new products, put people to work, build our export market and then bring the money back home.”
Notable: Chase just toured the oil sands in northeast Alberta, Canada. She says she hasn’t made up her mind on whether the sands, said to be a possible new oil reserve, are good or bad for the environment. “A lot of people say it’s an environmental catastrophe. I don’t know that. I would hope they could figure out a way that it won’t be.”
