Police officer to challenge Dunshee

State Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, might not have a declared Republican opponent yet for his 44th District legislative seat, but his Democratic state House colleague, Hans Dunshee of Snohomish, does.

Michael Hope of Snohomish has declared himself the Republican challenger against Dunshee.

Hope, a Seattle police officer, is taking his first shot at running for public office.

“What I’ve seen is the failure of social programs,” Hope said. “I’d rather we focus on creating jobs and education.”

Hope, 28, said education figures to be a key issue in the upcoming campaign, and that he differs from Dunshee in several areas. For instance, Hope opposes mandatory arbitration to settle school district labor disputes.

“The real reason they were striking is that they couldn’t get any money from the state,” Hope said.

Dunshee, who said he will seek re-election, said he will not give up on the mandatory arbitration idea even though his efforts this year to get that legislation passed were unsuccessful.

“I’m still going to pursue this,” Dunshee said. “I’m going to educate teachers about what that process is about. Education is an essential service. We have to move away from the industrial mentality that has led to (so many teacher) strikes.”

Hope also intends to run as a law-and-order candidate. He says he wants to “improve” the child protection act by increasing penalties for sex offenders, and “clamp down” on auto theft, citing a desire to have stricter sentencing guidelines, especially with juvenile offenders.

“There’s not too many repercussions for (auto thieves),” Hope said. “We’re just leniently letting them go.”

Dunshee, meanwhile, intends to stand on his record on getting state funds for capital projects for the district, such as more money for school construction.

“It was wrong, wrong, wrong,” Dunshee said about the state’s previous lack of funding for school construction.

Hope’s experience in public service has been serving as a precinct committee officer in the Snohomish-Mill Creek areas and working on campaigns in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, where he’s from. Dunshee, meanwhile, has served five terms in the House.