Trump, Seattle-style politics debated as state Senate candidates meet in Redmond

Oct. 11--Two questions dominated a state Senate election debate between Democrat Manka Dhingra and Republican Jinyoung Lee Englund in Redmond on Tuesday.

Should voters elect a Democrat who some believe would reflect the leftward tilt of the Eastside's 45th District and solidify that party's control of the Legislature?

Or should voters elect a Republican whose national standard-bearer is President Donald Trump, and who would keep in place a divided state Legislature?

Just weeks away from the November general election, the candidates faced off in an auditorium at Microsoft's Redmond campus.

A victory by Dhingra, a senior deputy prosecutor for King County, would hand control of the state Senate to Democrats, who already hold the governorship and state House. A win by Englund would keep the current one-vote margin in the Senate that a GOP coalition currently holds.

Dhingra promised to co-sponsor legislation supporting women's reproductive rights, including HB 1523, which would require that health plans provide coverage to services such as birth control at no cost to patients.

The bill passed the House on a bipartisan vote this year but stalled in the Senate.

"We will make sure that that bill gets passed," Dhingra told a crowd of several hundred at the debate, which was presented by Seattle CityClub and KIRO 7.

Englund, who has worked in the nonprofit, business and political worlds, railed against Seattle's new tax on income, and against plans to open two safe drug-injection sites, one in Seattle and another elsewhere in King County. She said she's open to the idea of a statewide ban on such injection sites.

"When I go door-to-door, I hear a lot of people say, 'Look, keep Seattle's ideas in Seattle," Englund said.

Englund also argued that split control in Olympia has produced balanced policies, citing the bipartisan push in recent years to hike K-12 education spending.

But Dhingra, like many Democratic lawmakers, has criticized this year's compromise plan to fully fund Washington's K-12 public schools.

Even as it drew a bipartisan vote, a slew of Democrats bashed the plan for relying too heavily on a state property-tax hike. Those tax increases are expected to hit many 45th District residents hard.

Dhingra called for rolling back the property-tax hike by raising revenue through closure of business tax exemptions, or a tax on capital gains. Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee in recent years have proposed a capital-gains tax, but have not brought it to the House floor for a vote.

Republicans have sought to tie Dhingra to the possibility of a state income tax, even though the Democrat has repeatedly said she does not support one.

Englund has said she would have voted against the GOP-driven property-tax hike. She called for the closure of tax loopholes and better prioritization of existing revenue to put more money into schools.

The candidates split over whether they supported Democratic state Attorney General Bob Ferguson's lawsuits against Trump administration policies involving immigration and other issues.

"What I would like to see our attorney general do is focus on matters of the state," said Englund, such as contesting Seattle's new city income tax, which has already drawn multiple lawsuits.

When asked whether she supported Ferguson's lawsuits against the administration's immigrant travel ban and the decision to end a program that protects young undocumented immigrants know as Dreamers, Englund said, "I think the attorney general is stepping outside of his bounds ..."

Dhingra hailed Ferguson's resistance to Trump policy, saying, "I absolutely support our attorney general."

Joseph O'Sullivan: 360-236-8268 or [email protected]. On Twitter @OlympiaJoe

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