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Editorial: Token challengers leave seats to incumbents

Tue., Oct. 14, 2014

It’s disappointing when political races don’t draw the kinds of challenges that force robust debates on the issues, and that’s what happened in Legislative District 3, Position 2 and Legislative District 6, Position 2.

Incumbent Reps. Timm Ormsby and Jeff Holy are facing token opposition. Ormsby’s opponent, Paul Delaney, is a Libertarian who has been working out of the area and has not been available to interview.

Holy wouldn’t have an opponent if not for the write-in candidacy of Democrat Ziggy Siegfried, a custodian and landscaper who drew just over 500 votes in the primary, which barely qualified him for the general election ballot requirement of winning 1 percent of the votes cast.

Republicans have struggled for many years to field strong candidates in the 3rd District, which is the lone Democratic stronghold in Eastern Washington. So the lack of an opponent isn’t surprising. However, the 6th District has featured many good battles over the years, so it’s a letdown that a first-term representative such as Holy has an unobstructed path back to Olympia.

Ormsby and Holy are the obvious choices, but we differ with both on significant issues.

Ormsby is running for his sixth full term and has strong union backing. We have differed with him over the years on business-climate issues, such as reforms to worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance. He has the backing of the Washington Education Association, which successfully thwarted a legislative effort to strengthen teacher evaluations. As a result, local school districts lost control of $40 million in No Child Left Behind funds used for transportation and counseling.

On the other hand, we agree with Ormsby on social issues, such as gay marriage, and he has fought hard for social services important to his low-income district. He has teamed up with Sen. Andy Billig and Rep. Marcus Riccelli to battle for Eastern Washington’s share of capital funding for key projects. That alliance will be important as Washington State University-Spokane looks to expand the Riverpoint campus. The District 3 trio could also play a key role in bringing an independent medical school to Spokane.

Holy struggled to articulate why he was running for the Legislature two years ago but has no doubt benefited from serving two years in Olympia. He’s now running on an economic development platform that focuses on clearing impediments from businesses as they try to establish and grow. So he advocates the business reform issues we think the state needs.

We are concerned that he will settle into a pattern of issuing automatic “no” votes from the minority, as many of the region’s Republican representatives have done. If he can adopt positive causes that draw bipartisan support, he will be a more effective legislator. His 6th District seatmate, Rep. Kevin Parker, is a model for how this can be achieved.

Holy vs. Ormsby would be an interesting contest, but the boundaries won’t allow it. So voters should return both incumbents and hope for competitive races next time.