The race for state House of Representatives position 1 from the 1st Legislative District is the most crowded of the three races from the district.
Incumbent Al O’Brien (D-Mountlake Terrace) faces two challengers: Jeff Merrill (R-Bothell) and Terry Bartlett Buholm of Bothell, the lone Libertarian seeking a legislative seat from the 1st District.
O’Brien is seeking his fifth term in Olympia.
“I’ve got experience and I’ve got the ability to work across the aisle with the other party to make good policy,” he said when asked why he’s running for re-election.
Merrill, meanwhile, has been on the Bothell City Council for 12 years. He is a 19-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol and is a former firefighter.
“We just have a lot of issues that can’t be resolved at the municipal level that have to be resolved on the state level,” Merrill said. “I’m all for bipartisanship. I won’t vote in lock-step with my party if it doesn’t benefit my district.”
Buholm has no elected office experience. He is a former crab fisherman and works for the state ferry system.
Health care and education are two of O’Brien’s priorities. He wants to focus not only on additional funding for elementary and secondary education, but for higher education as well.
“They kind of go hand-in-hand,” he said.
On health care, O’Brien said he has researched the pros and cons of medical savings accounts, which function like credit cards in that people can slide a card and pay for their medication and treatment.
“Everyone has an opportunity to get into a savings account,” he said. “It reduces expenses for doctors because they won’t have to hire staff to shuffle papers, and it’ll reduce health care expenses for businesses.”
Merrill has a different health care approach. He wants to see the state’s coverage streamlined to make it more affordable for small businesses to purchase, as well as for employees to add family members. He says the current system covers a variety of alternative treatments, and that he’d rather see those items become optional.
“We need to provide opportunities for those who don’t have health care to let them buy it at a group rate,” Merrill said.
O’Brien said health care is a critical issue to business and economic development as well. He said small businesses could be discouraged from opening in Washington because of the cost of health care.
In addition, O’Brien said he’d like to continue working on business tax reform, specifically the business and occupation tax.
Merrill also wants to examine the business and occupation tax, labor and industry fees, as well as making regulatory reforms. He opposes tax increases.
“The state has not created an atmosphere that is conducive to business,” Merrill said.
Like fellow 1st District Republican candidate Joshua Freed, who is also running for the state House of Representatives, Merrill believes all state agencies should be audited to find wasteful spending, with that money being transferred to fund pressing needs.
“We have to make sure we’re transparent in what we’re doing,” Merrill said.
Taxes are the reason Buholm is running for office.
“In a nutshell, I think the property taxes in the state of Washington are obscene,” he said. “People are being taxed out of their homes. It’s legalized extortion.”
Buholm says he pays $700 a month in property taxes on a home and property that are paid off.
His proposed solution would have taxes based on the home’s value when purchased, not based on annual assessments. Property taxes could go up by one percent, in line with voter-approved measures.
O’Brien chairs the House’s criminal justice and corrections committee, and said he would look at enacting legislation to combat various kinds of fraud.
Public safety is Merrill’s top issue. He supports a proposed one-strike-and-you’re-out bill mandating life sentences for sex offenders and child molesters.
“These people are sick individuals,” Merrill said. “They need counseling, but it has to be behind bars. We don’t need to expose our kids and our families to sexual predators.”
Merrill favors a tougher approach on crime.
“If we can’t keep people safe, nothing else we do matters,” he said. “That’s the first role of government.”
Merrill also believes the state needs to build more roads to handle traffic congestion, and that the state needs to look into acquiring more property to build new roads.
“The bottom line is we need to build more roads,” he said. “If we think we’re going to force people into transit, it’s not going to happen. People like their cars too much.
“During the commute hours, the buses are full, but the rest of the time they’re nearly empty, and we’re running them constantly,” he said. “For the lion’s share of the time, (buses) are going unused.”
Merrill also favors looking at toll roads.
“It’s a user fee that’s fair and reasonable,” he said.
The 1st Legislative District serves Brier, most of Mountlake Terrace, parts of Edmonds and the Martha Lake and Thrasher’s Corner areas.
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