Editorial: Return Duerr, Ryu to state House seats

By The Herald Editorial Board

Continuing editorial board endorsements for the Nov. 5 general election:

1st LD, House, Pos. 1

The 1st Legislative District is split between south Snohomish County and north King County, east of I-5 and includes the cities of communities of Alderwood Manor, Maltby, Bothell and Kenmore.

Rep. Davina Duerr, D-Bothell, has served since she was appointed to a vacant position in 2019, and won her first election in 2020. She is seeking her third full two-year term. She is challenged by Mark Davies, a Bothell Republican. Davies, an IT programmer and analyst, did not respond to requests for an interview.

During the last two sessions, Duerr has focused her legislative work on climate change and environmental issues, housing and local government and serves as the local government committee chair. She also serves on committees for transportation and environment.

Trained as an architect, Duerr successfully pushed for legislation intended to make housing more affordable by reducing the costs of regulation, moving review of multiplexes to the residential building code from the commercial code, where it had been set in the 1930s as a form of exclusionary red-lining. While the commercial code has more stringent safety requirements, Duerr said, the state building code council now must rewrite standards that keep that housing safe but make it more affordable to build.

“I’m of the belief that the solution to homelessness is homes and the solution to affordable housing is supply,” she said.

Duerr said she’s also got a bill passed to develop a model tree code that could allow cities to develop their own ordinances, including a provision to allow developers to remove trees for a housing development but fund the planting of trees elsewhere. While another bill did not advance, a provision in her legislation to waive parking requirements if preservation of trees was in conflict, was included in other legislation.

While the Legislature has been successful in recent years with larger issues around affordable housing, there remains work to implement those goals, she said.

There are other “little tweaks” to building codes she intends to pursue — such as adjusting setback requirements to allow insulation to be added to the outside of homes — that can improve homes’ affordability and energy efficiency.

Another bill she sponsored, and which passed the House, would require the recycling and reuse of refrigerant gases, which if released into the atmosphere are more harmful contributors to climate change than carbon dioxide.

Noting her environmental and climate concerns, Duerr is urging a no vote on Initiative 2117, which would invalidate the state’s Climate Commitment Act and its use of auctions of greenhouse gases that have provided substantial revenue for reducing pollution and for climate solutions, including in her own district and is helping cities and counties implement climate solutions in the Growth Management Act, a provision that she sponsored in previous legislation.

Duerr, in her five sessions in the Legislature, has used her knowledge and perspective on technical details and her concern for solutions to housing, the environment, transportation and more that resolve those concerns jointly rather than pitting one against the other.

That balance is vital for a district confronted with housing, transportation and environmental issues. The solutions that Duerr has helped develop can then benefit the rest of the state.

Duerr should be returned to her seat.

The district’s other two legislators, Sen. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, and Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Kirkland, are running unopposed.

32nd LD, House, Pos. 1

The 32nd Legislative District is located west of the 1st district and includes the cities of Edmonds, Lynnwood, Esperance, Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline and North Seattle.

Rep. Cindy Ryu, D-Shoreline, has served her district since 2011 and is seeking her eighth two-year term in the House. She is challenged by Republican Lisa Rezac of North Seattle.

In a joint interview with the editorial board, Rezac, with experience in facilitating team-building seminars, expressed concerns for crime, public education and taxes and is frustrated with the Democratic Party’s control of the Legislature and a Republican Party that has been left out of important decisions.

“If we don’t start making a shift and start to give a break to the hard-working middle class there will be no one left to tax,” she said.

At the same time, Rezac said, although she believes the term “working across the aisle” is a cliche, she is committed to finding common ground on crime, cost of living and other issues, among disagreements over policy.

Rezac said she believes that the practice of housing those struggling with homelessness in hotels and other facilities has contributed to an increase in crime in the district, including drug and human trafficking. More has to be done to build up police department ranks, noting that Seattle’s police department is down nearly 400 officers.

Nor is she supportive of recent gun safety legislation, that she believes hasn’t removed guns from the hands of criminals but has disadvantaged law-abiding gun owners.

Ryu, who emigrated from South Korea as a child, is a former mayor and city council member in Shoreline and an insurance agent and small business owner. She has focused much of her past legislative work on improving government services and helping small businesses. She recently was elected as president of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region’s delegate council in its cross-border work with Canadian provinces and Northwest states.

Among recent successful legislation for which she was prime sponsor were bills that: expedited licenses for cosmetologists, hair stylists, manicurists and others; ended pre-licensing education requirements for insurance agents already licensed in another state; and standardized procurement rules for water, sewer and similar districts to those for cities and towns, allowing them to serve their rate-payers more cost-effectively.

In a coming session, Ryu said she now wants to focus on the needs of incarcerated U.S. veterans, better providing them services that will lessen the chance for recidivism. Currently, incarcerated veterans receiving benefits have to pay those benefits back.

“When they are released, they start out with a huge debt to repay that they absolutely can’t repay, and so you add on top of it fines and interest,” she said.

Ryu wants to make sure those veterans are better connected with services even before they are released. so they don’t fall victim to homelessness and poverty when released.

Ryu said she, too, is concerned regarding public safety but is unhappy with the divisiveness the issue has created and is used to prevent agreement on solutions. Ryu also defends recent legislation on gun safety. Ryu said she would also support efforts to increase hiring of police as well as other first responders.

Rezac is a prepared and thoughtful candidate with valid concerns who wants to see more consideration given to Republican perspectives on the issues before the Legislature.

Ryu, however, has in her 14 sessions, proved herself as a seasoned and respected lawmaker. She serves as chair of the wide-ranging committee on innovation, commerce, economic development and veterans as well as the committees for appropriations, consumer protection and business.

Voters can return Ryu to the House with confidence.

32nd LD, House, Pos. 2

Prior to the primary election in August, the editorial board endorsed Rep. Lauren Davis, D-Lynnwood, for re-election.

Correction: In an earlier version of this editorial, the outcome of some of Rep. Davina Duerr’s legislation was misstated. Those passages have been corrected.