Candidates turn out for Ephrata forum

Small crowd gathers to listen to hopefuls from around the state

A candidates' forum organized by the Ephrata Chamber of Commerce gathered election hopefuls a month away from the state primaries.

Candidates to all sorts of state, district and county offices showed up at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center Monday night to convince voters that their view was the right one for them.

The only candidate to a statewide office present was attorney Rob McKenna, a King County councilman who is running for state attorney general position as a Republican.

McKenna said that if elected he will protect the rights and the pocketbooks of the citizens, as well as the citizens themselves, by devoting himself to provide resources to law enforcement, focusing on bringing about tort reform, as well as taking care of water, property and civil rights issues.

"We have to make sure the state agencies follow the same rules we have to," he said.

McKenna responded to criticism from the other Republican in that race, Mike Vaska, who said that while McKenna was a nice guy, the state needed an attorney who knew his way around the courtroom and not a politician for that office. "That is what people say when they do not have any leadership skills," McKenna retorted.

He added that a very small slice of the attorney general's time is spent in a courtroom, while most of it is spent trying to keep the state out of litigation. Attorney generals, he said, do not need to be just lawyers, but they need to be leaders.

His time as councilman makes him the better candidate, he said. "I am not just practicing law," he said. "I am making law."

After the lone statewide candidate present made his case, it was time to hear from state representatives. First, Cary Condotta, R-Wenatchee, whose district covers part of the northern area of Grant County, said that it was time for new leadership in the state.

For Condotta, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. That, he said, is what the state is doing under two decades of Democratic governorship.

Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, running for re-election in the 13th District, said that government has become an instrument of oppression rather than "the tool of our will."

Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, running for another term in the same district, pledged to continue to stand up for people.

"I still know who my boss is," she said. "It's the citizens."

The first debate of the night took place between incumbent Superior Court judge Evan Sperline and his opponent Teddy Chow.

While Sperline defended his time on the bench by saying that experience helps a judge on the bench, Chow said that when judges stay too long, they develop what he termed "institutional blindness," not seeing what the constituents are like.

Sperline refuted that, saying that the longer a judge stays on, the less related he is to private special interests groups and concerns.

Before candidates to the Grant County Public Utility District's posts closed out the night, hopefuls to the Grant County Board of Commissioners engaged on a debate of their own.

Tim Snead, a Democratic incumbent running against Republican Rich Stevens, said that one of the keys to aid the ailing county budget was to help retail industries and businesses blossom in the county.

Stevens countered by saying that he did not think people had a phobia to pay taxes, and that historically, tax hikes have been followed by years of tax decreases.

"Somebody is going to have to bite the bullet somewhere along the way," he said.