Longtime Clark County educator Dennis Kampe, a Democrat, and La Center political consultant Ann Rivers, a Republican, will face each other in November for the open 18th Legislative District seat being vacated by state Rep. Jaime Herrera.
In preliminary votes from Clark and Cowlitz counties, Kampe, the only Democrat in the race, was leading Rivers by about 1,600 votes in the seven-candidate race. Washougal city councilor Jon Russell was a distant third.
The 18th Legislative District, which encompasses Felida, Salmon Creek, Ridgefield, Battle Ground, north Clark County, Camas, Washougal, and south Cowlitz County, is a Republican stronghold. Rivers and Russell were among six Republicans who campaigned for the seat; two of them dropped out before the June filing deadline. Landscape contractor Brandon Vick and recent Skyview High School graduate Anthony Bittner are the other GOP candidates. Bittner did not actively campaign for the seat.
Besides Kampe, the other candidates in the crowded field were Richard Carson, an Independent, and Jon Haugen, a Delta Air Lines pilot who listed no party preference.
Rivers led in fundraising from the beginning. With an influx of money from interest groups, she had raised nearly $67,000 as of Tuesday, more than twice as much as Kampe, the founder and longtime director of the Clark County Skills Center.
Kampe, a moderate Democrat who has lived in the 18th District all his life, pledged to work for increased access to post-secondary education.
Rivers, who has lived and worked in both Clark and Cowlitz counties, campaigned as an insider who knows how Olympia works. She said she had a plan to bring “true transparency” to state government.
Russell, the owner of a Washougal medical clinic, dropped out of the 3rd Congressional District race in February and entered the 18th District contest, where he struggled with fundraising and questions about his educational background.
Rich Carson, a semi-retired consultant and former director of the Clark County Department of Community Development, promised to bring his background in promoting government efficiency to Olympia. Nonaffiliated candidate Haugen ran to block tolls on a new bridge over the Columbia River.
17th District
In the 17th District, which covers Vancouver east of I-205 and south of 119th Street, Republican businessman Paul Harris was running more than 20 points ahead of middle school teacher Monica Stonier, a Democrat. The two will face off in November for the open seat being vacated by state Rep. Deb Wallace. Software entrepreneur Martin Hash, a Democrat, came in a distant third.
Harris, a former Evergreen School Board member who ran against Wallace in 2006, campaigned as a fiscal conservative, arguing that legislators will need to cut state funding for education, social services and public safety to allow the state to live within its means. “Education knows how to grow but doesn’t know how to retract,” he told The Columbian.
Stonier, who won Wallace’s early endorsement, is a language and social studies teacher at Pacific Middle School. Active in the Washington Education Association and the Democratic Party, she represented Clark County as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She said if elected, she would work to shore up education funding and give more discretion to school building principals and teachers.
Hash, who made a brief run for the state Senate against Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, in 2008, ran a self-funded campaign in which he called for amending the state constitution to allow the state to run a deficit in order to stave off painful cuts in program and tax increases.
Other races
Democratic incumbents in three other Clark County legislative races — Jim Moeller and Jim Jacks in the 49th District, which covers west Vancouver and Hazel Dell, and Tim Probst in the 17th — each faced a single Republican opponent. Jacks was leading Bill Cismar and Moeller was leading Craig Riley in the 49th. In the 17th, gas station owner Brian Peck was slightly ahead of Probst.
In those contests, both candidates will advance to the general election.
Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, is unopposed in his campaign for re-election in the 18th District.
