Community Government

Young, Richards foresee another tight 26th District clash

Jesse Young and Adison Richards received more than 49% of the vote in separate legislative races during the 2022 election cycle. Both lost. Now they’re running against each other in what’s likely to be another tight competition for the 26th District’s Position 1 seat in the state House of Representatives. Which will get that little bump to put them over the top?

Richards and Young, as the top two finishers in the three-person Aug. 6 primary, advanced to the Nov. 5 general election. Democrat Richards garnered 49.6% of the vote to 33.9% for Republican Young. A second GOP candidate, Jim Henderson, received 16.6% and fell out of the race. Together, the Republicans totaled 50.2%.

2024 election

They’re running to replace freshman Rep. Spencer Hutchins, who didn’t seek re-election this year, citing concerns about his ability to provide for his family on a legislator’s salary. Hutchins, R-Gig Harbor, nipped Richards by 735 votes out of nearly 75,000 cast in 2022.

Young had held the seat for four terms before giving it up in favor of an unsuccessful bid for state Senate in 2022. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, edged Young by  by 1,276 votes out of more than 75,000 cast. Now he wants his old seat back.

The general election is Nov. 5. Pierce County will mail ballots on Oct. 18. Voters must get ballots postmarked no later than election day or put them in a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. Drop boxes are at the Gig Harbor library and city hall, Nichols Center on Fox Island, the Purdy park-and-ride, Lake Kathryn Food Market, Key Center Food Market and Home Park.

The 26th District comprises the Gig Harbor area, Key Peninsula, most of South Kitsap and part of Bremerton. Representatives earn $61,997 per year.

Young says history favors Republicans

Young, 48, first won election to the state House in 2014, months after having been appointed to the seat following Jan Angel’s election to the Senate. He is the father of six children, a Notre Dame graduate and operates an IT consulting business.

History, he says, works in his favor. The district isn’t split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats. It’s more like 30-30-30, with many independents. When it gets down to the general election with just two candidates remaining, the independents lean Republican.

“The way I interpret those votes is they always come back to me and (fellow district Republican) Michelle (Caldier) after a contested primary,” he said. “People are more engaged and more willing to consider that (third) option, but when they get to the general and reconsider the two options, it usually reconsolidates all those voters back to Michelle and I. Not usually. It always does.”

Over the past decade, the total number of 26th District Republican votes (50.2% in this case) versus the total Democrat votes (49.6%) only changes 1.68 percentage points from the primary to the general election, Young said. Usually, it benefits Republicans.

“In this race when the combined Republican votes is about 50%, it bodes well for my election and Michelle’s,” said Young, of Gig Harbor. “I would expect to land 51.5 to 52%.”

Richards, 32, is a 2010 graduate of Peninsula High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in 2014 and a law degree from Villanova University in Pennsylvania in 2018. The longtime Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor-area resident who now lives in Bremerton reads the primary results as residents showing confidence in him.

Henderson’s votes not automatic

“I don’t see all those Jim (Henderson) voters just filling in Republican tickets again,” said Richards, whose law career includes three years at the Northwest Justice Project and now with Kitsap Legal Services. “There are a lot of independent voters wanting to make sure they have an effective representative who’s going to deliver results for them and not be ideological.”

Some Henderson voters might be disgruntled because the Pierce County Republican Party, which endorsed Young, created a website to criticize Henderson. It claimed Henderson is a Democrat and was recruited by Caldier because of her disdain for Young. Caldier said the local GOP group would never back Henderson because he is gay.

Richards feels more comfortable after experiencing his rookie campaign, but hasn’t changed things up much.

“Because I don’t think we did anything fundamentally wrong two years ago,” he said. “We ran a robust and positive campaign focused on the issues.”

Richards backs lowering costs, public safety

His issues, and those named invariably by residents, are cost of living and public safety.

“Nine times out of 10 that sums it up,” Richards said of what’s on people’s minds. “They’re talking about rising costs and wanting to feel safe. That’s where I feel my experience with people struggling to make ends meet and domestic violence survivors helps me see where the state could be a lot better.”

Richards said he’d also protect reproductive rights and oppose the appeal of red flag gun laws.

Young said when he began knocking on doors at the beginning of the year, parental rights was the No. 1 issue.

“That’s clearly been usurped by economics — inflation and taxes,” he said. “If anything moves the needle in this district, it’s always been taxes.”

Young looks at streamlining

Young tells residents he knows how to choose among budget items, between putting food on the table or gas in the car, and that it’s possible to lower taxes without cutting services.

“I know we can streamline and still get a good return on investment to help lower taxes for the sake of the economy,” he said.

Young wasn’t sure he wanted to return to politics, even after hearing his old seat would become open. He appreciated the two years off to decompress, be a dad, coach and husband, “and redetermine whether my heart was still in this for the right reasons. I was happy to know I still had the compassion to go do that,” he said.

Past controversies

Young was at the center of several controversies during his previous stint in the Legislature. In 2017, former campaign and legislative staff members accused him of berating them. The House restricted his access to staff. The Olympian newspaper reported that he served without the help of a legislative assistant from 2016 until he left office in 2022.

He also was fined for allegedly mixing campaign work and state resources in 2018, which Young characterized at the time as a mistake.

And in 2020, some Black Lives Matter demonstrators accused Young of accompanying armed counter-protesters to an event in Gig Harbor. Young told the Peninsula Gateway at the time that while he knew some of the counter-protesters, he was not there with them and in fact attended to “support the call for justice and peaceful protest.”

The two campaigns have raised nearly half a million dollars between them, according to the Public Disclosure Commisson. Richards generated $320,063, the most of any state rep candidate this election. It comprises $145,981 from businesses, $103,832 from individuals and $22,250 from political action committees. The House Democratic Campaign Committee contributed $100,000 and 26th District Democrats $19,000.

Young has raised $177,073, with $100,572 from individuals, $49,1340 from the party and $17,522 from businesses. The Washington State Republican Party and Pierce County Republican Party each chipped in $20,000.

Question & answer

Gig Harbor Now asked both candidates for written responses to five questions covering living costs, school funding, women’s reproductive rights, drug abuse and rent hikes. Their responses are printed verbatim below:

Jesse Young

1. What, within your control as a state representative, would you do to address the rising cost of living?

Inflation is out of control and our government officials continue to tell us everything is going great. When our families have to choose between putting food on the table and putting gas in the car, common sense tells us the economy is struggling, and elected leaders are simply not listening.

Growing up poor and homeless, I understand this well, which is why I’m running to return to Olympia on your behalf. I believe that we should be fiscally responsible with our spending of your hard-earned tax dollars. Olympia has more than doubled our tax revenues during the terms of Governor Inslee, yet has produced nothing in terms of jobs or real economic growth. This massive increase in spending has led to the heightened inflation that Washington state is experiencing over and above what the nation is experiencing.

I will immediately work to reduce our taxes and therefore our inflation with a targeted goal of reducing the cost of a typical meal for the average family in our state. I will then advocate for a reduction in our gas tax. As an experienced budget writer, I know this can be done without compromising the services we provide to those in need.

2. How would you fully fund public schools while also funding other high-priority demands for state spending?

Much can be done in this area if we hold government agencies accountable for the dollars they spend and demand transparency instead of letting them spend our money without concern for real results. What gets measured gets done and when I was writing budgets during my previous stint in Olympia, I demanded that the money we spent be tied to performance goals so that we could measure the results. It is time we put that common sense practice back in place.

Next, we need to reduce all of the duplicative agencies we have working on the same things. There is no reason why we need two or three agencies, with all of their bloated bureaucracies, working on the exact same things. For example, in the area of Transportation we have both the Department of Transportation and the Transportation Commission. In the area of Health and Human Services we have the Health Department, DSHS, DCYF all performing similar services. Overlapping bureaucracies need to be streamlined for the sake of efficiency and fiscal responsibility. If we do this it’ll be much easier for us to fully fund education for the sake of our children, without raising your taxes. I will lead this effort.

3. What would be your priorities around abortion and women’s health care?

The strides made by our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters over the last fifty years have empowered women and moved us closer to equality in the public and private sectors of society. However, recent policy efforts by the progressive left threaten to undermine these gains, challenging the very essence of womanhood. I believe that legislators should stand against any notion that diminishes the achievements or unique identity of women, including in the area of healthcare.

As the father of two amazing young women, I support policies that maintain fairness and competitiveness in women’s sports, honoring the physical realities and differences between males and females and preserving the spirit of Title IX. The legislature must safeguard spaces designed for women’s privacy and safety, ensuring these remain places of dignity and respect.

4. The so-called “Blake Fix,” which makes drug possession a gross misdemeanor, has been in place for over a year. Do you think the Blake Fix appropriately balances the competing needs to provide consequences for drug use without criminalizing addiction?

The Blake fix has been a massive failure and is a prime example of why the State Supreme Court should not attempt to legislate from the bench. Hard drug use leads to more crime, death, and despair, and most of the legislature is in agreement upon this. Further, when a drunk driver smashes into a family killing the parents and leaving the children orphaned, we don’t second guess whether that behavior should be criminalized; we send that person to jail.

The same rules need to apply to hard drug use and possession, and more importantly, we must again empower our police to arrest individuals that are in possession of these drugs and distributing them to our kids. This is common sense and agreed to on all sides except for the most extreme progressives. If you want someone with the courage to stand up to these extreme radical voices and protect your families, then I’m your candidate.

5. Would you support a cap on rent hikes? What other steps would you take to address the high cost of housing in Washington?

We can easily stop rising rent costs if we increase the supply of housing, and stop empowering squatters over home owners the way my opponent does as a squatter’s lawyer.

The good news is that this fix can be done without raising taxes by simply decreasing the regulations being put on the building industry. Most voters don’t realize that an unelected board in Seattle is dictating the growth models for our entire state, including the rural areas in our district. This board is unaccountable to the public and caters to special interests to the point where they have tripled the cost and time it takes to build a home or a rental unit. As a result, rental rates and home prices have skyrocketed and no amount of government regulation will solve this issue. Instead, deregulation is the answer.

I will fight for the disbanding of this unelected board and the return of control to our local County officials. Doing this will streamline the production of new units and drive down the costs for everyone. I also believe from a tax policy perspective that we could and should provide property tax carve outs for retired fixed income seniors and veterans and their families.

Adison Richards

1. What, within your control as a state representative, would you do to address the rising cost of living?

The State has a basic supply demand problem for goods and services including housing, childcare, and healthcare that is within our control. We also should be looking to lower taxes for working families, small businesses, and seniors trying to stay in their homes.

We can change state and local regulations to fix supply side problems without increasing taxes. For example, we are last in the country in available housing units as King County’s solution to housing for decades has been Pierce County. We can change state and local policy to concentrate housing development in places like Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Lakewood to help preserve rural space here and grow strategically with adequate infrastructure and other supports. Permitting and other changes to model the policy of places that are keeping up with housing demand like Austin, TX and Charlotte, NC will also help.

A similar common sense and pragmatic approach is needed for health care and childcare. Regulations are prohibitive for starting childcare services, pay is low, and costs for things like insurance are high. Changes to state policy will help and that can and should happen without tax increases and throwing more money at the problem. And I also support measures to cut taxes for small businesses and make it easier to run a business in Washington, expand the senior property tax exemption, and reduce taxes and fees that hit working families hardest.

2. How would you fully fund public schools while also funding other high-priority demands for state spending?

We should have the best public schools in the country and this is one of my top goals as a legislator. I support fully funding public schools, am a firm believer in public schools as a Peninsula High alum, and we have to address glaring needs in areas like special education, pathways to trades, and school building improvements.

We ultimately need to change the funding formula so that places like Mercer Island, Bellevue, and Lake Washington school districts are contributing more to all of our public schools, instead of continually asking our local low-income property owners in our district to keep increasing their property taxes. We need to find solutions that on balance take pressure off of property owners and ensure that everyone is contributing their fair share toward public education.

We know that investments in education pay long term returns in reduced crime and a productive workforce. I want to look at funding models in other states and countries as well to see how we can maximize returns at current funding levels going forward.

3. What would be your priorities around abortion and women’s health care?

I am the only candidate in my race who supports a woman’s right to choose, and I will protect and expand access to all reproductive healthcare. I’m endorsed by Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice Washington and am committed to ensuring we stay focused on improving access and affordability to reproductive healthcare and all healthcare.

We should not be electing representatives who continually create distractions and spend legislative time trying to ban access to abortion and reproductive healthcare. Politicians should not be making reproductive healthcare decisions for people, and I support the government staying out of peoples personal lives. And again, we need solutions to continually expand access and affordability to health care as a whole and changes to State policy can help.

4. The so-called “Blake Fix,” which makes drug possession a gross misdemeanor, has been in place for over a year. Do you think the Blake Fix appropriately balances the competing needs to provide consequences for drug use without criminalizing addiction?

No, our current system is not working and needs significant changes. As a lawyer who has served crime victims, addressing public safety and public health challenges like this are one of my top priorities.

We are still leaving too many people on the street lost in addiction without adequate access to treatment and services, and we leave law enforcement professionals and cities without the tools they need. We all deserve to live in a safe and healthy community, and I know from all the doors I knock on that people are not feeling safe right now. We punt treatment and services to emergency rooms, police officers and fire fighters to handle, which is wrong. Our criminal justice system has a role to play in getting people back on their feet because simply offering treatment is not actually getting people into treatment or off the streets. Police officers and prosecutors need more tools to ensure folks are getting treatment and going after those selling drugs.

The fentanyl epidemic is out of control and our current laws are not up to the task. We need more detox facilities, treatment options, mental health services, and accountability. We’re a nation of laws, we have to have a rule of law that keeps people accountable while getting folks on the right track, and again, to ensure that everyone is safe and healthy in our community.

5. Would you support a cap on rent hikes? What other steps would you take to address the high cost of housing in Washington?

No, I do not support the government capping rent increases and there are a host of other pragmatic solutions to stabilizing and even lowering the cost of rent, while preventing price gouging and abusive practices. I represent tenants facing eviction and my position comes from the frustration of handing clients in need of options lists of rental housing that are full, subsidized housing that is full, or shelters that are full with the hope that maybe there will be an opening, and otherwise doing all I can to get them rent assistance or access to services.

We do not have enough available housing units in Washington State, and again, we are last in that statistic in the nation. Demand is far outpacing supply and that is the primary driver of housing cost increases. People cannot afford rent at current prices, my clients cannot afford rent at current prices, so we desperately need to address the root causes for the issue and not pursue policies that will depress housing construction. We need policies as I’ve described that increase the supply of housing. Capping rent creates disincentives to build housing. Austin, TX built too much housing and saw prices come down.

We should take a similar approach. And in the meantime, I support expanding housing assistance like rent assistance and housing vouchers, and create new legal tools to prove price gouging with significant penalties for doing so. We can solve the housing affordability crisis, but it will take working with many stakeholders, cutting red tape, and providing supports for the most vulnerable, and I’m prepared to take this on.