Pridemore, Herrera running to succeed Baird

State lawmakers enter crowded U.S. House contest

By Kathie Durbin
Columbian Staff Reporter

Originally published December 15, 2009 at 12:04 p.m., updated December 15, 2009 at 7:37 p.m.

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State Sen. Craig Pridemore

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State Rep. Jaime Herrera

State Sen. Craig Pridemore and state Rep. Jaime Herrera made it official Tuesday: Both will enter the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Brian Baird in Congress.

“I’ve never been so fired up for a campaign in my life,” said Pridemore, D-Vancouver, who is serving his second term in the state Senate. “It’s 320 days to Election Day, and the clock has started.”

“We need a whole new approach,” said Herrera, R-Camas, who was appointed to an 18th District House vacancy in 2007 and was elected to a two-year term in 2008. “My pledge is simple — I will place more value on saving your money than spending your money.”

The two state lawmakers are the latest in a growing cast of candidates for the 3rd District seat. The race has drawn the attention of both national political parties, which are jockeying for advantage in a year that already has seen 12 Republican and four Democratic House incumbents announce they will not seek re-election.

Pridemore, 48, said he has assembled a strong campaign team and will begin raising money immediately, even as he prepares for a grueling 60-day legislative session in January.

“This election presents an opportunity to send someone to Washington, D.C., who will lead on issues that matter here at home and will fight for our values and priorities,” he said in a statement. “Those who know me understand that I’m no wallflower. We need leaders who won’t back down from a fight or let their decisions be guided by politics. I look forward to taking my message of strong, principled leadership to all parts of the district over the course of the campaign.”

Pridemore said his top priority if elected would be to stimulate job growth in Southwest Washington.

“Look around this district; we are suffering the highest unemployment in the state,” he said. “Too many people are suffering in this economy. I see families, veterans, and senior citizens all struggling to stay afloat. It is high time that our leaders in Washington, D.C., focus on our jobs crisis right here at home.”

Herrera said last week that she was strongly considering a run for the 3rd District seat. The 31-year-old served as senior legislative assistant to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., from 2005 to 2007 before she won appointment — and later election — to the 18th.

“I’m running because we badly need new leaders in Washington, D.C., who will stop digging us deeper into the hole of credit card debt,” Herrera said in a statement. “Look at Congress today. They’re debating health care bills that will raise the cost of care for average families and increase the debt by trillions.”

Both Pridemore and Herrera grew up in Clark County and attended school here.

Herrera’s announcement drew a quick jab in an e-mail statement issued by Andy Stone of the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Jaime Herrera’s record of opposition to both property tax relief and critical tax exemptions for working families doesn’t match her rhetoric about saving local families’ money,” Stone said. “That type of blatant hypocrisy is the last thing Southwest Washington needs.”

In response, Herrera pointed out that she cast her first vote in the Legislature for a $400 property tax relief bill during a one-day 2007 special session. She voted against a Democratic-sponsored property tax relief bill in that same session because, “it was a pay-me-now or pay-me-more-later proposition,” she said. “I felt it was disingenuous.”

She also defended her 2008 vote against an earned-income tax credit proposed by Pridemore. “It would have been a new state welfare program,” she said. “It would have cost $7 million to $8 million and created a new bureaucracy.” The tax credit was never implemented and died in the 2009 Legislature.

Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, who had considered entering the congressional race himself, said Tuesday that he will not seek the seat and will instead throw his support to Pridemore.

“Craig is the strongest candidate running for the 3rd Congressional District,” he said. “I think he is the true moderate. His commitment to social equality, economic justice and representation of the working and middle classes has truly been exemplary. I am wholeheartedly going to work for his election in the primary and general elections.”

Pridemore’s state Senate seat is not up for election in 2010. But the entry of Herrera and state Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver, into the race has already set in motion a contest to fill their open seats next year.

Wallace was called a “job-killing Democrat” in a ­Republican party attack when she ­announced her candidacy last week. She dismissed the claim as a “canned statement” that

did not reflect her record of ­support for economic development.

State law prohibits candidates from running for more than one position in an election, but legislators who are up for election in 2010 have until the first week of June, the state filing deadline, to decide whether to seek re-election, said David Ammons, spokesman for Secretary of State Sam Reed.

The Washington top-two primary is Aug. 17.

Musical chairs

Monica Stonier, a middle school teacher for Evergreen Public Schools and a national delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, announced Tuesday that she will seek Wallace’s 17th District seat.

Stonier, a mother of two, said she would run a campaign focused on shoring up education and helping families who are struggling as a result of the recession.

“I am not willing to let decisions about education budget cuts and policy continue to be made by people who do not have my understanding of the effects on teachers, students, and their families,” she said in a statement. “Our families are facing disclosures, devastating health care cuts, job losses, and I have been teaching my students that some day they can make a difference. It’s my time to walk the walk.”

Meanwhile, Dennis Kampe, director of the Clark County Skills Center for the past 19 years, announced Tuesday that he would run for Herrera’s 18th district seat.

Kampe, a Democrat, said he would run to “ensure the availability of a highly skilled and trained work force with a priority on recapturing lost jobs and creating new family wage jobs.”

Clark County Republican Chairman Ryan Hart said two Republicans, La Center political consultant Ann Rivers and Adrian Cortez, a former Battle Ground City Council candidate, have told him they are giving serious consideration to running for Herrera’s 18th District seat.

“Definitely we are seeing a lot of interest,” he said. “At this point in time we are just watching the process.” The county GOP convention is March 20.

Clark County Democratic Chair Dena Horton said she expects other candidates of both parties to file for the legislative seats being vacated by Wallace and Herrera.

“When you see two open seats like that, you expect people to come out of the woodwork,” she said.

Horton said she expects Clark County Democrats to make legislative endorsements at their party convention in April.

Kathie Durbin: 360-735-4523 or kathie.durbin@columbian.com.

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