Meet the candidates: 32nd District representative, Position 2
Published 10:53 pm Friday, July 30, 2010
What’s the job?
At stake is a two-year term as a representative in the state Legislature. The 32nd Legislative District covers the cities of Edmonds, Bothell, Shoreline, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, the town of Woodway and unincorporated portions of Snohomish and King counties. The annual salary is $42,106.
Election Day: Aug. 17, with ballots scheduled to be mailed out July 30. The top two vote-getters will proceed to the November general election.
Gary Gagliardi
Age: 59
Occupation: Author and speaker
Residence: Shoreline
Website: garygagliardi.com
Party: Republican
Education: Harvard Graduate School of Business
In his own words: “When you reach a point where the state’s in a fiscal crisis, you really need another type of person in office.”
Priorities: Education. Said not enough high school students graduate and that not enough money gets to the classroom to benefit students.
Creating a business-friendly environment. Said Washington should strive to be the most business-friendly state on the West Coast. He opposes new taxes: “You don’t put on new taxes during a recession,” he said.
Improving trust in government. He said the Legislature made a big mistake earlier this year when it overturned Initiative 960. That initiative, approved by voters in 2007, would have required a two-thirds majority vote of the Legislature to approve any tax increase. “When voters speak, I don’t think it’s the Legislature’s job to say we don’t want to do that.”
Notable: Gagliardi has written more than 20 books about business strategy. Many of those are interpretations of Sun Tzu’s ” Art of War,” a centuries-old Chinese treatise on war strategy.
Ruth Kagi
Age: 64
Occupation: Incumbent representative, commercial real estate owner and manager.
Residence: Lake Forest Park
Party: Democratic
Website: ruthkagi.org
Education: Master’s in public administration, Syracuse University.
In her own words: “In early learning and child welfare, we’ve really passed major legislation the last few years to reform the way we do business. I’m running for re-election to make sure those initiatives move forward and are implemented well.”
Priorities: Safety and education of children.
Implementation of education reform. “We passed a bill I sponsored last year that requires the children’s administration to implement performance-based contracts. It’s a huge change that will really help us look at whether children are helped or harmed.”
Notable: Elected to office in 1998, Kagi just served in her 12th session in the Legislature. She is chairwoman of the Early Learning and Children’s Services Committee.
Stan Lippmann
Age: 50
Occupation: Unemployed
Website: none
Party: Democratic
Education: Doctorate in physics, John Hopkins University (1989); J.D., University of Washington.
Residence: Lake Forest Park
In his own words: “I’ve been a heavy mover on electoral reform in this state. Why not make the state elections nonpartisan? Then you’ll realize the parties are private clubs. They shouldn’t have any privileged status at all.”
Priorities: Do away with the Federal Reserve. He wants to replace common currency with silver coins.
Eliminate high school. Said the state should instead give every parent $10,000 in an educational trust fund. “Let’s say you’re 13 and you’re a home schooler. You can waste four years in high school or accumulate capital. The point is, we need to build a future society so young adults become wealthy when they’re teenagers.”
Notable: The Washington Bar Association disbarred Lippmann on Oct. 24, 2008 over misuse of client funds and trust-account irregularities. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for King County executive in 2009 and has run unsuccessfully for numerous elective offices, including state attorney general.
