Seaview Democrat seeks to replace Jeff Wilson in SW Washington Senate seat

In candidate debate, Andi Day questions incumbent's effectiveness; he says he is a dedicated champion for Southwest Washington

Democrat Andi Day and Republican incumbent state Sen. Jeff Wilson sparred and parried over taxes, child care, Wilson’s record and other issues at an election debate Wednesday night at Lower Columbia College.

Wilson and Day were generally polite to one another, and at the midpoint of the debate Wilson called Day “a great person, a good person. I think we both are.”

They even hugged one another at the end of the evening, which nevertheless highlighted some strong and pointed differences and accusations.

Day, of Seaview, touted her fifth-generation roots in a Southwest Washington commercial fishing and oystering family and background as a promoter of tourism and rural economic development. She said can get better results for the region than the incumbent.

She called herself a “rural, moderate Democrat” in the tradition of the late state Sen. Snyder, a Long Beach-area Democrat who earned a reputation for bipartisanship during 50 years of service to the Legislature.

Day is former executive director of Pacific County and statewide tourism groups representing more than 6,000 businesses, communities and tribes statewide. She now is an independent consultant working on rural economic development.

“I have a proven track record of success in Olympia, with strong relationships on both side of the aisle and with (state) agencies. … I have been a job creator and I’ve been a dedicated public servant of our community,” Day told the audience of about 100 in the college’s Rose Center.

As a single mother of a 14-year-old son, Day said she understands the challenges facing families.

“I’m running because everyone in 19th district deserves … better representation and better results.”

She is a big underdog in the heavily Republican district. Her campaign had raised $33,100, half of Wilson’s $68,000, as of the most recent report. But she had less than $10,000 left, whereas Wilson had spent little and had about $64,000 in reserve.

Most of Wilson’s donations — about $60,000— had come from businesses and political action committees (PACS), including grocery, health, home building, woods products and petroleum interests. Contributions to Day’s campaign include $7,800 from Democratic Party organizations, $6,700 from individuals and $5,800 from PACs.

Wilson is a Longview resident and former owner of Cowlitz Clean Sweep. He’s also notable for restoring the old Shay logging locomotive at the Longview Library grounds and other community boosting projects. He’s an enthusiastic promoter of the city and of himself. His mind often gets ahead of his sentences. He speaks with self-confidence and the verbal equivalent of warp speed.

He serves as a Port of Longview commissioner and is seeking his second four-year term representing Legislative District 19, which covers a six-county area stretching from Longview to the coast and up to Aberdeen. He’s one of three Republicans representing the area.

With Democrats dominating both legislative chambers, Wilson told the debate audience, “some of you felt I would be sentenced to the sideline and ineffective. I am proud to say that this is not the case.”

Reporting that he prime-sponsored 52 bills in his first term and co-sponsored more than 100 more, Wilson said, “This shows I have given 100 percent-plus to keeping promises and convictions that I told you about in my first campaign. I am looking forward to the second term …. because there is so much unfinished work to do.”

Two of Wilson’s recent legislative successes were passaging bills to study how best to fight battery fires in electric vehicles and recycle wind turbine blades. He worked with his party to beat back a property tax increase. He opposed efforts to reduce or ban home use of natural gas.

One effort that fell short was his bill to address sea lion predation of salmon. For next year he plans legislation inspired by the Baltimore bridge disaster to study the vulnerability of Washington bridges to commercial ship collisions.

The Cowlitz Civil Dialogue Project organized the debate, which was the third of four election season debates held to promote healthy political dialogue. The debate was the feistiest of the series so far, with Day repeatedly contending that she could do a better job than Wilson representing the district’s interests, in part because she is a member of the ruling party.

The last of four Cowlitz Civil Dialogue election debates will feature Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican challenger Joe Kent. It takes place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Lower Columbia College Rose Center. It also will be broadcast live on KLTV.

Transportation funding for the 19th District has dropped by half in the four years Wilson has has been in office, while state transportation spending doubled, Day said.

She criticized Wilson for his 2023 shift of $80 million from the Industrial Way/Oregon Way project to rail separation efforts in Aberdeen and South Kelso. The Longview project was funded in 2015 to relieve rail and vehicular congestion and promote growth in the industrial corridor along the Columbia River.

“That should never have happened,” Day said of the money shift.

Wilson countered that the cost of the Longview intersection project had become bloated (to $230 million) and wouldn’t address what he considers the root of congestion — the two-lane, nearly 100-year-old Lewis and Clark Bridge from Longview to Rainier.

Statewide transportation funding has decreased, not risen, in recent years, he said.

Fact check: According to the state Office of Financial Management, transportation capital spending for the 2023-25 biennium budget is doubling to $8.2 billion statewide in 2023-25. It generally remained steady — in the mid-$3 billion per biennium range — during the previous eight years.

Income tax or not?

Sharp differences arose over Initiative 2109, which voters will decide on in November. It would repeal a tax on capital gains exceeding $262,000 per year. Adopted by the Legislature in 2021, it is projected to raise $2.2 billion over the next five years for K–12 education, higher education, early learning and child care and school construction. The vast majority of the 3,354 Washington residents who paid the tax in 2022 were from King County; only eight were from Cowlitz County.

Day noted that the tax “addresses the state’s very regressive tax system” under which the wealthy pay a disproportionally lower share of their income.

Wilson called the capital gains levy a de facto income tax that should be barred under state law — although he acknowledged the state Supreme Court has ruled it legal.

Broad-based income taxes have always been rejected by Washington voters. Washington has no income tax, and court rulings have barred lawmakers from enacting graduated income taxes that target the state's highest earners. Most states have some form of capital gains tax.

Wilson defended the initiative as an “ultimate grassroots way for voters to send a message to Olympia to change course” and he said revenue the capital gains tax generates “is crashing.”

“People with incredible wealth and power — do you think they will stick around?” Wilson asked, adding that it is unsustainable to base programs on the tax.

Day countered that the signature-gathering campaign to get the initiative on the November ballot was financed by a Redmond hedge fund manager. “This is not ‘we the people.’ This is one billionaire trying to protect his billionaire clients.”

Wilson replied that it took hundreds of thousands of signatures from voters — about 420,000, according to the Secretary of State — to put the issue on the ballot. He said it has bipartisan support.

Juvenile justice overcrowding

In view of overcrowding of the juvenile justice system — which has led to some adult men being incarcerated with boys — Wilson and Day both agreed it was a mistake for the state to shut down the Naselle Youth Camp. The Inslee administration closed it in September 2022 partly due to its isolated location and to save money.

The camp provided jobs and housing for rural Pacific County residents and education and firefighter training for wayward youth. Day said Wilson failed to represent the district’s interests in the matter, showing “how important it is to have a voice in the room where these decisions are made in the first place."

Wilson spoke forcefully how he launched a planning process led by local people — including himself — to repurpose the camp after its closure. The group, called Naselle Youth Camp Task Force, issued its final report in June. It recommended that ownership of the Naselle Youth Camp be transferred to the Chinook Indian Nation to serve as its tribal headquarters.

Closure of the camp as a juvenile reform facility “was not my decision,” Wilson said. “What more could I do? This decision was the crosshairs of the (Inslee) administration for some time.”

Child care

Day said she supports the state’s working families tax credit, adopted in 2023, that gives eligible families and individuals tax credits ranging from $315 to $1,255. Better health care, job growth, infrastructure, rent stabilization can also “take the pressure off working families so they can afford child care,” she said.

She pointed out that the capital gains tax helps fund early childhood education, prompting a somewhat mocking response from Wilson.

“Tax the rich. Tax the rich. Tax the rich. The rich have the means to exit. It seems weird to … fund something as precious as child care with (a tax) that is not sustainable. You can’t count on that revenue,” Wilson said.

The Legislature “did number of amazing things” for early learning programs this past session, he said. He said that the state also needs to reduce regulations on child care facilities and that child care worker salaries need to be raised, although he was not specific about how to do so.

Gun violence

Washington last year became the 10th state to ban the sale of assault-style weapons. A federal judge Thursday let the law stand while constitutional challenges to it continue.

Day said she opposes gun bans and appreciates the tradition and culture of gun ownership in rural Southwest Washington. But she parried.

“We are in a situation where gun violence is No. 1 cause of deaths for 0 to 19 year olds. It’s mind-blowing. We need to take steps to increase the safety of our children and police officers,” she said, without being specific about what steps she may support.

Fact check: Motor vehicle accidents were the leading cause of children and adolescents 0-19 until 2020, when firearm-related death became No. 1, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, citing federal data. The two causes shift positions depending on slight changes in the age groups studied.

Day twice tried to bait Wilson into discussing his arrest in Hong Kong last October for carrying a .38 caliber handgun in his luggage. He said he hadn’t realized it was in a carry-on bag until he found in midflight en route from the U.S. Charges were dismissed in Hong Kong, but U.S. authorities fined Wilson an undisclosed amount. Airport security at Portland International Airport failed to detect the weapon. The story received national attention, and Wilson apologized for what he said was an honest mistake.

“I would argue that Senator Wilson has done more to jeopardize gun rights than I could ever do.,” Day said, without specifically naming the Hong Kong incident

Wilson didn’t take the bait.

He said he voted against the state ban on high-capacity magazines, which Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Gary Bashor ruled unconstitutional. The state is appealing the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

”I believe it was unconstitutional, and I didn’t think it would save lives like it was promised to,” Wilson said.

The solution to gun violence, he said, is better school safety measures, hiring more police and prosecutors, creating more jail space and ending talk about ‘“defunding police.”

“We are not going to get rid of guns, and you are not going to take away the Second Amendment in the state of Washington,” he said.

Points of agreement

Both Wilson and Day oppose salmon restoration proposals to breach four lower Snake River Dams, which provide hydroelectric power and enable upriver commerce critical to lower river ports, including Kalama and Longview’s. This is a federal decision, but the state is a key stakeholder in the matter.

Both candidates said predation of salmon by sea lions and other predators must be addressed. Wilson this year won Senate agreement for a $1.5 million predator control project for the Lower Columbia River and its tributaries, but the funds were dropped in the final budget.

”The Snake River dams are the least of our worries” concerning salmon recovery, Day said.

Both candidates advocated for regulatory reform of environmental permitting, with Day saying she has connections to help make state understand the district’s rural economies and needs.

Wilson decried the state Department of Ecology’s denial of the multibillion dollar Kalama methanol plant last decade. “It broke my heart” when the project failed, he said.

Homelessness and Hope Village

Wilson said the state has a shortage of 800,000 housing units and that he has introduced legislation to make it easier to build low-cost “kit built” homes. He plans re-introduce it next year.

Treating drug abuse has to be part of the solution to homelessness, Wilson said, noting that he is a strong supporter of Cowlitz Drug Court.

He called for more accountability of what he called the homelessness “industrial complex.” He lamented that his requests for audits and evaluations of state-supported homeless programs has not gained traction.

“There’s nothing wrong with taxpayers asking for accountability” to see how programs are succeeding or failing or how they can be improved, Wilson said

Day said that addressing homeless is a complex matter that involves making housing more affordable and individuals healthier, more employable and more financially secure.

She raised concerns about real estate investment firms buying up homes, reducing stock of affordable starter homes. One firm recently purchased 47 homes in Longview, she said.

She asked Wilson why he opposed rent stabilization legislation last session that would cap rent and fee increases at 5% for a 12-month period. He did not respond.

Day said that Hope Village, the city of Longview’s 50-unit pallet home community, “has had positive results. Maybe it’s not perfect. But I’m a believer in better.”

Since Hope Village opened in December 2022, 75 people have been moved into permanent housing. More than 100 homeless people are on the waiting list for entry to the pallet home community. Crime and police calls to the area have dwindled dramatically, according to Longview police.

Day asked Wilson why he yanked a legislative appropriation to help cover operational costs for Hope Village in 2023. (State grants have largely funded operations. The city paid the initial capital cost of building it.)

Wilson denied the action, and he told Day she should not rely on biased media reports. Day countered that she based her statement on Office of Financial Management, not the media. (I reported the action at the time, and I stand by the report. This was one of several times during the debate that Wilson aimed oblique criticisms at my work.)

Wilson said he doesn’t oppose Hope Village, but “my job is to make sure it is “done properly.” He noted that it was established under a city emergency declaration, but now that it is over there is no building code or state Labor & Industry code or safety oversight.

Wilson did not raise this issue at the time I first reported this story.

Fact check: State law bars cities from imposing “conditions other than those necessary to protect public health and safety” at homeless shelters run by church and religious organizations. Cities cannot “ substantially burden the decision or actions” for church-based shelters. But the law references homeless facilities on church property. Hope Village is on city property and run under a contract with the Salvation Army, a religious organization. So there may be a legal issue here. In any case, fire officials inspected Hope Village before it went into operation, and it complies with safety requirements set out in the law.

Climate change

Wilson supports initiative — I-2117 — which would repeal the state’s “cap and trade” program and repeal the 2021 Washington Climate Commitment Act, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 95% by 2050.

Under the legislation, businesses with emissions exceeding 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year must purchase allowances equal to their allowed greenhouse gas emissions. This is known as “cap and trade” policy.

Some of those revenues were earmarked to help finance the Cowlitz PUD’s landfill waste-gas-to energy project at Cowlitz County’s Headquarters Landfill, which the state Department of Ecology has blocked.

Wilson said the law is “permission to pollute” and said the state has done little with the $2 billion raised so far to reduce emissions of greenhouse-causing carbon dioxide.

“Show me how much carbon we have reduced,” he said, urging voters not to fall for “falsehoods” and assertions that the “sky is falling” if the initiative passes.

“The air is no cleaner and the water is no more drinkable” than before the law was passed, Wilson said. “We do need transitional methods to reduce carbon. But show us what we’re getting for our money.”

The legislation is “far from perfect,” Day said, but officials are obligated to leave the world a healthier place for future generations.

Political partisanship

Day asked Wilson whether he aligned with the conservative or moderate wings of the Cowlitz Republican Party.

Wilson’s critics, which incluide both Republic and and Democrats, accuse him of meddling too much in city politics. He is allied with members of the bloc that fired City Manager Kris Swanson in March. Her ouster had led to lawsuits and additional expenditures that will easily far exceed $500,000 at a time when the city is facing a projected $8 million 2025 budget deficit.

“I am not going to do the polarization thing,” Wilson said Wednesday night in response to Day. “I represent everybody. That is something I am very proud of.”

He said he disappointed that local Democrats have rebuffed overtures to meet with him.

His comments triggered a light round of applause that Steve Warning, the debate co-moderator, quickly quelled. Clapping and jeering are prohibited by the debate rules except at introductions and conclusions.

Watch the entire recorded debate on the KLTV website.