Ruth Kagi (D-32, Shoreline, Kenmore, Edmonds) mainly focuses on education and child welfare, and it shows—she’s sponsored (and passed) bills to fund preschool programs and refocus welfare funds on parents actively seeking jobs.
Kagi’s vote usually skews progressive; she voted in favor of expanding domestic partnership rights, suspending I-960 to raise taxes in order to fix the imploding state budget, and gets high ratings from lefty kingmakers such as the Washington State Labor Council, the Sierra Club, and Planned Parenthood, which makes sense. Kagi for example helped shoot down a GOP amendment to weaken nurses and health care worker bargaining rights and voted to make sure the shoreline management act was updated to withstand legal challenges from developers.
Both of Kagi’s challengers are Republicans. Repeat candidate Stan Lippman was rated ‘Not Qualified’ by the Municipal League, but Kagi will have a tough fight in the general election against Gary Gagliardi, a reform-minded Republican who wants to change the structure of the Department of Education’s budget.
Gagliardi will certainly appeal to voters who want to see education reform with less government waste, but PubliCola is particularly impressed with Kagi on education. She defied the Democratic patrons from the teachers union by getting the ball rolling on ed reform—voting for 2009′s sweeping education bill.
PubliCola picks Ruth Kagi.
