MONROE — A nurse and a former sheriff are vying for a vacant House seat in the largely rural 12th Legislative District.
Heather Koellen, 54, a nurse and North Bend City Council member, is running as a Democrat to represent the district stretching from Monroe in the west to parts of Wenatchee in the east. Brian Burnett, 57, a former Chelan County sheriff from Wenatchee, is running as a Republican.
In the August primary, Koellen received 44.6% of the vote, while Burnett received 41.6%. The third-place candidate, Jennifer Bumpus, also a Republican, garnered 13.7%, but had dropped out of the race prior to the election.
A Democrat has not been elected as a representative in the district since 1965.
Significant redistricting took place in 2022, later amended this April, that shifted the 12th District to the west. Because more people moved west of the Cascades than east since the last redistricting in 2011, the shift was necessary to keep the district roughly the same size by population.
The incumbent in the House seat, Keith Goehner, a Republican, is running to be the district’s next state senator against Democrat Jim Mayhew.
In the other 12th District state House race, incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Steele is facing off against a fellow Republican, Daniel Scott.
State legislators are paid $61,997 per year.
Brian Burnett
Burnett served as the sheriff of Chelan County from 2011 to 2022. Since then, he’s worked worked for the Washington State Sheriffs’ Association and a private security firm, Seattle’s Finest Security.
Burnett is a strong supporter of deregulation. Business owners and building contractors have told him current regulations are “ridiculous,” he said, and argued changing regulations would be a path toward improving housing affordability.
“They talk about affordable housing on one side, but they need to classify it, they’re looking for subsidized housing. If you want subsidized housing, call it what it is,” Burnett said. “If you want affordable housing, you have to go back and take a look at the whiteboard and redraw the regulations.”
He also said the state should “be careful” with minimum wage increases, saying a “one-size-fits-all” approach doesn’t take into account the differences between metropolitan and rural areas.
Burnett also argued high crime rates affect the cost of living. He advocated for increasing support to allow police departments to be “proactive patrollers,” he said, as well as combating drug trafficking coming from the southern and northern borders. He also supports increased drug enforcement through criminalization, while also using programs such as drug courts to rehabilitate offenders.
Burnett supports increasing early childhood learning and providing more opportunity for students to attend trade schools. He also advocates for school voucher programs — government payments to cover parts or all of the cost of attending a private school — to increase the choices students have, he said.
“I’m not going to tell you how to set the system up, because I’m not the economic guy, right? But I believe that competition drives excellence,” Burnett said.
He also opposes allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, citing concerns over bullying and sexual assault. In 2016, he signed a petition urging the Wenatchee school board to reject a state policy recommendation allowing transgender students to use their preferred bathrooms.
Studies have shown transgender and nonbinary students are more likely to be sexually assaulted and harassed when schools do not permit them to use their preferred bathrooms and locker rooms.
In 2018 and 2019, a deputy sued the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office twice, alleging employment discrimination, while Burnett was sheriff. The deputy, Jennifer Tyler, won the first case at trial, while the second was settled out of court this May. Burnett was named multiple times in the 2019 complaint. He insisted he did not discriminate against anybody.
“We were never going to try to violate anybody’s rights or harass or that type of thing, that’s not how I operate,” Burnett said. “You could talk to the commissioners, everybody involved, they would tell you: That’s not who I am, and that’s not what our administration was.”
Burnett had reported $82,404 in campaign contributions, as of this week.
Heather Koellen
Koellen, a nurse at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, is a first-time candidate for state House. In 2020, voters elected her to the North Bend City Council, where she is currently serving her second term.
Affordable housing is one of the most pressing issues facing people in Washington and across the country, Koellen said. To help increase affordability, she advocated for stronger coalitions between state and local governments, nonprofits and businesses. She was also in favor of incentivizing developers to build properties other than large single-family homes, as well as building housing on top of commercial properties.
On education, Koellen is a strong supporter of the public school system, she said, adamantly opposing a school voucher system.
“I think putting in school vouchers to make charter schools takes away from the public school system,” Koellen said. “It takes away resources, it takes away teachers, it takes away everything. I’m a complete opposite of my opponent on that, I don’t think that is a great idea, because we need to educate everybody.”
Koellen supports reducing the statewide school bond threshold to 55%, currently at 60%. She cited a recent school bond in the Eastmont School District, located in East Wenatchee, which received 59% approval but did not pass. Koellen hopes to provide free lunches to students and on-site day care for parents. She was not specific about how districts or the state would fund these initiatives, but said students in Washington are worth paying for.
“Those kids are going to end up taking care of you in one way or another when you’re older, right?” Koellen said. “I hate the argument of, I don’t have kids, I don’t do this, I don’t do that. I think as a society, we need to help each other out. I know that’s not very popular and our country’s very independent, but I would like to be more communal.”
To improve public safety, Koellen advocated for increasing police staffing, while also implementing required training on de-escalation techniques.
On the economy, Koellen said she would try to combat price gouging in places like grocery stores, though she was not specific about how she would achieve that. She also hopes to improve education surrounding the Affordable Care Act and Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program. As a nurse, she frequently sees social workers assist patients with getting enrolled in those programs, but said “many people don’t know” about them.
“I’ll plan to represent everybody, regardless of party,” Koellen said. “I want everybody to get their needs met. That’s the nurse in me, but that’s also the city council member in me.”
Koellen had reported $80,566 in campaign contributions, as of this week.
Ballots are due Nov. 5.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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