Road to Olympia: The Millennials

This is the first in a series of articles on this fall’s Washington state legislative races.

Democrats currently enjoy 60% plus supermajorities in both houses of the Washington legislature. Republican candidates across the state are aiming to undo this and restore balance in Olympia.

The road to Olympia for these Republicans runs through two key suburban swing legislative districts: the 6^th in Spokane and the 47^th in King County. I will be covering the Republican races in these two districts extensively between now and November.

The Millennials (voters aged 18-29) were considered a key demographic in the 2008 election of Barack Obama. But the continuing recession has soured many Millennials, who face unemployment at much higher rates than their elders. They fret over deficits and most don’t think they will be better off than their parents. In other words, many Millennials don’t think Obama and the Democrats have lived up to their promise of hope and change.

A recent Harvard Institute of Politics study found that among Millennials who voted for Obama, only 44% plan to vote in this year’s midterm elections versus 53% of McCain voters. Among Republican Millennials, 41% say they will definitely be voting versus 35% of Millennial Democrats.

This enthusiasm gap was widely evident at last Sunday’s Kent Cornucopia Days parade.

29-year old Joe Fain, Republican candidate for the Washington Senate in the 47^th Legislative District, had some three dozen supporters walking with him during the parade. Most were young, and all were enthusiastic. The same could not be said of Fain’s opponent, Sen. Claudia Kauffman, who had about half the number of supporters as Joe.



































Republican 47th LD House candidate Mark Hargrove had nice contingent on hand for the parade:


















Here is Republican 47^th LD House candidate Nancy Wyatt:



















Attention residents of Eastern Washington. Rep. Susan Fagan (R-Pullman) was on hand walking in the parade with Nancy Wyatt. Tired of Seattle liberals calling all the shots? You can’t vote in King County, but you sure can donate and volunteer for Republicans running for office in King County. Get busy!

ONE-ON-ONE: Joe Fain, Republican Candidate for Washington State Senate

As part of 47th Legislative District Week, I interviewed Joe Fain, the Republican candidate who is facing off against incumbent Sen. Claudia Kauffman (D-Kent.) 

Fain received a BA from the University of Washington and an MBA and a law degree from Seattle University. He is currently Chief of Staff for King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer.

Joe is very active in the community and sits on the foundation board of directors for Highline Community College and the board of Auburn Youth Resources, a nonprofit organization that provides treatment and counseling for at-risk youth throughout the region.

You can read more about Joe at http://votefain.com/

TF: My first question is what inspired you to run for the Senate this year?


Joe Fain: First, I love public service. I come from a family who has prioritized public service. My parents have spent 84 years in serving kids in the public schools. I’ve worked for three branches of government here locally in King County. I enjoy the work and I enjoy the people.

I feel that the ideals that I’ve been fighting for of fiscal responsibility, of rationally working together across party lines to solve problems, and of all-around civic engagement have started to slip away in recent years. I felt that the only way that you can turn back the tide is to step forward and be willing to put yourself on the line to get it done. So, that’s why I chose to put my name on the ballot.

I was proud to have been encouraged and recruited by a lot of people in my community who over the last several years have asked me to do this. The one that I point to, probably in second place behind my fiancée, who was very encouraging for me to step forward and do this would be the former longtime senator from the 47th District, Steve Johnson, who is the co-chair of my campaign committee. He served three terms in the Senate from the 47th District. He has been my number one cheerleader in this endeavor.

TF: Give me three of the top issues that you are running on this year.

Joe Fain: The three issues are pretty cut and dry in this cycle. One, jobs, two, putting a rein on spending and creating a responsible budget, and three continuing to reform education so that it is “kid-focused” and not “bureaucracy focused.”

TF: Contrast yourself with your opponent Claudia Kauffman.

Joe Fain: Well, first on the issue of education Claudia was an opponent of a major piece of education reform that came through in the 2008 session. She believes that the status quo is the way to go in education and I do not.

She also voted to spend $800 million in new taxes this last legislative session. She is fiscally irresponsible. She is rated in recent years as a member of the “Billionaire’s Club” for legislators who sponsored or voted for new fees or taxes, one of the highest.

Her values just don’t match my district and my community.

TF: Speaking of your district, the 47th Legislative District is considered a swing district. What are you hearing from voters out there? Obviously you’ve been out there doorbelling and talking to folks. What are you hearing from them? What are they concerned about this year?

Joe Fain: They’re concerned about their job. A lot of districts in the Puget Sound, as I talk to other candidates and campaigns, the job situation in those districts are better than they are in my community. In my community, unemployment is very high. People have been without a job, in some cases, for six months, twelve months and beyond. There are very few people I come in contact with that can’t tell me a personal story about how they or their family has faced unemployment in recent years.

In the business community that I talk to, they are concerned about jobs too, from the standpoint of they were running 15-20 person operations two years ago, and they’re now running four or five person operations. They’re just trying to get by themselves.

So again, the number one issue here is economic revitalization and getting people the employment they need to take care of their families.

TF: One last question. You are a graduate of the inaugural class of the Jennifer Dunn Leadership Institute, as well as four others who are running for the Legislature this year. What can you tell me about the influence that has had on your campaign and how it’s helped you in running your campaign?

Joe Fain:  I was very pleased that Attorney General McKenna reached out to me personally and asked me to be a part of the program’s inaugural year and inaugural class.

It provided me a plethora of skills, from leadership training to campaign training to issue training and communications/media training.

But I still say the most important thing that it provides students is a network; not only a network of people who have been there and done that in terms of campaigns that you can turn to for advice and help, but also a network of people who are going to be going through it at the same time you are.  Just knowing that there are other people out there who are running for office that I now have close relationships with that are going through many of the same things that I am has been very helpful. You can and we often do talk with one another about how the race is going and it’s just nice to know that there is someone who is going through the same thing that you are.

And then finally, there are some incredible individuals and we have some incredible candidates that came out of that program. When we get to down to Olympia this fall, to have that established relationship and that established respect ahead of time is only going to help us work better together to affect the change we are all running to accomplish.

I'll be walking with Joe at the Kent Cornucopia Days parade this Sunday and will have photos and more comments from Joe and his supporters then.

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.