Pridemore poised for return to Olympia

Sen. Craig Pridemore

Tom Langston

State Sen. Craig Pridemore appears set to score a commanding re-election win in the strongly Democratic 49th District.

The Vancouver Democrat drew nearly 95 percent of the vote in the August top two primary to 2.3 percent for Republican write-in candidate Tom Langston.

Until August, it appeared that Pridemore would enjoy a free ride to a second term. Then Langston, a volunteer in Republican Dino Rossi’s campaign for governor, noticed while filling out his primary ballot that Pridemore was running unopposed. He mounted a modest write-in campaign and managed to get 2 percent of the vote, enough under the top two primary system to get on the ballot in the general election.

Langston, 46, who owns a construction and remodeling company, says he would work to create a more business-friendly environment if elected and would oppose any plan to institute a state income tax. He has been endorsed by the Building Industry Association of Clark County and the Clark County Republican Party.

Pridemore, 47, rose quickly through the ranks during his first term in the Senate to become one of its most influential members.

The former Clark County commissioner brought a strong conservation ethic and a background in local government tax, budget and policy issues to Olympia. Both were quickly tapped by Senate Democratic leaders.

In 2006, Pridemore shepherded one of the nation’s most comprehensive electronics recycling bills through the Senate and to the governor’s desk.

In 2007, he took on the task of negotiating the state’s first climate change bill, meeting for hours with conservationists and utility and industry executives to broker a measure that could pass the Senate.

At the same time, he was learning the ropes as the newly appointed vice chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, a job that put him in charge of writing the 2007-09 operating budget under the tutelage of Ways and Means Chairman Margarita Prentice.

Pridemore also sits on the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, which gives him a close-up view of the state’s revenue picture. As that picture began to dim in February, he found himself saying no to spending proposals from fellow Democrats, such as 36 million for an extra 1 percent cost-of-living raise for K-12 teachers.

In an effort to bring more fairness to Washington’s regressive tax system, Pridemore also prime-sponsored a bill that would give a sales-tax credit to the working poor. But the Legislature provided no funding source, and Gov. Chris Gregoire announced Tuesday that she will halt work on setting up the program in the face of a projected $3.2 billion state budget shortfall in 2009-11.

In July, the group Washington Conservation Voters named Pridemore one of two “green champions” in the Senate.

Pridemore has kept a low profile during this year’s campaign. He donated $50,000 of his $122,000 war chest to the Washington State Democratic Committee in August and $5,000 to the Clark County Democratic Central Committee in July. He did not return calls from The Columbian for this story.