Other state races

Superintendent of public instruction

The candidates: Incumbent Terry Bergeson has been state schools chief for two terms, overseeing startup of the controversial exam that will be a graduation requirement for the class of 2008 – the kids now entering high school.

It’s not an easy job, as her challenger well knows. Judith Billings also served two terms as head of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction before a 1995 AIDS diagnosis focused her attention on survival. Now, with the disease in check, she wants her old job back.

The race: Each candidate got just over a third of the primary vote to advance to the general election ballot. The race appears to be a dead heat – not that surprising when “both are seen as incumbents,” says Democratic consultant Cathy Allen.

It’s not the first time they’ve clashed.

Bergeson challenged Billings in 1992, losing 52 percent to 48 percent. Billings was endorsed that year by the state teachers union, the Washington Education Association, which Bergeson served as president 1985-1989. Bergeson won handily in 1996 and 2000, after Billings retired.

The key issue this year is the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

Billings says when she was superintendent of public instruction, the Legislature passed the 1993 School Improvement Act, the goal of which was to “expand the system so every child could be the best he or she could be.”

Now, she contends, focus on the 7-year-old test – called the WASL – has “narrowed the curriculum to reading, writing and math.”

An “unhealthy concentration” on test scores is “pushing to the side really important things. Health and fitness, the arts, civics, social studies … are getting far less attention today because everybody’s concentrating on ‘What are our scores going to be in the paper.’ “

Bergeson dismisses that position.

“They’re trying to make this election some kind of mandate on a test. It isn’t about a test _ it’s about learning. It’s about skills for the 21st century,” she said. “We decided if we wanted to make it happen, we needed to measure the results. And the results aren’t always something we want to see.”

Resistance to the test has rallied the state teachers’ union behind Billings. Some parents have formed anti-WASL groups.

“We don’t support the WASL as a graduation requirement,” says WEA President Charles Hasse. “One test should not be used for making high-stakes decisions about students.”

Also, he said, “Billings was serious about funding issues. … We have a plan in place for accountability but there is no serious look at what we would hope to provide in terms of class sizes, technology – what programs we should have in place.”

Bergeson’s new budget proposal seeks money to cover voter-approved cost-of-living raises and smaller classes, set aside when the dot-com collapse ate into state resources.

Despite the drawbacks, she noted, Washington’s teachers have moved state students from the middle of the pack to among the top five academically.

Secretary of state

The candidates: Incumbent Sam Reed, a Republican, is facing a well-financed and aggressive Democratic rival, Rep. Laura Ruderman.

The race: Reed, the rare Republican in statewide elective office these days, finds himself in a fight for survival.

Ruderman is sparring with Reed over everything from the state’s new primary system to safeguarding votes cast by touch-screen machines.

“We are facing a new day and we need new leadership,” Ruderman said in an interview.

Reed said the state needs someone with broad experience in elections to deal with issues facing the state in the next four years. The state may get a new primary system, must replace all punchcard voting and must implement at least some touch-screen voting, he said.

Reed was a foremost defender of the old blanket primary, which allowed voters to pick a favorite for every office, skipping back and forth across party lines. When the courts overturned that 70-year-old system, he threw his support behind a Top 2 replacement that would allow crossover voting, but occasionally would produce finalists from the same party.

However, Gov. Gary Locke opted for a Montana-style system that restricts voters to one party’s action. Reed administered the new system in September despite his personal misgivings, joining counties in widespread voter education. But he promptly joined with the state Grange to promote a ballot proposition to adopt the Top 2 method.

Ruderman prefers the Montana system, but said that as the chief elections officer, the secretary of state shouldn’t try to influence the outcome of the initiative vote.

She also raps Reed for what she calls his attempt to undermine the first running of the Montana system in September. “He did everything in his power to make this September’s primary a miserable failure,” but voters turned out anyway, she said.

The state is moving toward at least partial use of ATM-like touch-screen voting machines. Ruderman says Reed has been slow to address possible security problems and to provide for a voter-verified paper trail – a printout with the voter’s choices marked. Reed’s initial legislation was inadequate and the regulations he later adopted don’t fully guarantee against “buggy” code and reliability of the vote tally, she said.

Reed said he adopted strong voter protections, including the paper trail, after the bill died in the House Rules Committee. He said Ruderman either killed his bill or didn’t have enough clout to move it out of Rules, where she is a member.

Auditor

The candidates: Incumbent Brian Sonntag, 52, is opposed by Will Baker, a Rebublican “vigilante activist” who has become known for being arrested at Tacoma City Council meetings, usually because he refuses to stop testifying during public hearings.

Libertarian Jason Bush, 35, of Bellevue, is running for auditor also. A business development manager at a technology company, Bush’s campaign promises greater government efficiency and nonpartisan objectivity in the auditor’s office.

The race: Sontagg said the lack of a major challenger means he must be doing a good job.

“State auditor probably doesn’t register the brightest blip on most people’s radar screen,” Sonntag said. “Our job is to be the public’s window into government … we’re the public’s auditor.”

Sonntag can rest easy, as can most incumbents in statewide office. Barring an upset the likes of Ralph Nader defeating George Bush, Baker has no chance of winning. Sonntag enjoys broad support across party lines and received about 600,000 primary votes. But Baker’s antics will keep Washington Republicans cringing and Democrats cackling through the general election.

State Republican party leaders unwittingly put Baker on the ballot at the last minute, grateful that someone had volunteered to run against a popular Democrat incumbent.

As the only auditor candidate on the Republican ballot, Baker got nearly 400,000 votes in the primary.

“It was incredibly embarrassing,” said Republican activist Richard Pope, who sued unsuccessfully to kick Baker off the ballot. “It may be the more he campaigns the less people will vote for him.”

Despite his vociferous presence at Tacoma public meetings, the 41-year-old Baker remains a mystery. He refused interview requests from The Associated Press.

In a recent mass e-mail, Baker described himself with a line from the “Shaft” theme song: “the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.”

Public lands commissioner

The candidates: Incumbent Doug Sutherland, a moderate Republican who has won over a number of conservationists, is running against state Rep. Mike Cooper, the favorite among environmental groups, Democratic Party loyalists and labor unions.

The race: In his bid for re-election, Sutherland touts a new plan that calls for harvesting more timber from state forests as one of the reasons he deserves a second term.

Cooper says it’s a strong case for ousting the incumbent.

Sutherland beamed a bright smile last month, when the Board of Natural Resources, after dozens of public meetings spanning more than three years, unanimously approved a timber-harvest target averaging 597 million board feet annually over the next 10 years.

Sutherland, the board’s chairman, hailed the harvest target as both ecologically and economically responsible, saying it would raise more money for school construction, meet state and federal standards for protecting fish and wildlife, and make the forests healthier by thinning areas choked with too many trees.

Cooper counters there isn’t much sustainable about the so-called “sustainable harvest calculation.”

As he sees it, the plan calls for too much clearcutting, threatens drinking water and salmon habitat, and leaves old-growth forests vulnerable.

“You don’t make a forest healthier by cutting it down,” said Cooper, a firefighter who has spent eight years representing the Edmonds area in the Legislature.

What Cooper calls a clearcut, Sutherland calls a “regeneration harvest” _ a forestry term for cutting down most of a stand of trees to maximize the amount of light, water and nutrients for a fresh crop.

At least eight trees are left standing on every acre of a regeneration harvest, which Cooper says is hardly enough to provide worthwhile habitat for wildlife.

As head of the Department of Natural Resources, the lands commissioner oversees logging on about 2 million acres of state forests and regulates the timber harvest on 8 million acres of privately owned land.

Money from the state’s timber sales goes into a trust that funds school construction, libraries, hospitals, county services and other needs. That forces the lands commissioner to strike a delicate balance between maximizing revenue for the trust and protecting the environment.

Sutherland’s backers, including former Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner and board members of several conservation groups, say he’s a master at the art of compromising who’s done a good job of striking that balance.

Cooper and his supporters accuse Sutherland of selling out to the timber industry and other business interests that have contributed to his campaign.

Sutherland, elected lands commissioner in 2000 when he was Pierce County Executive, bristles at any suggestion he’s in anyone’s pocket.

Lieutenant governor

The candidates: Incumbent Brad Owen, Democrat, is opposed by Republican Jim Wiest and Libertarian Jocelyn Langlois.

The race: Wiest, 56, is a former school bus driver who now owns a limousine company in Olympia. On his campaign Web site, he says he would do a better job encouraging economic growth than the incumbent.

Langlois, 46, is the president of a Richland engineering firm. Her No. 1 priority as Lieutenant Governor would be to abolish the office.

Owen, 54, of Shelton, is seeking his third term as Lieutenant Governor. He previously owned and operated convenience stores and served in the state Legislature. As Lieutenant Governor, Owen has focussed on economic development and anti-drug campaigns aimed at children.

Treasurer

The candidates: Incumbent Mike Murphy, Democrat, faces Republican Oscar Lewis and Libertarian John Sample.

The race: Lewis, 53, of Bellevue, is the finance and administration manager for a marine parts distributor. Lewis says one important role of the treasurer is to educate state leaders so they can make sound financial decisions. On his campaign web site, Lewis also says everyone in Washington should support U.S. troops.

Sample, 55, is the chief financial officer of a dot-com business in Seattle. He says many entrenched Olympia bureaucrats have forgotten that “government spending” refers to the people’s money. As a Libertarian, he says he believes people need more choices in government.

Murphy, 57, who lives on a sailboat in Olympia, is seeking a third term as state treasurer. He previously served for a decade as Thurston County treasurer. Murphy says he has based his campaigns and his work in office on three principles: “integrity, customer service and working smarter.”

Insurance commissioner

The candidates: Incumbent Mike Kreidler, Democrat, is opposed by Republican John Adams and Libertarian Stephen Steele.

The race: Adams, 64, of Kirkland, is an insurance agent with 34 years of experience in the business. He says insurance companies have to be allowed to make a profit if they’re going to continue serving Washington consumers, and he promises to bring a moderate approach to problem-solving in the insurance commissioner’s office.

Steele, 59, of Seattle, is vice president of a medical software development company. On his campaign Web site, he notes that health care costs and insurance premiums have increased 2 percent to 14 percent yearly over the past two decades, and urges people to vote Libertarian for a real change.

Kreidler, 60, of Lacey, is seeking a second term as insurance commissioner. He is an optometrist, former state legislator and former U.S. Congressman. Kreidler says one of his top accomplishments in office has been forcing insurance companies to scale back rate increases. If re-elected, he says he would work to make health insurance and prescription drugs more affordable.