We endorse: South Tacoma area needs this pair of fighters in Legislature
It’s all too easy to for outsiders to write off Pierce County’s 29th Legislative District as a marginalized collection of people. It’s convenient to dismiss it as a place plagued by intergenerational poverty, weakened by low voter turnout and artificially connected across the boundaries of South Tacoma, East Lakewood and Parkland.
Fortunately, several community leaders see the district as greater than the sum of its working-class parts, and they fight hard for its interests. Among them are state Sen. Steve Conway and House candidate Melanie Morgan, a pair of Democrats we believe voters should support in the Nov. 6 general election.
The 29th needs Conway and Morgan to fight harder than ever after a year when the district’s issues were eclipsed by the personal travails of Rep. David Sawyer, dogged by complaints that he sexually harassed female associates in Olympia.
Conway, 73, is one of the Legislature’s elder statesmen, having served 18 years in the House before moving to the Senate in 2010. A former history professor and union leader, he combines a scholarly manner with a strong pro-labor disposition.
You’ll find his fingerprints on some of the Legislature’s big projects of the last four years, including a bipartisan deal on a paid family leave law and $16 billion transportation package that’s bringing freeway relief to South Pierce County.
Conway has been less successful, but persistent, trying to fix Washington’s new school funding formula; he wants to give levy flexibility to property-poor school districts, including some he represents (Tacoma, Clover Park, Franklin Pierce), which recently approved teacher pay raises they can’t afford. He vows to keep up the pressure.
Voters should be upset at Conway for one major misstep: Unlike most of the Pierce County delegation, he helped pass an astonishingly bad bill this year to exempt legislators from the state Public Records Act. Senate Bill 6617 was ultimately withdrawn, and Conway admits it skirted public hearings and other institutions he holds dear. He must do better if a similar affront to open government resurfaces.
Challenging for the Senate seat is Pierre Malebranche, who’s running as an independent. Malebranche is a Haitian immigrant, U.S. Army veteran and truck driver — a quintessentially hard-working resident of the 29th. We would’ve enjoyed hearing his story, but he didn’t show up for a scheduled meeting.
For House Position 1, Morgan proved herself a formidable candidate in the primary election when she beat Sawyer by nearly 20 percentage points: no small feat against a three-term incumbent.
The 50-year-old Franklin Pierce School Board member and former Pierce County Housing Authority commissioner has shown no sign of slowing down.
Morgan embodies the 29th District in many ways. She has a military background (Army veteran, self-described Air Force “brat”); she’s a person of color amid rich diversity; she’s survived personal housing affordability issues and has advocated for domestic violence victims.
She also knows a thing or two about how to build community trust, judging by the 68-percent “yes” vote for the Franklin Pierce school bond two years ago.
Her Republican opponent, anti-tax crusader Terry Harder, is much less reflective of the district, as evidenced by his previous failed bids for Legislature.
While we can’t recommend Harder, let’s give him his due for stepping up to run again. In House Position 2, Rep. Steve Kirby has no opponent this year; that’s good for a comfortable 18-year incumbent, not so good for democracy.