Starting Feb. 2 and continuing through last Monday, five people have entered the race for 34th District State House Position 2. Call it the domino seat: It’s opening because Rep. Sharon Nelson is running for the State Senate seat that Sen. Joe McDermott is vacating to run for County Council (appointed Councilmember Jan Drago repeated recently that she will not run). All 5 State House #2 hopefuls showed up for the first major candidates’ forum of the campaign last night, organized by the Highland Park Action Committee. That wasn’t the only item on HPAC’s monthly meeting agenda, but it was the biggest one – after the jump, video clips of each candidate plus other meeting toplines :
Ground rules for the forum: 8 minutes per candidate, which HPAC chair Dan Mullins said could be used as all speech time, or speech time plus Q/A.
We have short video excerpts from each candidate (and we’re linking each one’s name to her/his website). First, Mike Heavey (D), who works for Councilmember Drago:
Second, Geoffrey “Mac” McElroy (I), who owns the Triangle Tavern:
Third, Sabra Schneider (D), who works in King County government:
Fourth, Marcee Stone (D), best known for leading Washington Public Campaigns:
Fifth, Joe Fitzgibbon (D), who’s been working for Rep. Nelson:
Among the recurring issues: Tax reform. The State Legislature looked this year at asking voters to consider the idea of an income tax for “high earners,” and all candidates at the forum except for McElroy thought that was worth investigating.
One topic on which all agreed: It’s up to White Center (and vicinity) to decide which city – Seattle or Burien – should annex the area. That topic came up elsewhere on the agenda; last month, supporters of Seattle annexation spoke to HPAC members, and last night, supporters of Burien annexation took a turn, including Barbara Dobkin:
![](https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/hpacbarbara.jpg)
(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Also speaking, Liz Giba, whose points included the contention that White Center (etc.) would have a louder voice as part of Burien, since, if annexed by Burien, the added areas would comprise a larger share of that city’s population, than it would if it became part of Seattle. (However, since the booking of this appearance and the one last month, the annexation question has moved back to something of a back burner, since the Seattle Mayor’s office announced it’s no longer pursuing a vote this year, and Burien‘s City Council withdrew consideration of a resolution that could have helped accelerate its potential pursuit.)
Meantime, traffic concerns in Highland Park came up too:
![](https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/hpacterry.jpg)
(Photo by Dina Johnson)
That’s Terry Holm, who says he’s pushing for a 4-way stop at 9th SW/SW Henderson (map) because of concerns about cars routinely speeding through that stretch. HPAC chair Mullins says SDOT engineers are coming out to look at potential traffic calming by the Highland Park Improvement Club building on SW Holden (map).
One more note – The Highland Park T-shirts have arrived:
![](https://westseattleblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/rhondashirt.jpg)
(Photo by Dina Johnson)
Highland Park Improvement Club (that’s president Rhonda Smith in the photo) is selling them for $20 – they come in black, too. HPIC contact info is here.
The Highland Park Action Committee meets the fourth Wednesday of each month, 7 pm at the HPIC building; they’re online at highlandpk.net.
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