Brown, Casey face off

The audience had gathered to hear legislative candidates talk about how the state is going to help some of its most vulnerable citizens.

As priorities of government go, support for developmentally disabled people has got to be somewhere at the top, one of the dozen candidates said.

Another told the listeners they are their own best advocates when it comes to arguing for funding.

Mike Casey, who is challenging Sen. Lisa Brown in Spokane’s 3rd District, turned his appearance into a conversation about faith.

“I feel strongly in the culture of life and the dignity of everyone,” Casey said during last Thursday’s legislative reception sponsored by the Spokane County Parent Coalition for developmentally disabled people at Spokane Community College.

Casey quoted from the Bible and reminded the group how they, like Jesus, have a cross to bear.

“You are the heroes,” he said. “We can only applaud you from the sidelines.”

Brown said afterward that her opponent sounded like he was preaching. “I don’t think he specifically addressed their agenda,” she said. “The key issue is funding.”

Brown has supported one of those issues: establishing a trust account to fund programs for developmentally disabled people. The money would come from proceeds off future sale or lease of land once used for state institutional care.

Casey said his faith is central to his beliefs.

Brown and Casey are vying to represent the 3rd District, which encompasses a large chunk of the city of Spokane from the lower South Hill to most of the North Side.

Casey, a dentist, is running as a pro-business, pro-family candidate. He opposes abortion. He says that employers need a break from costs imposed by government, and Brown’s policies are out of touch with the needs of the district.

Brown, now the minority leader in the Senate, is calling for wider access to affordable health care, child care and stronger schools. She is pro-choice.

“I think I am pretty in touch with the community,” she said.

Challenging the incumbent

The morning after the forum at SCC, Brown met a group of university faculty representatives at the Riverpoint campus to talk about higher education. The senator has opposed a bill that would push students to complete college in four years. The rules were too rigid, she said, but the measure is likely to be reintroduced next year.

In a way, Brown is running for two jobs. At last count, she had gathered $136,000 in her campaign to win a third Senate term in a district considered safe for Democrats. But she also hopes to become majority leader in the Senate. She has been working on Senate campaigns statewide, and said her party stands a chance of adding two seats to its side of the aisle, which would give the Democrats a 26-23 majority.

An associate professor at Gonzaga University, Brown was first elected to the House from the 3rd District in 1992. In the Senate since 1996, she has chaired several committees, including the important Ways and Means Committee in 2001 and 2002.

Casey and the Republicans are mounting a spirited challenge. Casey has raised more than $70,000 and is putting up a fight in a district where only five Republicans have served since 1932.

Casey is using a flier that declares, “Guess who’s not looking out for YOUR FAMILY!” It calls attention to Brown’s record on a series of crime and decency issues, including her votes against a bill requiring porn filters in libraries and another preventing sex offenders from living near schools.

Brown said she voted against the library filters because she believes it is a local issue for cities and library districts. The bill limiting where sex offenders could live was poorly written and did not take into account child care centers, she said.

She also pointed out that she sponsored a successful bill that now helps law enforcement track down Internet sex predators.

A political change

Casey spent part of his childhood growing up in northeast Spokane. He attended Catholic seminary and graduated from Seattle Prep high school in 1964, and for years considered himself a Democrat. He switched parties in the early 1980s out of frustration over Democratic positions on social issues, among other things, he said.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, especially life, is a guaranteed part of the Constitution,” he said.

Casey earned his dental degree from Creighton University in 1973. He set up practice in Newport in 1975, and spent nearly a decade on the board of the Newport Public Hospital District. Since 1994, he’s been practicing as a part-time dentist for the state Department of Corrections in the Spokane area. He also treated Spokane County Jail patients for eight years.

Two years ago, he lost his wife, Cinde, to cancer. He moved to the 3rd District and registered to vote in the district last January, he said.

Brown grew up in Illinois and finished high school in 1974. She holds her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and earned both her master’s degree and doctoral degree in economics from the University of Colorado.

She came to Spokane in 1981 to teach at Eastern Washington University. Brown ran for the House successfully in 1992 and then won election to the Senate in 1996. She moved to GU three years ago. She is a member of the Friends of the Centennial Trail and calls herself a soccer mom.

Health care reform

Affordable and accessible health care appears to be the top issue in this race.

Casey subscribes to the Republican view that high jury awards are driving up malpractice insurance rates and making health care too costly. In addition, he said the cost of malpractice coverage is causing physicians to leave Spokane.

He is calling for placing a limit of $250,000 on jury awards for pain and suffering in malpractice cases and a new structure on the way settlements are paid to plaintiffs. He offers as proof a press release last February in which Physicians Insurance and the Washington State Medical Association promise a 10 percent reduction in malpractice premiums if lawmakers approved the caps.

Brown said she favors finding ways to contain the costs of malpractice insurance, but that the legislation endorsed by Casey and other Republicans would require a voter-approved constitutional amendment. An amendment needs a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature, a requirement that apparently caused Republicans to not introduce the amendment last year, she said.

Tort reform, Brown said, won’t solve the problem of getting coverage to more people, especially people working for small businesses or individuals who have no insurance and modest incomes. She said the state could use its buying power to drive down the cost of insurance for residents and businesses.

Brown is calling for the state to establish health plans that small businesses can afford, and expand access to the existing Basic Health Plan for individuals and families. She also is calling for increases in reimbursements to hospitals in Eastern Washington to help stem the losses hospitals are seeing as a result of providing care to indigent patients.

She said the state needs to increase spending for mental health treatment in the wake of a federal rule that limits how much Medicaid money can go to mental health care. Brown also opposes a Republican effort to charge premiums for Medicaid. She believes all children should be given insured health care.

3rd District concerns

Casey wants to allow private insurers to compete for workers’ compensation coverage. He is calling for reforming the business and occupation tax so that it is collected on net revenues, not gross revenues. He wants business regulations pared.

He is also against the state’s minimum wage, which will increase to $7.35 an hour in January.Brown said making higher education available to more residents is a good way to help the economy by training workers for a range of careers. She supports tax-increment financing to bring investment into Spokane.

But one of the biggest differences between the candidates is their views of the 3rd District. Brown sees it as the center of Eastern Washington, a place rich in commerce, culture, health care, neighborhoods and parks. She said it is also a district where a lot of people live in need.

Casey said government has failed in the 3rd District. He points to the fact that 53,000 residents are enrolled for state assistance out of a district population of 120,000, according to state statistics from 2002. Many of them are children. Assistance for food and medical care dominates the numbers. He said voter turnout is low and homelessness is all too prevalent.

“The real sadness is the poverty is extreme in this district,” Casey said. “People have lost hope and dropped out.”

Brown said the district indeed has a lot of people living in crisis, but that, “I think he underestimates the 3rd District.”