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Moeller, Riley focus on issues

By Kathie Durbin
Published: October 5, 2010, 12:00am
2 Photos
Jim Moeller
Jim Moeller Photo Gallery

In the race for 49th Legislative District Position 2, four-term state Rep. Jim Moeller, an unapologetically liberal Democrat who has worked his way up to a leadership role in the state House, faces a vigorous challenge for a fifth term from Craig Riley, owner of a successful consulting firm on health care and other benefits.

Jim Moeller

Democrat

o Age: 55.

o Occupation: Substance abuse counselor.

o Campaign finance: Raised $83,011; spent $57,216.

o Campaign website: http://www.jimmoeller.org.

o Quote: “We have shrunk the government by $12 billion over the last biennium. Probably the only area that government is growing is unemployment.”

Craig Riley

Republican

o Age: 59.

o Occupation: Owner of benefits advisory business.

o Campaign finance: Raised $35,284, spent $24,942.

o Campaign website: http://www.ElectCraigRiley.com.

o Quote: “The state must clearly defend itself against unfunded mandates.”

Though they disagree over most issues, including taxes, health care and the Columbia River Crossing, the two men seem to be enjoying the jousting in their issues-based campaign. Moeller edged Riley 52 percent to 47 percent in the primary.

“Craig is an excellent competitor,” Moeller told The Columbian editorial board. “He’s got me working hard. It’s important for every incumbent to think, ‘Why are you there, what do you want to achieve?’”

Jim Moeller

Democrat

o Age: 55.

o Occupation: Substance abuse counselor.

o Campaign finance: Raised $83,011; spent $57,216.

o Campaign website: http://www.jimmoeller.org.

o Quote: "We have shrunk the government by $12 billion over the last biennium. Probably the only area that government is growing is unemployment."

Craig Riley

Republican

o Age: 59.

o Occupation: Owner of benefits advisory business.

o Campaign finance: Raised $35,284, spent $24,942.

o Campaign website: http://www.ElectCraigRiley.com.

o Quote: "The state must clearly defend itself against unfunded mandates."

“I don’t think we have any bad feelings toward each other,” Riley said in an interview. “I feel it’s a horse race. We’ve got to shove it until the end.”

Moeller grew up in Vancouver and graduated from the “new” Fort Vancouver High School in 1973. He attended Clark College and Washington State University in Pullman, where he earned a degree in psychology. For the past 20 years he has worked as a chemical dependency counselor for Kaiser Permanente. He won election to the Vancouver City Council in 1995 and was re-elected in 1999. In 2002, he won election to the state House of Representatives seat vacated by veteran legislator Val Ogden, where he is one of a handful of openly gay legislators.

As deputy speaker pro tem of the House, Moeller often presides over House sessions. He also serves on the Transportation, Health and Wellness, Commerce and Labor and Rules committees.

A friend of organized labor, he’s a passionate supporter of adequate public health funding and social services. He’s been quick to support constituent concerns; for example, he was key to winning reinstatement of a program to catch vehicle license scofflaws this year.

Moeller doesn’t bother to hide his partisan views. At the Clark County Democratic Convention in April, he warned, “The most reactionary forces in our society are assembling and they are not being shy about what they are all about. … The inmates in the GOP asylum have taken over the Republican Party.”

Moeller supports the initiative on the November ballot that would impose an income tax on the state’s highest earners, though he calls it “imperfect.”

“Eighty percent of small businesses will see elimination of their (business and occupation) tax” under the measure, he said. “But 20 percent will have both the B&O and the income tax.”

In time, he says, more people will reach the income level at which they will be required to pay the tax, but that level “won’t come down, because it doesn’t pan out politically.”

Riley scoffs at that assertion, and says the measure is shortsighted.

“You can bet that the income threshold will come down,” he said. “If you’re going to grow business, who’s going to do it? The people who have $250,000-plus. If we want to put people to work, we’re taxing the wrong segment.”

Riley is the owner of Riley Financial, a benefit advisory business he built from scratch after moving to Clark County with his family in 1988. The company has more than 1,000 clients, including businesses, medical clinics and families.

He made his first run for office in 1990, against Democratic House Speaker Joe King, and lost by just 3.5 percentage points.

“I was 40. I’d been here a year-and-a-half. I didn’t know who King was. I was outraged that no one was challenging him,” he said.

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He’s running 20 years later, he said, because of his background in health policy and because he is incensed over a plan to toll commuters to pay for a new bridge over the Columbia River.

“One of the things that pushed me over the edge was the unwillingness of the Legislature to listen to tolls,” he said. “We can build the bridge. The money is there. The feds are being inflexible.”

On health reform, Riley said the new federal law will have a “tremendous impact” on states, because about 50 percent of those currently without health coverage will end up on Medicaid rolls but will have a hard time finding health care providers willing to accept the Medicaid program’s low reimbursement rates.

“This is the crisis that we’re in,” he said. “We can’t have a Legislature that just rolls over and says nothing to the feds. We can’t do this without their help. The state must clearly defend itself against unfunded mandates. And we still have the responsibility to take care of the people here in this state who don’t have access.”

The two candidates disagree on how much public employee salaries, benefits and pensions have contributed to the state’s economic crisis.

“We didn’t get here overnight,” Moeller said. Public employees have a right to bargain benefits, he noted, and in the past, the trade-off they made was that they wouldn’t get rich but they would get good benefits.

“I don’t think that right now we will see public sector unions asking for an increase,” Moeller said. “Just staying the same will be a plus for them. The governor will be laying her cards on the table: Here’s how much money we have.”

Riley said it’s time for a change.

“It’s not like public employees don’t work hard,” he said. “It’s not that unions shouldn’t be there. But we need to live in the real world. We don’t see Democrats demanding that public employees come to the table and negotiate these issues. In the private sector we’re seeing higher productivity. Why not in government? We do need to take steps to increase productivity. We need to transition to a smaller pension benefit.”

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