9th Legislative District Day Vs. Sheahan: Political Science Student Takes On Area Attorney

Two Democrats, both political newcomers, are trying to unseat a couple of two-term Republican state representatives in the 9th District this year.

The sprawling 9th District includes four counties: Whitman, Adams, south Spokane, and the Clarkston area of Asotin.

Democrat Brian Day, a 26-year-old political science student at Washington State University, is taking on Republican Larry Sheahan, a Rosalia attorney. Day says he’d be more moderate than Sheahan, whom he characterizes as a Republican party-liner.

Day said he’d push for money for higher education, moderate welfare reform, and money and equipment for grass-roots anti-crime programs such as block watches. He said he’d try to balance environmental issues with the costs to people who make their living from the land.

Sheahan also said he’ll work to increase spending for higher education, as well as for the district’s small schools. He said he wants tougher juvenile crime penalties and tax reductions for property owners and business.

In office, Sheahan co-sponsored bills to streamline police paperwork in drunken driving cases and to make lethal injection the preferred method of execution, over hanging, in order to limit convicts’ legal appeals.

Henager vs. Schoesler

The other race pits Pullman milkman Bob Henager, a Democrat, against Mark Schoesler, a Ritzville farmer and Republican.

Henager says he’d be more accessible and represent the district better than Schoesler, who lives on the district’s northern outskirts.

Henager said he would work hard to keep voters informed on upcoming bills and vote the way they want, even if it clashes with his own beliefs. He said he’d fight to improve the quality of education, and to “instill a sense of respect and honor among students.”

Schoesler said he’d push for tougher juvenile crime laws, more higher-education spending and tax cuts while trying to avoid regulations for agriculture.

He sponsored a bill this year to take anhydrous ammonia - used as a fertilizer - off the high-level air pollutant list. He also co-sponsored a bill to rent an unused state building at Medical Lake to area counties for free, so they could afford to remodel it to a juvenile detention center.

He helped get money for a local transportation service in Pullman, and toughened the law against making the drug methamphetamine.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Map: 9th Legislative District

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