Turn in your ballots by August 4! (David Mendez/The Osprey)
Table of Contents
by David Mendez
If you’re anything like me, there’s a good chance that your ballot for the August 4 primary election is hanging out on your table or kitchen counter: opened but not yet filled out. There are 11 candidates competing for three seats (two seats in the State House and one in the State Senate) in Washington’s 32nd Legislative District — and of those 11, they’ll be pared down to six candidates total for the three races.
It’s hard to get to know so many candidates, even for folks who care enough to pay attention — so we called, texted, and emailed every single one of ‘em, asking if they’d be interested in meeting for a 30 to 45 minute in-person interview.
Eight candidates responded in time to set up interviews. We turned each of those into profiles of each candidate that you can read below. We hope you find them informative.
Shoreline and its fellows in the 32nd District have an interesting primary coming. State Rep. Cindy Ryu is not running for reelection; instead, she’s challenging her colleague, Sen. Jesse Salomon, for his seat in the State Senate. There’s no love lost between the two, who had strong words for one another in comments to The Osprey. They’re joined in the race by Republican hopeful Ira McBee.
Meanwhile, six candidates — Chris Bloomquist, Will Chen, Jenna Nand, Danica Noble, Lisa Rezac and Keith Scully — are running to succeed Ryu, while one Democratic hopeful — Imraan Siddiqi — is challenging incumbent Rep. Lauren Davis for her spot in the House.
Washington is a top-two primary state, meaning that the two candidates with the most votes in their race will end up on the general election ballot, no matter what their party preference is. That means that some races may end up with two Republicans — or, perhaps along this stretch of the Sound, two Democrats.
Who’s missing?
The Osprey interviewed eight of the 11 candidates on the ballot for the 32nd District. The three candidates who we did not interview are Lisa Rezac, who is running for one of the two State House seats; Ira McBee, candidate for the State Senate; and incumbent Sen. Jesse Salomon.
Rezac answered The Osprey’s initial email by asking for our previous political coverage; our response and subsequent check-ins went unanswered. McBee, unfortunately, responded too late for us to set up an interview. After a few requests sent both directly and to his campaign, Salomon directed us to his campaign manager; our subsequent requests, sent to both, went unanswered.
That said, Salomon did take an opportunity to say his piece when we asked him if he’d like to respond to criticisms Ryu shared in her interview. Our profile of Ryu, along with Salomon’s response, can be seen below — along with our other profiles.
Candidates for 32nd District State House, Seat 1
Chris Bloomquist: “We need to put people to work in equitable, long-term, meaningful work, and I think it starts with infrastructure.”
Will Chen: "Olympia is full of good attorneys. We're not lacking attorneys," Chen said. "I'm the only CPA in the race."
Jenna Nand: “We need to fix a lot of the inequities that are preventing people from being able to work hard and reap the benefits of that.”
Danica Noble: “Democracy is built with power to the people. And one of the things that corrupts that...is the concentration of power and wealth.”
Keith Scully: "If I go there for two or three terms and I don’t have anything to show for it, that’s a personal fail."
Candidates for 32nd District State House, Seat 2
Lauren Davis: “But seeing them up there, their families were there, they were reunited with their kids — can you think of something that’s more rewarding than that?”
Imraan Siddiqi: "Having that overarching spirit of fighting back against the Trump administration, wherever we can, is going to be super important."
Candidate for 32nd District State Senate
Cindy Ryu: “Instead of complaining, I think I can do a much better job.”
Remember to drop your ballots in your mailbox or in a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on August 4. Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Woodway and Seattle voters can find their local ballot drop boxes through King County’s website. Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace and other Snohomish County voters can find local ballot drop locations through Snohomish County’s website.
Thanks for reading, folks. We welcome all comments, complimentary, critical or ambivalent. Email me at [email protected] to let me know what you think of how we approached this.
Take care,
David