[Skamania] 🗳 Meet the Candidates 7/14 - Primary Preview

Your 2026 primary ballot is about to arrive, and the Skamania County Chamber and both county parties put the contested candidates on one stage in Stevenson to preview it. In this special edition we walk the whole ballot: the nine-way race for Congress in District 3, both 17th District statehouse seats, and the county races for Commissioner, Assessor, and Clerk. Then we follow the money, and it tells a story of two very different elections stacked on one ballot.

In This Episode

• Congressional District 3: a top-two field of nine, and the two themes that dominated (election rules and timber)
• 17th Legislative District: how redistricting reshaped it, plus the mail-in voting split and the state capital gains "millionaire tax"
• County Commissioner District 3: both candidates reject the automatic 1% levy
• County Assessor: a real fight over how your property gets valued
• County Clerk: the friendly race
• Follow the Money: $80,000 statehouse races on top of $0 county races
• Every date you need for the August 4 primary

Resources & Links

• Read the full written edition at SkamaniaDispatch.com
• Check your registration and see your ballot: voter.votewa.gov
• Official state voters' guide (candidate statements): voter.votewa.gov
• Campaign finance filings: Washington Public Disclosure Commission, pdc.wa.gov
• Skamania County candidate Q&A: skamania.org

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Transcript

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Hey there, and welcome back to Open Gorge, the audio home of the Scamania Dispatch. We're meeting a really big milestone for the dispatch today by finally squeezing in some election coverage. It's been a goal of mine for a while, so thanks for learning how to do this along with me. With that, your primary ballot is about to land in your mailbox. And this month we got a rare chance to size up the people on it, all in one room. Days before ballots went out, the Scamania County Chamber of Commerce teamed up with both the Democratic and Republican parties to host a candidate forum in Stevenson. Only the contested races took the stage. So let's walk your ballot together, top to bottom. Here's what's on it. One seat up for reelection in Congress, two seats in the House, and three county offices, assessor, clerk, and commissioner. We'll start at the top with the race for Congress in the third district. This one is a scramble. Nine candidates filed, which was a surprise to me as I've been following this race for some time, and six of those candidates showed up. Now, Washington runs what's called a top two primary. That means every candidate from every party shares one ballot, and only the top two vote getters will move on to November. So this is the round that thins the field. Two names you'll know: the incumbent Democrat Marie Gloosenkamp Perez, and state senator John Braun, a Republican who already has the president's endorsement. They were joined by Democrats Brent Henrick, Troy Rasband, Independent John Solly Roman, and Republican Lawrence Kellogg. Two themes ran through their answers, election rules, and they split hard over a federal voter ID bill, and timber. Nearly every candidate came back to timber and to the litigation and federal rules that they say hold it back. Now to Olympia and the 17th legislative district. So here's something worth knowing. After the last redistricting, the 17th got redrawn. It now runs along the Washington side of the gorge all the way from Vancouver area east to Goldendale, and it picked up all of Scamania County. It also leans a little more Democrat than it used to. That's why both the House seats are real contest this year. In position one, it's the incumbent Republican Kevin Waters against Democrat Ben Chrisly. Their sharpest split was on mail-in voting. Waters confirmed he signed onto a bill to repeal it, though he was quick to add that he thinks that Washington's elections are secure. His real worry, he said, is why school levies keep failing. Chrisly defended mail-in voting and pointed to just how rare rotor fraud actually is. He also called this area a maternity desert where you have to drive to Vancouver or Hood River just to have a baby. And this part is actually very true. We don't even have an OBGYN in Scamania County and no nearby hospital on the Washington side with a labor and delivery department. In position two, Democrat Diana Perez takes on the incumbent Republican David Steebe. The headline question was the state's new so-called millionaire tax. Quick translation, that's a capital gains tax. Since this year, it's tiered, 7% on investment gains up to a million dollars, and 9.9% above that. It hits investment profits, not the typical payroll paycheck. Perez backed it as one tool for a fairer tax system, Stevie opposed it, and said that the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Okay, so here's the part nobody else covers: your county races. We're going to start with County Commissioner, District 3. That's incumbent Asa Leckie, a Republican, against Democrat Paul Mosebrucker. The moderators asked both a pointed question: Do you support the automatic 1% property tax increase the county can take every year without a public vote? Both said no. Mosebrucker's entire answer was two words, absolutely not. Lecky agreed and said that 1% only adds up to about $28,000 a year, which he said solves nothing while families are already stretch. They were also asked about what property rights mean to them. Mosebrucker raised a local worry, underwood timberland getting carved into small lots for big houses that keep timber out of tax, that keep a timber tax break without ever growing timber. I know we're going to actually be digging more into some of the housing issues in this particular race, as well as that question of that 1% automatic levy versus Washington's levy cap in an upcoming episode. On to the assessor's race. That's the office that decides what your property is worth for taxes. 20-year incumbent Gabe Spencer, a Democrat, against Republican Cora Moser. This one got into the weeds in a good way, in my opinion. Moser said she's heard from owners whose values look set too close to what they paid for the place. Spencer defended his methods and said he's had no significant audit findings in 20 years and that he aims for the lower middle of comparable sales. And the county clerk, incumbent Grace Cross against Olivia Munch. That was the friendly one. Both basically agreed, protect the court records and treat people with kindness on what's often the worst day of their life. Now, before you go, we're going to follow the money with me for a minute because the filings actually tell a story that the forum does not. So there are really two elections on your ballot. Up top, the statehouse races are really big money, $70,000 to $80,000 each, most of it from Olympia and beyond. In one race, Democrat Diana Perez actually outraised the Republican incumbent, about $78,000 to his $70,000. And the money looks nothing alike. Stevie's biggest single check was $20,000 from the House Republican caucus, followed by a stack of building industry packs, and one from Kansas, one from Coke Pack. The other incumbent, Kevin Waters, leads his race with money from Amazon, Chevron, Boeing, Weyerhauser, and local SDS lumber over in Bingon. Then look down the ballot. Your county races run on almost nothing. The biggest one for Clerk is about $6,000 aside, and both candidates mostly wrote their own checks. The commissioner incumbent Asa Lecky reports raising and spending zero. He files as a mini reporter, which is legal and common for a small local race. And the assessor's race, both candidates zero on record. Same ballot, two completely different worlds. It's not a scandal by any means, but worth seeing with your own eyes. It's one of the really big reasons I love looking up these financial filings in addition to what the candidates say. I think they both tell two halves of a really important story. So what's next and what do we actually need to do? Ballots go in the mail by July 17th. If you still need to register or update your adapt or update your address, do it online or by mail by July 27th or in person right up through election day. That's Tuesday, August 4th. Get your ballot into a drop box by 8 p.m. that night or mail it postmark by then. And then circle November 3rd for the general election. If you want the full rundown with every candidate, every link to one of their websites, and the complete money breakdown that we were discussing, all of those are in the written edition. You can read it at schemania dispatch.com. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of Schemania Dispatch and the Click of Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the Gorge, head over to SchemaniaDispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at Facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.