It's 47th Legislative District Week!

The key to restoring balance and fiscal responsibility to the Washington Legislature can be found in the vote-rich suburbs of eastern King County in an area known as the Crescent. 

The 47th Legislative District is part of this Crescent, lying in southeast King County covering the Renton Highlands to the East Hill of Kent to Black Diamond.

Republican Joe Fain, the Chief of Staff for King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer, is facing off in the 47th against incumbent Democratic state senator Claudia Kaufmann.  Fain has said his campaign is focused on growing jobs and small business, controlling government spending, and improving public education.

Republican Nancy Wyatt, president of the Auburn Chamber of Commerce, is taking on one of the biggest liberals in the Washington House of Representatives, Democrat Geoff Simpson, who was arrested in 2008 for domestic violence (the charges were later dropped.) Simpson, if you remember, also made the following angy comments about the Tea Party earlier this year:

I don't think it's patriotic to fly airplanes into buildings as one of your tea party members recently did. I find your movement to be infected with the same selfish, hate-spawned and dangerous ideas that have plagued civilization from time to time, only to be quelled when appeals to man's more patriotic attributes of selflessness, kindness, compassion and peace have prevailed.

Joe and Nancy are among five legislative candidates from the inaugural graduating class of the Jennifer Dunn Leadership Institute.  The non-partisan, non-profit JDLI was formed last year to recruit and train leaders in Washington State who are committed to the principles of freedom, security, entrepreneurial free enterprise, and a return of conservative principles of governance.  Students go through a rigorous six day course on how to fundraise, work with volunteers, and deal with the media.  The essensce of the JDLI is to form a "farm team" for Washington Republicans similar to what the Institute for a Democratic Future does for statet Democrats.

All this week, I will be featuring interviews with Fain and Wyatt, as well as a story on the JDLI.  Then this weekend, I will be doorbelling with Nancy and walking with Joe in the Kent Cornucopia Days parade and covering those events live.

If you want to help take back Olympia, you can do so by donating generously to Joe here and Nancy here.

UDPATE: Apparently the ultra-leftist Washington Bus Project has listed Simpson and Kaufmann as two of it's six priority candidates. If you remember, the Washington Bus Project hit Pullman last year with a "street art" spree, i.e. vandalism, that ended up with it's head Thomas Goldstein and his deputy Toby Crittenden arrested. That should tell you everything you need to know about Simpson and Kaufmann.