Service announces candidacy for 49th district legislative seat

Vancouver resident Anson Service has announced that he’ll seek the legislative seat now held by state Rep. Sharon Wylie, D-Vancouver.

Service, a Republican, will run for state representative in the 49th Legislative District, Position 1. He said he’d like to be an approachable representative who makes the legislative process more open and accessible to everyday citizens.

“It doesn’t seem like the whole system is set up for the regular Joe Schmo guy,” Service said. “I want to change things along those lines.”

That means talking openly and frankly about what bills do, how they affect people and where they stand, Service said, cutting through the “legal speak.”

“You can’t be excited about something you don’t know anything about,” he said.

Service said his priorities in Olympia would include transportation, education and health care in Washington. He said he’d like to see the Interstate 5 Bridge “redone” — but not as the now-defunct Columbia River Crossing, a $2.9 billion proposal currently in the

process of shutting down. He’d like to help boost education funding under a state Supreme Court mandate. And he’d like to improve health care in the state by putting more emphasis on mental health services, which have fallen victim to budget cuts and exacerbated other problems, Service said.

“If you take care of mental health, it’s going to take care of a lot of other things,” Service said.

“I’m more in the camp of being fiscally conservative and not wasting money,” he said.

Service, 40, lives in the Hazel Dell area with his wife and three children. He has lived in the Vancouver area for most of the past 19 years.