State Rep. Monica Stonier had been knocking on doors for about 30 minutes in the Sifton neighborhood when she heard what every candidate going door to door is after.
“I’ve been in the state of Washington 10 years this month, and you’re the first person to ask for my vote,” said Linda Pheifer, 65, who thanked Stonier for coming to her home.
Stonier, sporting running shoes and a navy T-shirt that reads “This teacher loves her Seahawks,” moved swiftly from one house to the next. To defeat her Republican challenger in a swing district, Democrat Stonier knows she needs to knock on a lot of doors. She is on a mission to find people such as Pheifer, who don’t vote lock-step with a particular party and are impressed when someone rings their doorbell.
In 2012, Stonier won her bid for election to the state House by only 140 votes. In the primary, she was the only local incumbent in a two-way race who trailed; Stonier garnered 48.35 percent of the votes to Republican challenger Lynda Wilson’s 51.65 percent.
The Democratic incumbent said she realizes people in the 17th Legislative District tend to vote Republican.
“Unless you give them a reason not to,” Stonier said, “they are open and can be persuaded.”
Stonier has a few factors in her corner. Those who show up to cast their vote in the primary are generally more engaged, ideological voters. In the general election, more undecided and independent voters show up.
“In the general election, you expand the electorate,” said Carolyn Long, an associate professor of the school of politics, philosophy and public affairs at Washington State University Vancouver.
Plus, the turnout in the primary for Clark County was low, at 28.6 percent. Turnout for the general election is expected to be closer to 51 percent.
In a general election, “there are more people deciding to be engaged in politics for the first time,” Long said.
Other dynamics at play
Most incumbents benefit greatly from name recognition. But Wilson has factors in her favor, too.
Though this is her first run for office, she is a former county Republican chairwoman. She and her husband, Tracy, own DeWils Industries, a longtime successful local business. Also in Wilson’s favor is what’s happening on the national scene. Typically in midterm elections, the party of the president tends to lose congressional seats, Long said.
And then voters tend to “continue to vote their party for the state races” as they make their way down the ballot.
Wilson is also going door-to-door to meet the electorate but declined to let The Columbian tag along or photograph her for this story. She described herself as a “constitutional conservative.” She was elected chairwoman after the local party leadership shifted more to the right philosophically.
Wilson said her “message is resonating” with voters.
“They are interested in what I have to say when I talk about less taxes, less regulation; that’s mostly what it is,” Wilson said. “They want government out of the way.”
The local Republican party has recently been in a battle between more “moderate,” or the “establishment,” Republicans who supported Mitt Romney in 2012 and those who supported Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, along with other reformists.
Wilson said she was chosen as chair because she “appealed to many sides of the Republican party.”
“You had the mainstream and the liberty people, and the very conservative, and I appealed to all of them,” she said.
She declined to say for whom she cast her vote in this year’s 3rd Congressional District primary: Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, or constitutional conservative Michael Delavar.
Stonier says she thinks the “far right is louder” than it was when she was last running for office but doesn’t think it’s indicative of the district becoming more conservative.
An exchange of views
With the sun rapidly setting on a recent evening, Stonier knocked on a few final doors.
One man opened the door, found out Stonier’s a Democrat, and cut right to the chase:
“I consider myself a Bible-believing conservative,” he told her.
She was just as ready with a response, telling him she’s against tax increases and believes in fiscal restraint.
He was happy to hear that, he told her. But it was clear he’s likely not going to vote for Stonier.
The two amicably parted ways.
Stonier said she believes there are people who cross party lines.
But she’s not canvassing to have a debate.
“I’m not there to win every vote,” she said.
