Two Democrats are challenging Republican incumbents in Washington’s 35th District.

James Thomas, a medical equipment business owner and former union organizer, and David Daggett, a retired Boeing engineer, are looking to unseat conservatives Dan Griffey, a firefighter, and Drew MacEwen, an investment firm founder and Navy veteran, to represent Mason County and parts of Thurstan and Kitsap counties in the Washington Legislature. Thomas is facing Griffey in District 35a, while Daggett is battling MacEwen in District 35b.

The 35th legislative district is narrowly divided, recent election results show. According to the nonpartisan website Ballotpedia, Mason County is considered one of the country’s 206 “pivot counties” – one that voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and for Donald Trump in 2016. Throughout the district, five of the previous six state house races have been decided by 10 percentage points or fewer, including a narrow win for Griffey in 2014 when he beat Democratic incumbent Kathy Haigh by just 504 votes.

During a forum organized by the League of Women Voters on Thursday, October 11, the four hopefuls sparred on issues ranging from taxes, to gun control, to affordable housing.

On the issues:

Taxes

Candidates were asked whether they would support new state taxes, and they presented differing views.

Thomas, Griffey’s Democratic challenger, said if elected he would support doing away with the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax in favor of an income tax.

“Washington has one of the most regressive tax structures in the United States,” he said. “Sales tax preferentially taxes those on the lower end of the economic scale.”

Daggett agreed that the state’s tax policies were regressive and affect low-income taxpayers most.

“You stole my opening line,” he said. “This is a great place to be billionaire.”

Daggett proposed a capital gains tax on investment earnings that would apply to earners making more than $670,000 per year. He said it would affect about 5,000 families and raise over $1 billion.

“If you sell your stock and make a million bucks on your stock, you’d pay a small fee,” he said. “That would enable us to lower our property taxes and not cut education.”

MacEwen criticized the capital gains tax idea because he said it would inevitably lead to an income tax – as it would necessitate the filing of income tax returns.

“Once you go down that road – Olympia has not seen a tax that it’s never wanted to get rid of,” he said. “Before you know it, you’re all paying it.”

He criticized the Democratic majority in the House for supporting what he believes is irresponsible spending.

“When I got elected, the state budget was $34 billion,” he said. “The one we just passed – $51 billion. That’s a 50 percent increase in two years.”

“It’s a spending issue, and it’s a priorities of government issue,” he added. “And we need to get that under control.”

Griffey, unlike his opponent Thomas, said he did not support a capital gains tax or any new tax.

“We have great revenue coming in with the current tax structure we already have, so I reject that,” he said.

He wants to reduce property taxes by capping the maximum number of years one is required to pay them.

“I get family members all the time that tell me ‘I have paid for 45 years and I’ve now been taxed out of my house,” he said. “We have got to fix that travesty.”

“It’s a real bad time to be talking about new revenue when we have so much of it,” he added.

Affordable housing

Candidates were asked what they would do to increase affordable housing in the county.

Daggett said he believed a lack of affordable housing was due to simple supply and demand, citing the economic downtown of 2008 and a resulting decline in construction.

“All of that housing that was being fed into the supply chain stopped,” he said. “And then as demand picked up we didn’t have houses.”

“I’m hoping that eventually it will even out,” he added, “but in the meantime we can take a look at things like little houses.”

His opponent, MacEwe,n criticized the Growth Management Act, a decades-old law that requires local governments to regulate development with an eye toward environmental and urban planning concerns. He also cited what he sees as burdensome zoning and land use rules.

“We need to rework the Growth Management Act to make it more flexible,” he said. “We also need to stop the mandates.”

Fellow Republican Griffey agreed that the GMA needs reform, and also cited supply and demand issues. He encouraged zoning changes in rural communities – “rural densification,” he said – that would allow multifamily homes on single lots.

“And we’re going to have to allow tiny homes on them,” he added. “We can build them beautiful, and put three or four of them on one piece of property.”

Thomas defended the Growth Management Act, saying it helped municipalities plan for things like delivering water, sewer and electricity, and finding sites for schools.

“The GMA takes a lot of abuse,” he said. “But let me tell you – the Growth Management Act works for all of us.”

Health care

Asked what they would do to “help protect and promote health care” in the district, the candidates diverged about the role government should play in the medical industry.

MacEwen said Peninsula Community Health Services, a nonprofit that offers care on a sliding pay scale based on income, has been a success, and said he would continue to support it.

“That is a great example of access and affordability,” he said.

He also criticized the state insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler for placing what he believes are burdensome regulations on insurance companies.

“We need to increase competition on the insurance side to drive down prices,” he said.

Griffey, an EMT, echoed MacEwen’s support of Peninsula Community Health Services, and talked about his successful efforts to add doctor’s offices in Belfair and Shelton.

“Peninsula Community Health is a pillar in Belfair,” he said.

Thomas, Griffey’s Democratic challenger, took a broader view. He cited his experience in the medical equipment industry to support universal, government-funded health care.

“All of the other major industrialized nations all have some form of universal healthcare,” he said. “We need one payer.”

He criticized his opponent for supporting more competition.

“We need less competition,” he said, instead supporting more bargaining power to negotiate things like drug prices.

Daggett said he found health care to be a top priority among voters, second only to property taxes, but stipulated that “as a state legislator, you can’t do too much about Medicare.”

He also criticized national Republicans for proposing cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

“I think you need a Democratic voice to protect your health care in Washington,” he said.

Gun control

Candidates were asked to weigh in on gun violence in schools.

MacEwen said he supported funding in the capital budget to renovate school buildings and to employ a police officer in every school.

Griffey agreed with MacEwen in stressing redesigning schools, adding “funnel points” to control points of entry. He also advocated for school resource officers, as well as a statewide “anonymous reporting app” on smartphones for students to report when they feel threatened.

“The commonality behind every school shooting in the United States is that somebody knew something,” he said. “There are barriers to reporting, and we need to eliminate those barriers.”

In response, Thomas said he was “shocked” about the tenor of the conversation, but agreed that redesigning schools and adding police officers was needed.

“The thing that nobody wants to talk about,” he added, “is common-sense gun control.”

He criticized Griffey for voting against a measure to ban “bump stocks,” devices that make semi-automatics operate more like fully automatics.

Daggett similarly criticized his opponent MacEwen for voting against the ban on bump stocks. MacEwen said he opposed the measure because bump stocks were, he said, meant for people with handicaps.

Daggett added that he supports single points of entry in schools, but also said that the problem of school shootings as a widespread phenomenon vexed him.

“We’ve had guns for a long time,” he said. “What is causing this?”

He supported Centers for Disease Control research on gun violence, something gun rights supporters have opposed.

“I would like to get to the bottom of this,” he said.

Transportation

Candidates were asked what they would do to address congestion around state highways 16 and 3 in Gorst. The Republican Griffey proposed building a railway overpass to circumvent the railway crossing, or a bypass road around the intersection.

“We’re going to get some congestion relief now, and then we’re going to get a long-term congestion relief plan for the future,” he said.

His opponent, Thomas, said he would work with the state Department of Transportation for a solution that “works not just for today,” he said, “but that’s going to serve us well into the future.”

MacEwen noted that renovations would be costly and suggested tapping federal funding sources.

“Whatever ‘the fix’ is, it’s going to be expensive,” he said.

He called the interchange a national security concern and suggested tapping the U.S. Navy.

“When we get the big earthquake, that area’s not going to exist,” he said.

Daggett said he would listen to transportation professionals at the WSDOT, and cited a study that suggested adding lanes.