Voters in the 18th Legislative District will choose a new representative for the Position 1 seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Brandon Vick, who served five terms.
The challengers are Republican Stephanie McClintock, who works in public relations for United Grain, and Democrat John Zingale, a schoolteacher.
Candidates
McClintock, who lives in Vancouver, has been active for several years in Battle Ground schools, which her children attended, including serving on the school board and on the Battle Ground Education Foundation board. She is a past chair of the Clark County Republican Party and a precinct committee officer.
She said she wants to bring a commonsense approach to the Legislature.
“There are issues that we’re facing that need the biggest changes, and those issues are coming from Olympia,” McClintock said. “I feel like this is how I can best serve and represent families here.”
Zingale, who also lives in Vancouver, said his teaching job at Vancouver iTech Preparatory played a big part in his decision to run for office. He has been honored as the Washington State History Teacher of the Year and as the Sons of the American Revolution National Middle School History Teacher of the Year.
“We pull our kids from all across the Vancouver school district, and now Battle Ground,” Zingale said. “I get to see a lot of different kids represented; I get to see an entire cross section. Some of the things I saw were how kids had to deal with certain issues like homelessness and food insecurity.”
Zingale said active citizenship is a big part of what he teaches, and he realized it was now time to put those teachings into practice.
Issues
McClintock lists public safety among her top priorities. She is the daughter of a police officer who served for 31 years. She said legislation passed by Democrats is to blame for rising crime.
“I want to reverse the legislation Democrats passed in 2021 that kept our law enforcement officers from fully enforcing the laws,” McClintock said. “As we all know, retail theft has nearly doubled and car thefts are through the roof. It’s ridiculous.”
McClintock favors increased funding for law enforcement agencies on a case-by-case basis.
“I don’t think every police department in the state is in need, but the Clark County Sheriff’s Office is in some desperate need,” she said. “I think there are some equity issues … that need to be addressed.”
Zingale’s campaign is focused more on social issues, specifically education and health care. His priorities also include promoting and assisting small-business growth and addressing the area’s housing and infrastructure needs. He cited the recent strike among Ridgefield teachers as a good example of why legislative changes are needed to benefit special education students.
“At my school, we put our special education students into our general education classrooms as much as possible. There are studies that show not only is this successful, but is the way we should be teaching,” he said.
Having previously served on the Battle Ground school board, McClintock is also focused on education and said the Legislature has more work to do. She wants more schools to provide more access to and emphasis on career and technical education programs.
“There’s not a lot of kids that know about these (career and technical education) programs,” she said. “I think we need to revisit it when kids get to high school.”
Both candidates support providing tax relief to small businesses, specifically in business and occupation taxes.
“Small businesses are paying a higher percent in business and occupation taxes than corporations are. If we can find ways to give tax breaks to them, I’m open to that,” Zingale said.
McClintock said she and her husband owned a small business for six years and struggled with those taxes.
“It’s the nickel-and-diming that a small business feels from the state,” she said. “I think we need to create a better business-friendly environment in Washington state. I think that’s especially important post-COVID.”
Fundraising
While McClintock gathered more votes in the primary, Zingale leads in campaign fundraising.
Zingale raised $107,416 in cash and in-kind contributions. He’s been heavily backed by the Washington State House Democrats, which contributed 61 percent of his fundraising total. Other major sources include individual donors, 17 percent; political action committees, 13 percent; and unions, 5 percent.
Just over 40 percent of McClintock’s donations came from political action committees, with another 26 percent coming from individual donors. Other major sources include businesses, 14 percent; and the Washington State House Republicans caucus, also contributing 14 percent.
