Democrats Push Education; Gop Wants Less Government But All 7th District Candidates For House Are Penny Pinchers
Democratic candidates for two 7th Legislative District state representative positions want better education. Their Republican opponents want less government.
All of the candidates - Brad Lyons, Kurt Matter, Cathy McMorris and Bob Sump - consider themselves penny pinchers.
Fiscal conservatism is essential for any candidate in the mostly rural district, which includes Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, Ferry and parts of Spokane and Okanogan counties.
“I like to consider myself a Democrat who a conservative can vote for,” Lincoln County farmer Brad Lyons said.
His Republican rival, incumbent Cathy McMorris, calls herself “an open-minded conservative.”
Lyons says the biggest difference between him and McMorris is their experience. He is 42, a father and a veteran of the work force. She is 27, single and supported mainly by her legislative pay.
In addition to running his 800-acre homestead farm and helping with his wife’s ceramic-tile business, Lyons worked five years as a salesman for a farm supply company. He and his wife, Arlene, have two sons, 7 and 21 years old.
A lifelong resident of the Odessa, Wash., area, Lyons graduated from Odessa High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Washington State University.
McMorris cites her legislative experience. She was administrative assistant to former state Rep. Bob Morton and was appointed to replace him in January 1994 when he became a state senator.
She grew up on orchards near Salem, Ore., and in Kettle Falls, Wash., where her family moved in 1984. McMorris earned a high school diploma from Columbia River Christian Academy in Kettle Falls and a bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Pensacola (Fla.) Christian College.
She lives in Colville, Wash., and is trying to establish a travel agency in her home.
McMorris says she supported state Referendum 48 to pay owners for land-use restrictions. But Lyons says he thought the measure, which voters rejected, was “a bit of a blank check.”
McMorris says she wants to continue fighting burdensome and frivolous regulations, such as a proposal to require farmers to keep toilet paper in their outhouses.
Lyons says “education is the main concern of the state because, from a well-educated work force, you have the ability to earn a living wage.”
Fellow Democrat Kurt Matter also emphasizes education in his race against Republican Bob Sump.
Matter and Sump are seeking the seat being vacated by longtime Rep. Steve Fuhrman, a Republican.
“I think education is the key to our future and the key to economic growth,” said Matter, who served on the Kettle Falls School Board from 1988-95.
Sump, who has the support of some of the district’s leading mining and timber companies, champions property rights and the district’s resource industries.
“We have a good future in tourism, but our tax base is in the natural resource industries,” Sump said.
Sump, 55, moved to Republic, Wash., eight years ago from Centralia, Wash., where he operated service stations and auto repair shops and was a coal-mine mechanic. He now is a heavy equipment mechanic for Echo Bay Minerals at Republic.
Sump hasn’t run for office before but is chairman of the Ferry County Action League. That organization was formed four years ago to combat legislation he says “would have shut down the mining industry in the state of Washington.”
Sump graduated from high school in Houston, Texas. He and his wife, Brenda, have three adult children.
Matter, 45, says he is among many in the 7th District who are frustrated by “polarization of the far right and the far left.”
A heavy equipment operator who was an orchardist most of his life, Matter has lived near Kettle Falls for 21 years.
He graduated from high school in Longview, Wash., and studied math and political science at the University of Washington. Matter and his wife, Joanie, have two daughters, 17 and 19 years old.
, DataTimes MEMO: See individual profiles by name of candidate.