OAK HARBOR — Republican State Sen. Ron Muzzall is facing a challenge from Democratic Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair in Legislative District 10.
Muzzall took office in 2019. The district covers Island County, a wide swath of the north coast of Snohomish County, as well as Arlington and parts of Skagit County.
The campaign has been hugely expensive, only surpassed in the state this year by the races for governor, attorney general and public lands commissioner.
Republicans are trying keep this seat in a purple district. Democrats see it as one of the few opportunities to increase their margins further in the state Senate.
Muzzall has raised almost $900,000. The House Republican Organizational Committee injected about $120,000 into the race, with other Republican groups contributing over $300,000. The New Direction political action committee has spent over $400,000 opposing the incumbent.
St. Clair has raised about $500,000, including over $200,000 from the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. As far as independent expenditures go, about $247,000 has been put for her, while $355,000 has been spent against her. Independent expenditures are how outside groups and individuals advocate for candidates while not coordinating directly with a campaign.
Terms last four years.
Ron Muzzall
Muzzall bested St. Clair by just over 1,300 votes in the August primary. Muzzall’s other challenger in the primary was also a Democrat.
He narrowly won the 2020 election over Helen Price Johnson, a Democrat.
Muzzall, who says his family can trace their history on Whidbey Island over 100 years, stated three issues take priority for him: cost of living, public safety and education.
As far as public safety goes, one issue in particular stands out to him.
“They all come down to a behavioral health problem that we have not dealt with in years,” Muzzall said in August. “And we’ve allowed it to increase to the point in time, that I don’t use the word crisis lightly, but we have a behavioral health crisis. And, you know, it leads to a lot of things. Part of that is public safety.”
He added on Friday: “We’ve got to treat this behavioral health problem, and if we can get ahead of the behavioral health problem, then we’re going to begin to solve the homelessness and the substance abuse and all the rest of public safety.”
He supports private nonprofits leading behavioral health treatment, he added.
Muzzall also wants to take a look at how the state funds schools. Birthrates are declining, he said, so he worries funding schools on a per-student basis is leaving districts in a lurch.
“The money going to the school districts is declining because of this declining enrollment. And so we have to look at our funding model, and how we pay for these schools,” Muzzall said in August. “But we’ve got some small schools that are just plain struggling to stay in business because of these declining student numbers.”
Living expenses are especially hurting the economic bottom third of the population, he said. To him, major drivers of that include new construction and rising gas prices tied to the Climate Commitment Act. A repeal for that law is on the ballot in Initiative 2117.
Muzzall has taken issue with advertisements directed his way from the New Direction political action committee. The attacks dealt with abortion, he said.
“We can’t control the IEs, the independent expenditures,” Muzzall said Friday. “But I made it widely known that if anybody who is supporting me in the way of an IE, if they stepped across the line, I would distance myself from them. Obviously, my opponent hasn’t done that.”
Janet St. Clair
St. Clair has served as an Island County commissioner since 2018.
Health care is a top priority for St. Clair, who pushes for the “whole person” model. Essentially it tries to connect all parts of a person’s health — physical, behavioral and social support.
“We really recognize that folks need help not just accessing health care or one aspect of health care, like mental health treatment, they need help navigating systems, accessing resources, and feeling heard, feeling like this isn’t a black hole that they’re trying to get into,” St. Clair said in an interview this month.
The commissioner is adamantly pro-abortion and has made that a major part of her campaign. She’s attacked Muzzall on comments he made on a constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion as a right for Washington residents.
He referred to it as “performative politics,” though has since said the idea he is trying to outlaw abortion is “not true.”
“My opponent has been on record, opposed to that amendment, calling it ‘performative politics,’” St. Clair said in an interview this summer. “So I think that is the one defining issue where I can be clear that I will stand on the side of women, advocates and allies to protect abortion.”
Lowering the cost of living is a big issue, too.
“I’ve been hearing a lot at the doors about, particularly with the Boeing strike, hearing a lot from working families about wanting to make sure that I have someone in Olympia that cares about, you know, wages and the rights of workers and what we’re doing to reduce the cost of living,” St. Clair said.
St. Clair said she agrees with Muzzall on several points, pointing to their views on reducing regulatory roadblocks to child care as an example.
One place where they differ, St. Clair said, is how their campaigns are funded. Both candidates have taken money from political action committees, but St. Clair said she’s taken less than Muzzall.
“We continue to drive really a grassroots campaign,” St. Clair said. “And I think for me, that’s a value-centered thing of wanting to run a people-centered campaign, and not simply that big political noise that everybody experiences in their mailbox.”
Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; X: @jordyhansen.
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