Gig Harbor middle school teacher Karin Ashabraner wants to add state representative to her already impressive and varied list of career accomplishments. 

She announced Feb. 15 that she will campaign as a Democrat representing the 26th Legislative District. The seat is currently held by two-term incumbent Jan Angel (R-Port Orchard).

“Education and jobs are really important to me,” Ashabraner said. “I want to make sure families get the help they need, veterans get the transition help they need and that our communities are whole and healthy.”

Ashabraner’s potential path to a seat in the state Legislature has been a circuitous one.

A resident of Gig Harbor for more than 40 years, starting in 1984 she worked as an administrative assistant for the city administrator for 10 years before returning to school to pursue her teaching degree.

She teaches eighth-grade U.S. history at Goodman Middle School in the Peninsula School District. Ashabraner is also a retired member of the Army Reserves.

She went to college “on and off” for two years — earning an associate’s degree from Tacoma Community College — before joining the Army, where she planned to become a pharmacist.

Ashabraner did so well in the Army’s pharmacy specialist course that she was asked to stay on as a course instructor.

“That was my first exposure to being a teacher,” she said.

She retired in 2007 with more than 20 years as an Army reservist.

When the opportunity to go back to school presented itself, Ashabraner said she contemplated her original plan of becoming a pharmacist, but she had been bitten by the teaching bug all those years ago in the Army when she was chosen to teach the pharmacy course.

“I loved every minute of it,” she recalled, which led to her earning her teaching credentials, including a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington Tacoma and a Master’s degree from the University of Puget Sound.

After graduating from UPS, she was a teacher for the Peninsula School District before starting a career at Goodman Middle School.

“I’ve been with the Peninsula School District since 1997,” she said.

In the end, it was teaching her students about the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights that finally helped motivate her decision to make her first-ever run for public office.

One of the units in the textbook she uses for her U.S. history class is about citizen responsibility, she said, and the obligation of citizens to get involved in representative government.

“I can’t stand here and say that anymore if I don’t do something about it myself,” she explained. “This is my time to do this.”

Ashabraner was also spurred to action in her dealings with state legislators and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction as president of the Peninsula Education Association for the past four years.

“Citizens are not getting the representation we deserve,” she said.

She’s not naïve about entering the political arena for the first time.

“It’s a steep learning curve,” she noted.

As a long-time resident of Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula, Ashabraner is concerned about a number of issues, including helping small businesses, getting people back to work and providing more family wage jobs.

“The numbers are improving,” she said of the weak economy, “but we have a long way to go.”

But it’s education where her heart is.

“That’s my area of expertise,” Ashabraner said.

Basic education has been in the news recently, with the state Supreme Court’s Jan. 5 ruling in McCleary v. State of Washington that the state has failed in its constitutional duty to “make ample provision for basic education of all children in Washington.”

The court gave state lawmakers until 2018 to fully implement education reform.

“From a teacher’s standpoint, I was pleased to hear that,” Ashabraner said of the high court’s decision. “It was not a surprise to me.”

The hard part will be paying for the court-mandated changes in the current economic climate.

“We’re looking at ways to make it happen,” she said. “I’m concerned about 2018.”

The first campaign-related events are set for late March, Ashabraner said.


Reporter Brett Davis can be reached at 253-853-9243 or by email at brett.davis@gateline.com. Follow him on Twitter, @gateway_brett.