Wash. election features 3 statehouse contests

As they try to climb back from historically low numbers in the statehouse, Republicans are targeting the Legislature's only Democrat from rural Eastern Washington in the marquee matchup among three legislative races on Tuesday's ballot.

All three House positions represent districts east of the Cascades, and each was vacated before the previous occupant's term expired - two by deaths, and one by a promotion. The winners will serve out the remainder of a term that lasts through 2010.

The top contest pits freshman Rep. Laura Grant, D-Walla Walla, against GOP challenger Terry Nealey, a former Columbia County prosecutor. They are vying to represent the 16th Legislative District, which includes the cities of Pasco and Walla Walla. Both sides expect a close race.

Grant was appointed to the seat early this year after the death of her father, Bill Grant, a longtime legislator and a key member of the House Democrats' leadership team.

Laura Grant, a fifth-grade teacher, echoes her father's old campaign pitch: Rural voters need a moderate at the table with the Legislature's Democratic majority, to ensure those interests aren't represented solely by the minority party.

"Without somebody sitting at the table, there's really not a go-to person to see what makes sense," Grant said. "Otherwise, it's an urban agenda, or a very progressive agenda."

Nealey, who claimed 46 percent of the vote against Bill Grant in the 2008 general election, says he's willing and able to work with Democrats if elected.

But he also says the majority party shouldn't be rewarded for its handling of the state budget, which ran severely short of money during the recession's downswing and is headed for another deficit in 2010.

"Do we really want to send another Democrat over there to continue that problem?" Nealey asked.

Holding the seat is symbolically important to both parties. But it also has a practical purpose for the GOP, said Republican political consultant Chris Vance.

"The Republicans will never have a majority in the House unless they have every seat in Eastern Washington other than downtown Spokane. So this is a must-win," said Vance, who is not working on the race. "The 16th district is overwhelmingly Republican. It's just a matter of, is there still loyalty to the Grant name?"

The political weight carried by the Grant name is difficult to overstate in the area, said Democratic consultant Paul Berendt, who worked on Bill Grant's first successful House campaign.

"These are very independent people, and these old family ties mean a lot there," said Berendt, who also is not working on the contest. "Bill Grant was a giant. So the fact that Laura stepped forward - people will take that into account."

Also up for grabs is a House seat from the 9th District, which includes Pullman and Cheney.

The seat opened following the death of Rep. Steve Hailey, R-Mesa. The appointed replacement, Rep. Don Cox, R-Colfax, had previously retired from the Legislature and did not run to keep the seat.

The general election contest features two Republicans, an interesting wrinkle under Washington's relatively new "Top Two" primary, which advances the leading vote-getters regardless of party identification.

Voters in the 9th are choosing between Susan Fagan, public affairs director for a Pullman manufacturer and former aide to three U.S. senators from Idaho, and Pat Hailey, a farmer-rancher and school board member who is the widow of former legislator Steve Hailey.

The GOP caucus has not officially taken sides in the race, since it will get a Republican vote either way.

The final race, basically a formality, is for a House seat from the 15th District, which includes Sunnyside and Goldendale.

Appointed freshman Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, running to complete the former term of Dan Newhouse, who was appointed Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire's agriculture director.

Taylor's nominal opponent is John Gotts, a Democrat who abandoned the race and endorsed Taylor after advancing through the primary.

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On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.leg.wa.gov