Chamber hosts candidates in online forum

MOSES LAKE — Candidates running for local public offices gathered online Monday night for a forum sponsored by the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Participating in the online event, livecast on both Zoom and the chamber’s Facebook page, were candidates for Washington’s 4th Congressional seat, incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and his Democratic challenger Douglas McKinley; Democrat Eduardo Casteñeda-Díaz, who is running against Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, for one of two state House of Representative seats in the state’s 13th Legislative District; Grant County Superior Court Judge John Knodell and his challenger Kevin McCrae; incumbent Grant County Commissioner Tom Taylor and challenger Rob Jones; and Grant County Commission candidates Danny Stone and Earl Romig, both of whom are vying to succeed outgoing Commissioner Richard Stevens.

Moses Lake businessman and forum moderator Alan Heroux said that Dent was ill and was not be able to participate.

Newhouse and McKinley kicked off the forum, with Newhouse saying the upcoming general election was crucial in determining the future direction of the country, while his Democratic challenger said more needs to be done to help ordinary working people.

“The issues you face are my issues too,” Newhouse said. “We have critical choices ahead rebuilding and restarting the economy.”

Newhouse said that while he was initially supportive of Gov. Jay Inslee’s closure orders at the beginning of the pandemic because no one was sure how bad things would be, a lot has been learned over the last seven months to re-open the economy.

“We can’t wait for a vaccine,” Newhouse said.

McKinley said the federal government can do more “to help regular people live a better life,” which he said means raising wages, lowering housing costs, making sure everyone has health care that is not tied to employment, reducing the cost of college, and converting to clean energy “quickly.”

He also said it was imperative to listen to the scientists and experts on COVID, and that two months of being closed “will not doom the economy.”

Casteñeda-Díaz, a self-described son of illegal immigrants who also currently serves in the Washington Army National Guard as a combat engineer, said that more government regulations are needed to create “a just and equitable society” and a better safety net “for the most vulnerable.”

County commission candidates were asked about potential revenue shortfalls, the future of development in Grant County, cooperation with cities and how to best address homelessness in the county.

The candidates supported improved addiction treatment and mental health services for the homeless who want and need them as well as the building of a new homeless encampment in Moses Lake at the intersection of Broadway and state Route 17.

Jones noted that his businesses are heavily dependent on festivals and public events, most of which were canceled this year because of COVID-19, causing him to lose “several hundred thousand dollars” that could have put him at risk of being homeless himself had he not had savings and the support of family.

“The city’s on a good path and it would be good to have the county involved,” Jones said.

In addition, all of the candidates voiced support for the Port of Moses Lake’s new westside business park as well as extending rail service into the port from Wheeler.

“Agriculture is the foundation, but we need to be open to other things,” Stone said, noting that there was a lot of land near the Grant County International Airport that isn’t used for farming that would be good for industry.

“The new road will add a lot and finishing the rail into the Port will help, too,” Jones said.

All of the candidates said they would take a “wait and see” approach to dealing with the county budget in the event there ends up being a shortfall.

“We’ll see what the bottom line is toward the end of the year,” Taylor said. “The sales and use tax is up, there’s been a large jump in that and it’s coming in very strong.”

“Property taxes are good. Mine went up. I’m sure everyone else’s did as well,” Romig said.

Stone said it was important to look hard at the budget, see where the shortfall is, and make the cuts that are needed rather than demand across-the-board decreases in spending.

“We’ll be looking at that closely, that’s for sure,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].