A Clean Slate: Three vying for open House seat in state’s largest legislative district in northeastern Washington

Three Republicans experienced in politics and generally against overregulation are running for the House in northeastern Washington.

Rep. Jaquelin Maycumber, instead of seeking re-election, is running for the 5th Congressional District seat soon to be vacated by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, creating an open seat.

The district spans from the upper-right corner of Washington well into central Washington, encompassing all of five counties and part of another.

Teagan Levine, Andrew Engell and Soo Ing-Moody are running for the position.

Primary ballots were mailed this week, and the votes to whittle the three candidates to two must be mailed back with a postmark of Aug. 6 or earlier or dropped in an official county ballot drop box by 8 p.m. Aug. 6.

As of Friday afternoon, Ing-Moody has raised over $33,000, Engell has raised over $23,000, and Levine has raised over $13,000 according to State Public Disclosure Commissions filings.

Why they’re running Levine

Levine said restrictions on natural gas and rules aimed at reducing its use was her “tipping point,” and she filed to run for office the next day.

“It was a really close vote,” she said, as she described her experience watching her representative on the floor at 1:30 in the morning. She explains how a West Side representative voted for this bill even though her constituents told her to vote against it. “I could not believe that a representative there elected by the people, paid for by the people, would stand there and say she would not represent the people.”

Levine, a member of the Tonasket City Council and chairwoman of the Okanogan County Republican Party, didn’t want anything like this to happen to where she calls home.

“I’m running because I don’t think the people’s voice is being heard,” she continued.

Levine promised she will always stand up for her constituents. She said the initiative process is the best way to do so. “Those initiatives go above everything. They go above the presidential race on the ballot. … I’m running to uphold that, and represent the people.”

Engell

Andrew Engell used to work as a farmer with his wife up until the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, which he said forced him to stop.

“At the time, I just felt like I couldn’t handle another layer of regulation,” Engell said.

He then took a proactive approach to solve his problem. “In 2016, I went and met with Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers to talk about how the new law was destroying our dream.” Within a few months, Engell said he was hired to help McMorris Rogers represent Eastern Washington.

Engell frequently mentioned reducing overregulation. He described a policy he’s been working on to exempt small forest landowners from having to get a forest practices permit “to be able to log within a certain number of a buffer … within a property line from any structure” to help reduce the chance of fire spreading.

Engell, who is endorsed by McMorris Rogers, said his experience working under her has shown him that he can do this job.

“I’ve found that I have a knack for working with people to find solutions, talking with people who can’t relate to each other very well, and I can help be that bridge,” Engell said, as he described the importance of protecting the rural way of life, especially through the lens of the urban politics that he says tend to have power over the state.

“I believe we need to have conversations … with the majority party to help them understand that maybe there’s ways we can help them achieve their objectives without giving up what people in rural areas need,” Engell said.

Ing-Moody

Ing-Moody is stepping up to run in part because she thinks she’s the best person for the job.

“I was motivated to run after seeing that both of our experienced legislators for the 7th district are leaving their positions and at the same time recognizing that my life’s work and elected leadership at the local and state level has actually provided me the necessary experience, qualifications, skills and relationships to immediately get to work and be very effective in the important job of representing the people of the 7th district,” she said. Ing-Moody has a double master’s in English and Sociology from the University of Freiburg and was the mayor of Twisp for 13 years.

To Ing-Moody, the politics coming out of Olympia are more impactful than many people think, especially when compared to those coming out of D.C.

“It’s really our statewide policies that are effective in this aspect of our lives,” Ing-Moody said. “And I want to be part of helping bring voice to our community at that table.”

Despite this, Ing-Moody believes that many times the solutions coming out of Olympia don’t fit the problem, and the laws they pass ignore the needs of rural communities.

“And that’s where my experience as a small -town mayor in our district will be very helpful,” Ing-Moody said.

In her previous political work she pushed for the withdrawal of national forest land from future mineral exploration and mining and fought against the development of a copper mine. But Ing-Moody said she won’t always be against extraction.

“I’m looking for that balance of health between both the social environment and the natural environment,” she said.

Ing-Moody plans to work across party lines to reach her goals, citing her experience chairing the Association of Washington Cities as helping her to be “a real bridge builder,” working with everyone across the board, regardless of party affiliation.

“I am the only candidate in this race with the extensive professional training and directly related hands on experience that I think is critical for this job right now,” she said.

Policy Guns

The candidates generally agree on guns, all stressing their support for the Second Amendment.

“I would like to repeal a lot of the gun regulations we’ve added over the last several years,” namely a ban on the sale of assault weapons and magazine restrictions, Engell said.

In 2023 Washington approved the ban on the sale or manufacture of assault weapons, which applies to more than 50 specific models of military-style firearms listed within the bill, as well as guns that meet certain characteristics, including most semi-automatic centerfire rifles that use detachable magazines and many semi-automatic pistols and shotguns.

Levine added that she also opposes restrictions on bump stocks.

“I am not in support of any legislation that would hinder our constitutional rights,” she said.

Ing-Moody acknowledges the dangers of guns, yet does so while making sure to not contradict the Second Amendment. “We have to be responsible to protect innocent lives with sensible and reasonable laws that don’t impede upon our rights and freedoms,” she said.

Housing

All three candidates said there are too many regulations involved with building new homes.

Overregulation, for Engell especially, was a huge topic of conversation.

“The high costs and challenge of trying to build and construct new homes and developments is part of the reason that we have the worst housing shortage in the nation,” he said.

Engell is a landlord, owning 12 homes in what he described as the affordable housing sector.

“So I have a lot of understanding of that and our severe housing shortage is a real problem.”

Yet to him it’s not just affordable housing, it’s also middle -income housing that’s important. Engell said employers are having trouble recruiting people to rural areas because they can’t find anywhere to live.

He said government offers too many subsidies for housing. Instead, it should do more to promote building more housing to boost supply.

“We really just need to increase the supply of housing,” he said.

Engell said he would consider financial incentives, yet that the best solution is to reduce restrictions on building.

“I think some of our regulations, some of the climate regulations, some of these different construction regulations, could be modified, especially for some of the entry level housing, without compromising safety.”

Specifically, Engell means exempting small residences from energy credit requirements and allowing “counties and cities to opt out of the Growth Management Act.”

Engell says this would allow more flexibility on locating houses and give certainty to developers.

Similarly, for Levine, it’s not about affordable housing, it’s about attainable housing.

“People can’t build a home … because there’s too many regulations involved with building a home,” she said.

“We need housing period,” said Levine.

To her, this means increasing the inventory of housing, reducing the hurdles and speeding up the approval process for building permits. She’s also in support of incentivizing housing in a way that promotes quicker building in return for less expensive permits, but she said the process should be streamlined first.

“Families are having a really hard time keeping it together, and the government overreach is causing people to lose hope in the future for their kids and the future for themselves, and we need to find a way to fix that,” Levine said.

Ing-Moody agrees with the notion of reducing regulations to increase housing by, “cutting some of the red tape that holds us back from building more homes.”

She emphasized the importance of tailored solutions, and avoiding strategies with a “one size fits all” approach. To illustrate, she pointed to accessory dwelling units, saying that they “may be a perfect solution for certain communities, but it may not be for others.” Accessory dwelling units are commonly referred to as in-law units or apartments.

“I’m not opposed to any particular tool that may be available,” she said. “I’m just opposed to a community being forced to use a tool over another one that they might seem to feel is more appropriate and effective for getting the job done.”

Ing-Moody also hopes to address the workforce shortage because to her it’s also part of the issue. She said she would leverage her experience and connections to unite public, private, and community based organizations to solve the issue.

Ing-Moody applauds programs like the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Connecting Houses to Infrastructure Program, which connects housing to municipal systems to make affordable housing projects more viable.

“I am definitely interested in furthering and using the models that are out there, the programs like CHIP that work,” she said.

Natural gas

New rules aimed at reducing the use of natural gas were signed into law earlier this year. This new law supports “Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future,” according to the state legislature’s official Final Bill Report.

The goal is to shift from natural gas, with the now law prohibiting “large combination utilities,” that is, Puget Sound Energy, from offering, “any form of rebate, incentive, or other inducement to residential gas customers to purchase any natural gas appliance or equipment.”

The bill targets Puget Sound Energy, the state’s largest utility company. On their website Puget Sound Energy describes the law as a “planning bill” to help plan energy “consistent with our state’s aggressive climate goals.”

The utility has stressed that the law “does not include a ban on natural gas, and it does not change PSE’s obligation to serve natural gas to our customers.”

Levine is against the law, and her main concerns are regarding the “unintended consequences,” that it introduces.

Levine wants to reinstitute energy choice, “it was a gross overreach of our government on this bill, and it’s going to be fixed by the people and I-2066,” an initiative expected to reach the November ballot in Washington that Levine supports.

Engell also made note of his strong support of the initiative and distaste toward the new law.

“I’m fully in support of giving people the freedom to choose their energy source to heat their homes and I would not support any sort of natural gas ban at all,” he said.

Ing-Moody, on the other hand, emphasized a more nuanced position.

“I see lots of gray,” she said, as she explained how she is against the way the bill was passed and thinks it needs work.

“I’m all for looking for better and more efficient ways to address energy sources in the future … but I am not in favor of short -sighted fixes that will potentially do more harm to my community than good,” Ing-Moody said.

She doesn’t think there’s currently a viable replacement for natural gas.

“Any solution should not, at best, create more problems,” Ing-Moody said.

Public safety

All three candidates touched on public safety, sharing similar interests and values. They each commented on the importance of increased law enforcement but also helping people who need it, especially those suffering from addiction.

Levine describes herself as being “huge” on stopping fentanyl.

“I don’t know if people realize how bad it really is, and how much is really creeping in from our northern border,” Levine said as she describes a story about a bust that had enough fentanyl to kill her entire city of Tonasket.

“We need to get it off our streets,” she continued, describing law enforcement’s role, “they need more resources in order to do that.”

One of those resources is more funding. “Nobody wants to be a police officer anymore for many reasons and one of them is, hate to say it, but a rookie police officer is competing with Jack in the Box or McDonald’s in starting wages and they’re putting their life on the line,” she said.

But Levine also wants to address the root of some issues. To Levine, “mental health is a big problem.” Levine advocates for helping those who need it.

“If there’s not a support system there to help them, those in need won’t get better.”

Engell would similarly like to see improvements in law enforcement, and also wants to help people who need it, citing how two of his friends have lost kids to opioid overdoses, he said, “we need more drug treatment options. We need to go after the perpetrators.”

Engell again brings his regulatory mentality to this topic.

“We need to give law enforcement officers more flexibility to do their job,” he said.

Engell said law enforcement is having issues with retention and recruitment because they don’t feel supported, part of the reason for the “lowest per capita law enforcement in the country” statistic that he would like to address.

Ing-Moody shares similar opinions to Levine and Engell in this initial regard.

“I support law enforcement and public safety. … It’s a two -prong thing,” she said. “We need to be helping those that are suffering … but we also need to make sure that our criminals are being held accountable.”

To do so, Ing-Moody wants services to be accessible to those suffering from addiction and wants better jails to hold criminals accountable.

Social service professionals should be a part of some emergency responses, Ing-Moody said. Yet, Ing-Moody said, “We don’t have the staff or the counselors to ride along with our law enforcement to do that … It’s like having a tool but you can’t use it.”

To Ing-Moody, the issue is many times this lack of resources. She compares the situation in her town to those of urban centers, explaining how bigger towns they have relatively more resources to “impactfully and meaningfully” apply social service resources.

“I just want to make sure that our voices are heard so that the solutions can be impactful for us as well,” she said.

Ing-Moody comes from a family involved in emergency response, especially when it comes to fighting wildfires. Ing-Moody has worked as an EMT, and if she were elected, she would like to serve on a committee that has to do with preparing her communities for wildfire disasters.

She has experience working with natural resource management as a sociologist to make sure that natural areas are managed properly to ensure that the likelihood of large wildfires are reduced – and their damages are mitigated.

“I’ve done that internationally, and here as well now locally,” Ing-Moody said.

While the candidates’ goals are similar, they ideas for paying for improvements vary.

“It could be done through a single capital appropriation that goes to a particular project within the district,” Ing-Moody said.

She would fight to win grants that would pay for programs but also fight for new state funding. Ing-Moody plans to work through legislative committees such as finance, operations, capital and appropriations to raise money for projects in the 7th district.

Ing-Moody said she opposes raising any taxes to reach her goal. Instead, she said, “I will be looking at how we can be more effective with taxpayer dollars.”

Engell takes a different approach. He talks about payment in lieu of taxes on state lands, a program in which the state pays counties money annually for land it owns within county borders. He said Washington State doesn’t fully fund PILT, which makes it difficult for counties like Okanogan where 80% of the land is owned by the state. Engell said it makes it hard to fund programs since only 20% of the land is taxable, and that the first step is making sure that the state is paying their fair share of PILT.

“Washington State spends a lot of money to acquire more public lands, and I think we should cut that program, or significantly reduce it, at least until the state can fully fund that payment in lieu of taxes to local governments,” he said.

Levine wants to use part of Washington State’s “19 billion of surplus in order to fund some of these things.”

Levine also wants to reduce regulations that increase costs for the state, but she doesn’t have any specifically in mind.

“The state doesn’t fund our local police department,” she said. “The state doesn’t fund our county sheriff’s department. And we have a lot of regulations … that hinder them being able to do their job.”

Wolves

“The wolves were forced here,” Levine said.

Wolves are currently a protected species in District 7 under Washington state law, yet are, according to Levine, “decimating ranches in that area.”

She applauds the work of retiring state Rep. Joel Kretz, who currently holds Position 2 in District 7.

“Joel Kretz worked with the tribe and other representatives to manage and restore balance with local ranchers,” Levine said.

Levine said she would be a proponent of a bill that would allow for management of the wolf population to minimize the deprivation of land.

“I wholeheartedly support managing wolf populations … so our ranchers can thrive instead of being on the defense on a daily basis,” Levine said.

Engell agrees.

“I believe that Endangered Species Act protections are no longer warranted here in Washington and so I would fully support removing wolves from that list,” he said. “They are no longer in any danger from extinction.”

Ing-Moody was more cautious, saying how there does seem to be a growing concern about a healthy wolf population impacting livestock.

“As a legislator, I would be looking at the details to make sure that legislation is not overreaching and ineffective,” Ing-Moody said. “I believe that a healthy ecosystem is important for all, but that we can also over regulate and create an imbalance in the system as well.