Spencer Hutchins-R, who has served two years as representative for state Legislative District 26, will step down from office, leaving the race between Adison Richards-D, who ran against Hutchins two years ago and lost, and Jesse L. Young-R, who served in the position before himself stepping down, allowing Hutchins to fill it.

Both Richards and Young believe that cost of living, housing, crime, education and job growth are the main issues in the race for this position.

“There’s a lot our state government can do around our housing policy and with childcare, healthcare and long-term care that would address cost of living,” Richards said. He supports tax reform to help lessen the burden on the middle class. Richards said he believes there are supply and demand issues in housing. “I think we’re last in the country in affordable housing units,” he said. “We have to look at the root causes of that, and how our policies and regulations are getting in the way of more providers and increasing the supply side of the issue.”

Young said that lowering taxes is a key feature of what he thinks will make life more affordable in the district. “I think that’s the biggest difference between Adison and me,” Young said. “I want to lower the gas tax. Part of the inflation we’re feeling is taxes, and I want to change that.” Young said he wants to target tax relief to local businesses, which would allow more businesses to hire locally and prevent Kitsap County residents from having to commute to other parts of Puget Sound.

While public safety remains a dominant issue, both candidates believe not enough has been done at either the state or local level to prevent and sequester crime. “It starts with more funding for state patrol,” Richards said. “We need to train more officers and get them into our communities.” In addition, Richards said the state should be creating more funding for cities and counties to hire more officers.

Young said he believes the No. 1 issue in crime is to make possession of drugs illegal again. “If they can’t be arrested for the drugs they possess, we don’t have the force to go after them for the things they did to get the drugs,” he said. “More fundamentally, if we want to solve our drug problems, we have to stop treating drug abuse as a mental health problem.” Young said that mental issues need to be addressed, but that classifying drug use as a mental health issue takes funding away from those issues, and doesn’t necessarily end drug addiction. “If it isn’t going to be classified as a crime, then let’s make a third category so we can solve the problem that way.”

Both candidates also believe education and job growth are fundamental to residents of District 26. Richards wants to focus on vocational education as a way to get more students into high-paying blue-collar jobs. “We have to create more concrete pathways for students to go into trades or business that don’t necessarily require college,” he said. “The South Kitsap School District is doing a great job with their career tech program.” He said that it is a locally driven issue, but that the state can assist. “We can absolutely change state curriculum and policies to create a pathway to get folks into trades and other careers,” Richards said.

Young focused more on the job growth side of the equation and said that he believes in developing economic opportunity zones, particularly in the IT sector. “Washington should be the preeminent leader in IT, industrial and service center job growth. 90 percent of all hosted services in the world are located here in King County, and those will grow jobs out here,” he said. “And you can enter those fields with a four-year degree, or with a vocational tech degree.”

For Richards, protecting what he called the “unique character and beauty of this place,” is his first priority, focusing on provisions for educational pathways, controlled building out of rural areas and more focused law enforcement.

Young said his vision is for lower, more transparent taxes and tax policy, going back to “sensible” policies on crime, job growth and more development in regulated rural areas.