The race to succeed Jeanne Edwards in the state House of Representatives from the 1st Legislative District features a pair of men who are both seeking their first elected office.
Edwards (D-Bothell) opted not to seek re-election because of ill health. The 75-year-old Edwards has been on renal dialysis since 1999 because of kidney failure.
Seeking her seat are former Bothell police chief Mark Ericks, a Democrat, and Joshua Freed (R-Bothell), who ran a close race against Al O’Brien for his state house seat two years ago, only to come up short. Both are making their first foray into elected public office.
Ericks has spent 34 years in public service, mostly in law enforcement in Bothell and Bellevue.
“I still have a lot of energy left and a desire to serve,” he said.
A father of five daughters, Ericks calls education “something of great concern” and sees it as a key to keeping crime rates down.
“In my profession, I’ve been very prevention oriented,” Ericks said. “I’ve been a big defender of civil rights and opportunities for success, and education is the key to doing that.”
Describing himself as “a bit of a fiscal conservative,” Ericks said he wants to look at ensuring the “most critical (education) services” are funded.
Ericks also advocates a “common sense approach” to traffic congestion, partly because of his concern for response times for emergency services.
“It’s hurting business,” he said about traffic congestion. “It’s a disincentive for businesses to move here. It impacts families.”
Ericks said he considers Olympia to be ruled by what he called an “unhealthy polarization along party lines” and that the state is “at a point where there are going to be tough choices – Do we want more taxes or can we do with less services?”
Freed, meanwhile, comes into the race having held leadership positions with the 1st District Republicans. He is a marriage and family counselor, a position that has influenced much of what he’s standing for as a candidate.
Freed has spent much of his adult life as an entrepreneur in various ventures. In his current job as a counselor, he said he sees the impact of unemployment on family life, which is why he’s making helping business, especially smaller operations, a centerpiece of his campaign.
“Business does best when government does least,” he said. “If we’re not helping business, we’re not helping families.”
Freed also sees a direct correlation between economic uncertainty in crime, saying that he used to counsel young arsonists in King County and found that in many cases, the parents of the children were unemployed and suffering from their own economic problems.
“It all ties together,” he said.
Freed, who also describes himself as a fiscal conservative, wants state government to be more open, and believes the state budget process needs to be reformed. He wants to conduct audits of all state agencies to find wasteful spending.
“It’s premature to talk about raising taxes,” Freed said. “I’d rather do an audit to cut waste at a cost of $2 million to find $100 million worth of waste.”
Freed figures finding that waste and reallocating that money can help solve funding problems associated with education and transportation. On transportation, he would put more money into busses and not into light rail, which he called “a waste that is not serving the 1st District.”
The 1st Legislative District includes the cities of Brier, Bothell, most of Mountlake Terrace and the Ballinger Lake area of Edmonds. It also serves the Martha Lake and Thrasher’s Corner areas as well.
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