- Good evening and welcome to this candidate forum.

My name is Ruvine Jimenez and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin Counties.

the League is a nonpartisan organization that neither supports nor opposes candidates.

In presenting these forums, it is our goal to provide opportunities for voters to become better informed about the people who are running for public office.

The 2024 primary candidate forums have been prerecorded in person by Northwest Public Broadcasting at WSU Tri-Cities.

They will be available through August 6th, primary election day at nwpb.org, on the League's Facebook page, and website at lwvbf.org on YouTube and through the League's additional partners.

The cities of Richland and Pasco, and the Columbia Basin Badger Club.

At this time, I would like to introduce our moderator, Matt Loveless, from the Murrow College of Communication at WSU Pullman.

Please welcome Matt.

- Well, good evening and thank you to Ruvine and the League of Women Voters.

I am Matt Loveless, I'll be helping take you through tonight's program.

We're going to get both races in Washington's 14th legislative district to district, like many in Washington with some new boundaries.

And as a result, new leadership.

We'll spend the next hour with some candidates for both position one and position two, which gives us close to 30 minutes each to really dig into some issues in this new look district.

Now, as always, we've got some rules for you today and here at NWPB we wanna let you know we pride ourselves on this being a very fair and non-contentious forum for our candidates to speak on the issues.

We have made time for opening statements and then a series of questions provided by the League and their constituents.

And finally, if time allows, closing statements, we do have that time for now.

Everything at the moment set at one minute.

Now, as moderator, I may add or remove questions for time in this program.

Like I said, we wanna keep this fair and fit for an hour of television.

Let's meet the candidates for the 14th district position one primary, a three person race among Chelsea Dimas, not unfamiliar with the campaign, had previously run for the Sunnyside City Council.

Andy Kallinen, following 30 years in law enforcement.

And Gloria Mendoza, a former mayor of Grand View.

Now we reached out to Ms. Mendoza.

She told us she could not be here for this forum, but Mr. Kallinen and Ms. Dimas are here.

We really appreciate your time and attendance here at the WSU Tri-Cities campus.

We have been over the rules and at this point I think that I have talked enough.

I have promised you one minute each for opening statements and we will do this alphabetically by last name.

Ms. Dimas, your opening statement.

- Awesome, thank you.

Hi everyone, I'm Chelsea Dimas.

I'm from Sunnyside, Washington.

I am a proud daughter of immigrant farm workers from Mexico.

A lot of the reason why I decided to run has to do with my community, has to do with the obstacles I've seen them face, as well as the adversity that my parents went through, you know, being immigrants from another country as well as my neighbors, I've heard a lot of the same issues that I heard growing up over 20 years ago.

And I really felt like this was my opportunity to step up and do something that was bigger than myself.

I bring over 15 years of experience in nonprofit advocacy, social justice, and other community issues.

And I'm also currently a human rights commissioner with the Washington State Human Rights Commission.

So thank you so much for allowing me to be here today.

- Ms. Dimas, thank you very much for that opening statement.

Mr. Kallinen, the one minute is yours.

- Thank you.

My name's Andy Kallinen.

I've been in law enforcement for 30 years and concurrent to that, 20 year career in the military reserves.

And I've dedicated my life to service.

And in recent years I've just seen the way some of our elected leaders have been running our state and national governments.

And one of the tenants that was taught to me as an aspiring lieutenant when I was in college hoping to become a commissioned officer in the Army, which I eventually did, is that when in charge, take charge.

When no one's taking charge, take charge.

I didn't like the way things are going and the law and justice has been huge.

And it doesn't matter what we do for our professions, where we come from, and what our background is.

We can't take care of our families and our friends and our loved ones without maintaining law and order.

And I've got 30 years in leadership and I wanna bring that leadership to the capitol where I can help.

- All right, Mr. Kallinen, thank you very much.

Both of you, welcome to the stage today.

Let's get onto our questions.

These were written and submitted to or by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin County.

Obviously a lot of the discussion in the run up to this election in this district is about the district and its map and just a little education for viewers.

District lines were redrawn following the 2020 census, now stretching beyond the borders of Yakima County and parts of the Tri-Cities.

So question one for you Ms. Dimas, how satisfied are you with the redistricting process here in Washington State and are there any changes to that process that you would like to see in the future?

- Yeah, I've heard a lot of different arguments and concerns regarding the redistricting.

I feel like the new maps provide an opportunity for different areas, for people from different areas to step up and be able to represent such a diverse area.

So for me, I see it as an opportunity to not just elect the same type of folks, but to be able to create more diversity for our elected officials, right?

That's one of the biggest reasons why I stepped up to run was because representation is in dire need in this district.

And I know that there's this argument from folks that representation isn't everything, but to me it is, coming from an area that's been underrepresented for a long time.

And I just hope that these maps allow that opportunity for community to feel heard, to feel seen, and to feel like they're part of the decision making process.

- All right, thanks Ms. Dimas, Mr. Kallinen, as you watch that process unfold, a lot of opinions all over the map here, no pun intended, but what's your thought on that process?

- So myself, like many of the people I know, I'm not a political animal, hadn't been watching it.

And I was really surprised when I discovered that the boundaries had been redrawn, carved out a big chunk out of the middle of my county and Klickitat County.

And so I did a little research and I learned that Washington State is one of only like seven states that uses a bipartisan redistricting commission.

So it's not as controlled by the party in power.

I think it's a very fair process.

And in the end, when the redistricting commission drew their lines after the 2020 census, the bipartisan legislature of Washington state controlled by the Democrat Party approved those boundaries.

So 2019 decision held that it was better served by the state to draw their boundaries than court systems, the federal court system.

And I think that's where it belongs.

Our commission does a good job drawing our boundaries and I think we should honor those.

And following a 1995 decision that ruled on some redistricting boundaries that drew some pretty weird geographic lines, I think this will follow a similar fact pattern.

- All right, thank you Mr. Kallinen and let's go back to you.

You get first answer on this next question and we'll sort of stay on topic because as we talk about this question, there's process, then there's people and you're gonna have to get to know some new areas of this 14th congressional district.

Mr. Kallinen, if elected, how would you go about acquainting yourself with the makeup of this population?

- Well, I've worked a little bit in Klickitat County.

One of the areas I worked exists up near White Swan.

I investigated case up there one time a few years back and I learned a lot about the crime going on up there.

I had a victim I had met, had his fourth vehicle in like two years stolen.

I spent a lot of time in Toppenish as a kid with my best friend Michael Aguilar and his family there.

His dad, Ernie Aguilar, established the Toppenish Farm Workers Clinic and later it became the Yakima Farm Workers Clinic.

I loved Toppenish, spent a lot of time there with his aunt and Uncle Frank and Monica, walked the streets, played in Toppenish.

And they're people like everybody else up the Yakima Valley and I'm gonna get out there and meet 'em and look out for their issues.

It doesn't matter where they come from.

We all wanna follow our dreams and provide for our family.

So I'm gonna get out there, try to meet some people that feel the same way as me and see if they can help me out.

- All right, thank you very much.

And Ms. Dimas, same question to you as you get to know some people in some newer areas of this district.

- Yeah, so luckily a lot of my work has been community based, for community by community.

So I have spent my life in the community for a very long time.

And that's been predominantly the Yakima area, the Lower Yakima Valley, as well as some of the Tri-Cities.

A lot of my background comes from working with Habitat for Humanity, the Tri-County partners.

I've worked for Toppenish school district, I've worked for the Diversity Center of Santa Cruz, I've worked for the House Democratic Caucus, and I'm now working for Civil Survival.

So I have a large range of experience of working with all types of community on different issues.

And because of that I've been leveraging my resources and my connections and so I've been spending the last few weeks already door knocking all over the district.

And so I plan on continuing to do that.

I've been visible at every event that I can fit in my schedule, which has been a little crazy, which is why it took me a little bit longer to be here today.

But it's just so important to have that direct voter contact and I wanna make sure that they know that I'm here for them and only them, thank you.

Thank you Ms. Dimas, you could have kept that from our TV audience, but we appreciate your honesty here.

You got here, we're just fine.

Well we have one more question about this new look makeup of the district.

And if those changes mean any sort of legislative changes or the way it's governed, in your opinion, what's the highest legislative priority and or the greatest challenge in this newly formed 14th?

Ms. Dimas, right back to you.

- That is a great question.

I think this area has a wide range of issues that we're facing, but I also think it has a lot of richness in terms of like culture and diversity.

So I really just wanna lean in and make sure that my priorities continue to adapt to the community's needs.

Right now a lot of the issues I'm looking at that I've heard at the doors as I've been canvassing throughout the district is affordable housing.

It's the cost of living going up.

I wanna make sure people stay in their homes whether they rent or own.

I'm also looking at workers' rights.

This is a working class district and I wanna make sure that everyone is protected as a worker and not exploited by any big company or regardless of where they're from or you know who they are.

And I'm also looking at other issues like education.

We're dealing with budget cuts across the state, but in our district it's definitely hurting us when we're already like low on resources.

So I wanna make sure that we keep quality education in place and we're standing and protecting our teachers and educators.

- All right, thanks Ms. Dimas.

So Mr. Kallinen, same question to you.

- Well, some of the things, as in my profession, I'm like a leatherman tool.

I do a lot of different things.

I work with a lot of agriculture workers and I kind of paying attention to the spotted lantern fly.

I know that the government's kind of paying attention to its migration across the country.

I think it's in about 14 states and it poses a pretty significant threat to our hops farmers and our grapes and our orchardists.

So I'll be looking to, take a look at the plan that government staff is currently working on when they've released that.

It's something I don't think the legislature's really got a pulse on yet because it's at that field level.

So bringing that field expertise to watch what's going on with that I think is important.

And just trying to make sure that the communities have their resources to deal with the homelessness and the drugs and the mental health issues that are going on and prioritizing those.

- All right Mr. Kallinen, thank you very much.

All right, let's move on to question number four.

And this one comes from a citizen in your district.

The League reached out to voters for some of their own questions and voters have been paying attention.

The question is, what level of trust do you have in our election process and will you abide by the official results whether or not you are declared the winner, Mr. Kallinen?

- Well, I can remember when I was first allowed to vote and I went down to the junior high school where I'd grown up and signed in and had to present my ID and of course we have more voters than we had back then about 40 years ago, but I think Washington's been on mail balloting for a long time.

I think we do it as good as we can and we just need to make sure that we stay vigilant on how we manage that, taking care of the voter rolls through the auditor's office and doing the best we can getting out and getting people's ballots and making sure that ballots that aren't taken from their original source don't get into the system.

And I think we can take care of that and we will certainly live with the system we have and I'll respect that.

- And Ms. Dimas, same question to you.

Do you have trust in our election process and if you are not declared the winner, as you say, regardless of whether or not you are, will you abide by the results?

- Yeah, I think that's a great question.

One of my priorities is protecting democracy and government accountability.

And I say that because our district has been going through so many lawsuits even in the old district and now.

And I think there is mistrust in communities, especially when we have a lot of communities of color here.

We have a large Latino Hispanic population.

We have now the whole Yakima reservation in our district.

So we have a lot of these diverse voices that through our voting process and election process, their voices have been diluted.

And I wanna ensure that whatever systems we have in place are there to do what they're meant to do, right?

I wanna make sure that people feel like they can trust in our system, I want them to be educated and I want them to take part because their civic engagement is the most important thing.

And so if elected I will ensure that that is upheld and I will respect the results unless I see something that is way out of place, so thank you.

- All right, thank you very much, all right.

Onto question five of our forum with candidates for the position one representative seat in Washington's 14th legislative district, Chelsea Dimas and Andy Kallinen here with me.

Now the question here is simple, even if the answer may not be, what's the greatest infrastructure need in the 14th and how would you go about addressing it?

Ms. Dimas?

- Yeah, there, gosh, that is so hard to answer just because I feel like there's so many different things.

But a couple things that I can think of that I think is a common theme throughout Central Washington is our aging water infrastructure, we have several communities that are dealing with issues with water, including one community that I've been actively involved in and that's Mabton, Mabton has been dealing with contaminated water for a very long time and is currently in debt and running outta solutions.

And so I think we need to be advocating to ensure we get that funding.

I think Central Washington tends to be ignored a lot in different things and I wanna make sure that the legislative budget is ensuring that we get that money and it's trickled down to the communities that need it the most.

The other thing I would say would also be our freeways and highways.

I mean, not too long ago one of the exits off of I believe Wapato collapsed and that is a scary thought to know that, that people can get hurt, but also just the traffic and the delays.

So I wanna make sure we're looking at all those things and have the resources needed, thank you.

- And that same infrastructure question to you, Mr. Kallinen?

- The water is big.

I have a well 20 acres and my water started testing bad about 10 years ago.

Dissolved iron was off the charts, pH was so low it was acidic, it was eating plumbing in my house.

So I can definitely relate to the water issues and water rights for farmers, ranchers, and citizens across our district.

I'll have to look into that some more.

Roads, our bridges, our highways and our ferry system.

One of the things you watch a Mariners game, you watch a Seahawk game and they're always featuring downtown Seattle and a ferry in the background.

And our ferry system is aging, our highways are aging.

Much of our infrastructure was built after World War II through the fifties and sixties and we've just not invested in it.

I'm working on a plan I call it, "For Trees for Transportation and Treatment" and I'd like to work on developing some revenue and some savings with our forest management to help pay for our transportation and some treatment needs.

- All right, thank you Mr Kallinen.

All right, let's move on to question number six.

We're flying through these and this question is one that taps into really, an increasing concern that politics is more about ideology and not about representation.

Something voters are having a harder time reconciling when so many votes go along party lines.

The question is, are you willing to work across the aisle?

And if so, please describe a bipartisan piece of legislation that you might support, Mr. Kallinen?

- Well definitely, I mean we're all people and we all have concerns about a lot of the same issues and trying to find a place where we can meet in the middle.

Back in 2016 in a post Ferguson Missouri era, I helped draft the legislation that became House Bill 2765.

It was a pro law enforcement bill and I actually worked with our union staff and we got Democrat sponsors, primary sponsors, and Republican primary sponsors.

So certainly able to work across the aisle and work with folks from both parties to try and help get stuff done.

And as I mentioned before, I have an idea for trees, timber sails, and taking care of our wildland fire management costs and diverting those toward treatment for mental health and drug addiction.

And that's a bill I'd like to work on for our transportation and our treatment.

- All right, thank you and Ms. Dimas, same question to you.

Any of those issues that might sound contentious that you might be able to reach across the aisle and get some solutions?

- Yeah, so again, because a lot of my work has always been about the community, I've worked with people with all different backgrounds and ideologies.

One thing I've been telling folks is though I am running as a Democrat, that doesn't mean I have this loyalty to a party, this loyalty to a politician, this loyalty to a group.

The loyalty I have to is to community.

So if I'm not getting things done, then I'm doing something wrong.

When taking a role such as this, it means that it's less about you and more about community.

So that's what my approach is gonna continue to be.

If my district and my constituents are telling me that this is what's important and this is what they need, then I will do what it takes to get it done.

And that would involve talking to all stakeholders, all experts in the area, legislators that have done this work in the past and I have to get it done.

And one of those bills that I think I have saw that I would be a part of is definitely the backlog of rape kits.

I know that several legislators from all sides worked on this and I think it's very important that we continue to work together.

- All right, thank you very much.

All right, let's move on to the next question and if I may, this one touches on maybe one of those party line issues, gun violence, a decrease year over year in the district, but rates still remain higher than even some of the bigger cities in our state, including Seattle.

So the question is, what steps, if any, should be taken to curb or reduce gun violence here in this district?

Ms. Dimas?

- Yeah unfortunately my community of Sunnyside dealt with two fatal shootings just like not even that long ago, a few weeks ago and then even earlier this year.

And I was part of a community vigil that honored the students that we lost.

And it's just devastating.

We've been dealing with a lot of these issues for a very long time since I was a child.

I've seen drive by's, I've seen gang violence and I've seen all kinds of different things and I think it's important that we take a community approach and that we look at all of the factors.

I think people are quick to just jump that like we just need to get more police that we need to just throw people in prison and all of these things when I think we need to be looking at the whole picture, what is the root cause?

And a lot of these things are intersectional.

We're thinking about addiction, we're thinking about living in poverty, we're thinking about lack of resources, we're thinking about necessities that are missing.

And so I wanna make sure we're covering all of those pieces before we're making big decisions.

- Thanks Ms. Dimas, Mr. Kallinen, and same question to you.

How do you address gun violence here?

- Well, I think there's a lot of it in crime and mental health issues.

So we need to put criminals back in jail and in prison and hold people accountable when they do commit crimes.

A lot of these things we see they've been in the system before, they've been arrested 5, 6, 7, 8 times and they're back out.

And those are the people that aren't gonna follow the law anyway.

So we can't ban our way out of things.

We need to take care of role models, mentorship, a lot of, I think some of our youth that start down a path of crime do so because their family unit's been disrupted, broken, they don't have a role model.

And I think we need to focus on the value that family and cohesion and faith plays in mentoring our kids so that they choose the right thing that doesn't lead them toward a path of incarceration and the judicial system.

So we need to work on that.

- All right, thank you very much.

All right, let's move on to question eight and before we give you an opportunity to give a closing statement, we have a final question.

And I like this one because people are so often told you got a problem, contact your congressperson, contact your legislator, get your local representative on the line.

So times change as do our means of communication.

What would you tell your constituents out there regarding the best way to communicate with you about an issue they may have, Mr. Kallinen?

- So they can communicate with me through my website, it's andywafourteenth.com.

They can message me, they can email me, my phone number's on there and I'm happy to meet with anybody that has an issue.

I was telling some of the folks that invited me here today about an issue where everybody says that I was going to lose my military career at about 14 years.

A lot of things going on.

And I made a move from the Army Guard to the Coast Guard, but the Coast Guard said they didn't want me 'cause I had too many years in the army.

And I wrote to my congressman at the time, Doc Hastings and Doc Hastings looked into that bureaucratic process and he found a way to cut through that.

So I like to find problems and solve them and build relationships.

I've been doing that for a long time and I look forward to having an opportunity to do that again.

- All right, Mr. Kallinen, thank you very much.

Ms. Dimas, what's the best way to contact you if somebody had an issue?

- Yeah, well luckily my background specifically is in comms.

So communications is definitely one of my best assets and skills that I have.

I'm very on social media, I respond to all messages.

I receive email as well.

Even though lately with just the campaign journey, I feel like I've gotten even more messages.

So it's taken a little bit longer to get back to someone but I'm working on it as well as I have a home office in Sunnyside, which is my hometown, and I'm right on the midpoint of like, throughout the district, so people can easily come to me, but if they can't, I've been responding to text messages, calls and emails and messages through my website if people wanna meet me somewhere else in their district, I'm here to make it as easy and accessible for them.

And so I plan on continuing to keep an open dialogue with community because that is my role.

- All right, Ms. Dimas, thank you very much.

And finally, let's get some closing statements.

We could ask so many more questions.

We deserve a lot more time, but we won't take it all.

Surely you'll have other opportunities to answer some of these questions as well.

But setting the clock at one minute again, Ms. Dimas, your closing statement.

- Yeah, I just wanna thank everyone that's involved in this process and make today happen.

I'm really grateful for the opportunity to speak directly to constituents and I want folks to know that, you know, my campaign slogan is Chelsea Dimas (speaking foreign language) which means Chelsea Dimas for the people.

I put it intentionally in my logo because I want that to be a reminder for why I am running and who I'm doing this work for, you know.

The thing about me is that I have been, you know, a long time servant leader since I can remember and I've been open to learning and understanding 'cause I don't have all the answers and I never will.

And that's why I'm gonna rely a lot on community.

All the folks that are here, all the folks that are gonna be watching this, I'm gonna need you to tell me what's important to you, what matters the most to you and your family so I can get it done.

And, you know, please reach out to me.

I'm a pretty easygoing person.

You'll probably see me at the next community event, wherever that'll be in the district.

And let's do this, let's bring this one home.

- All right, Ms. Dimas, thank you very much.

Really appreciate you being here today.

Mr. Kallinen, your closing statement, sir?

- Yes, thank you for the opportunity.

I'm not a political animal by nature.

I've lived my whole life with a career that is not politics.

I wasn't picked by a party, I affiliate with a party because of a lot of shared values.

But I'm an independent thinker.

I'm here because I just felt that I needed to do something at a next level.

When I was confirmed in the Lutheran church as a teenager, some of the folks in my congregation gave me a book by Shel Silverstein called "The Giving Tree".

And in that story, and I didn't think much of it at the time as a 15-year-old, but as I've grown older and have spent 30 years in public service, I just feel like I've done what I can at that level and I'm ready to take the leadership and experience that I've gathered over a career in other work out in the world to bring it to this and represent the people of Washington and the 14th District.

- All right, Mr. Kallinen, thank you very much.

And that does it for our coverage of the 14th District position one race.

Just one more thank you to Mr. Andy Kallinen and Chelsea Dimas for joining me here today.

Appreciate you being here on our WSU Tri-Cities campus.

Chelsea Dimas, Andy Kallinen, and a reminder Gloria Mendoza, who could not be here today in this race as well in a 14th legislative district primary.

And now we move into the position two race in the 14th.

As before, there will be a new person representing the district here as those lines were redrawn.

Joining me today are Eddie Perez from Union Gap.

He's run for some city council seats there and Ana Ruiz-Kennedy, a number of efforts in Pasco and a member of the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

A third candidate, Deb Manjarez told us she could not make it to the forum, but we will remind you that she is also one of the three in this race.

But Mr. Perez, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy are here.

Thank you so much for taking some time to come to our stage here at WSU Tri-Cities.

And these questions we have for you have been given us by the League of Women Voters of Benton and Franklin County.

We have gone over the rules, which means it's time for some opening statements, so let's get to them.

For now, everything set at one minute, that minute, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy is yours.

- Thank you and thank you to the legal women voters for doing this candidate forum.

My name is Ana Ruiz-Kennedy and I'm running for state representative for the position two in the 14th Legislative District.

I am a proud mother of three kids and my parents always instilled me and my siblings that you always have to help.

Not everything is given, you have to earn it.

So they always said, "Ana, wherever you go, you always ask, how can I help?"

So those are one of my guiding principles as a person and as a leader.

I have served in leadership positions in a number of boards, commissions and committees, including, as you mentioned, the Washington State Commission of Hispanic Affairs on the board of the Tri-Cities Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Tri-Cities Community Health Board and Latino Community Fund.

I am a proud graduate of leadership Tri-Cities Class '18.

And I am a business liaison for Craft3.

It's a community development financial institutions.

We do business loans and our mission is to serve, is to serve businesses who are unable to access traditional funding.

The roles that, all these roles have given me a valuable experience in budgeting, strategic planning, and economic development.

The residents of the 14 legislative district need a representative who will advocate for them in Olympia and focus on achieving by bipartisan solutions.

And to work for all.

I will be a collaborative leader with experience of addressing our affordable housing challenges.

I'll create, I would also focus on living wage jobs, supporting local businesses, and tackle the fentanyl problem that we have in our communities.

- Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, sorry, minute's up.

I know it goes really fast, but we'll get a chance to talk about a number of those issues as we have coming up.

I wanna give Mr. Perez a chance to give his one minute opening statement.

- Thank you, thank you, League of Women Voters for inviting me to this forum.

Again, I am a longtime resident of the Yakima Valley.

I was born in 1966 in the small town of Toppenish, Washington.

I was raised in a small community called Buena, which is a little bit north of Toppenish.

I did graduate from Toppenish Junior High and high school in 1984.

So I've got 40 years since I've been out of high school and we are having a 40 year class reunion here in a couple weeks.

So very proud of that and living in that area.

I've been a business employee in my business at Frank's Tire for the past 30 years.

And I've been a blue collar work all my life.

I've worked hard.

My family came here right after World War II and my other part of my family came here from, in 1960s from the Central California area.

So I know plenty of people there that have known who I am, what I do as far as business goes, and I feel like I can be a big influence for the 14th district.

- All right, Mr. Perez, thank you very much.

Say hi to Kevin at Frank's Tire for me when you get the chance.

(indistinct chattering) Well, there we go.

All right, well let's talk about some of the issues and some of the questions we have here from the League.

And we've already had some talk about redistricting in this program.

We do wanna address that with you two as well, because in the last election cycle, somebody from Union Gap isn't running against somebody from Pasco in the 14th legislative district.

Now that this redistricting is finished, how satisfied are you with the redistricting process and is there anything you'd advocate for change?

Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy?

- In terms of the redistricting process is something that we go through every 10 years and the judge decided that there was some violations of the Water's Rights Act.

We had some registering.

I wish we would have addressed that earlier on, not so late.

And now we have new boundaries, so that's all I can comment on that.

- All right, Mr. Perez, I don't know how much of the process you watched in this redistricting this time around.

What are your thoughts on it and should there be any changes?

- Well, I was reviewing some of the things that they were doing with this redistricting and it was brought to me to my attention just recently, the past four months.

And I've been really looking at it and it's such a big, big area that they're trying to put into it such a small district of 14, I understand that they want a bigger Hispanic, I guess it would be, the word would be output and showing people what they want.

But they gotta remember too that this is so broad the way they did it.

I feel like if people are gonna vote, people are gonna vote.

If they're not gonna vote, they're not gonna vote, you know?

And so trying to carry the message of what we're trying to do here is gonna be really, really tough.

Especially since you got East Yakima, East Pasco, you got Lyle, you got all of the Valley and you got the Yakima nation all included.

That's a lot for someone to try and do.

So I think I would be a great advocate for that since I've grown up in the central part of the valley.

- All right, Mr. Perez, thank you very much.

And of course, a change in district size comes changes in the people and communities within that district.

Meaning, even if it slightly changes, some of this population are gonna be new to the people who represent it.

So Mr. Perez, we'll start with you here.

What's the greatest infrastructure need in the 14th?

How would you advocate for it?

- The advocation for that would be, I believe we would need to see corporations come in and build more warehouses for the product that the Valley has to offer.

I was listening to a town hall meeting the other day that Congressman Dan Newhouse put on and there was a couple of different people making comments and they were talking about Del Monte, how Del Monte that they canned their pears and that Del Monte doesn't have enough room for their pears for the new incoming crop.

And so I feel like that would be something that I could help advocate for.

I do work close with the few of the people that work in Del Monte and so I feel like not only Del Monte but some of the other big corporations around here that have to do with agriculture could help them get funding or help them see the need for our local farmers in that way.

So that's what I would probably focus on.

- All right, thank you Mr. Perez, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, the biggest infrastructure need for the 14th.

- And this is something that I hear often right now with people that on the 14th, there's aging infrastructure and there's a huge need of updating that.

So that is something that I would advocate to bring funds so that we can update and also build infrastructure, creating living wage jobs, attracting businesses that will create these jobs.

And also supporting small businesses.

That's what I hear.

And also I hear in the valley, their quality of water is important and there is some water issues that we need to address.

So and also we have a huge problem, a huge housing problem, housing affordability, and those are issues that are here in the campaign trail.

So I would love to talk about those and to tackle those.

- All right, thank you very much Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy.

All right, well let's move on to question number three.

And summer is here, even if it feels like maybe it took a little while to get here, but the dry heat is here, already, communities dealing with wildfires and with those wildfires, other natural disasters happening more frequently, what steps or legislation would you support to reduce the climate effects on public health, Mr. Ruiz-Kennedy?

- Thank you and we were just talking about that, it's something that we see unfortunately every year, and it's becoming common when it shouldn't be.

When we have our kids that they cannot practice sports or they cannot be outside and it's sad to say that now it's common.

So we have a climate commitment act that is focused on addressing those issues for us to supporting the legislature, these efforts and listen to the communities work with our farmers and the different agencies.

It's something that we need to do.

So those are the important issues, especially here again.

We're just talking right now as we are airing, or today there's four active fires in Yakima.

We had seven active fires last week.

So those are big issues and we are losing funds, we're losing crops, we're losing, so Wapato had to evacuate some of their communities.

So tho those are big issues that we need to address.

Thank you.

- Thank you and Mr. Perez, that same question for you, sir.

- Well, kind of along the same lines as Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy had, it's the fact that as much as we have done to participate in doing some type of climate change to produce better air quality for the people around us, to me, I believe it has to do with having people in place to make sure that these things are taken care of, if you don't have human people doing their part.

And then, so all we're doing is going around in circles.

Some of these legislative things that are going on right now are really working, but sometimes you see and hear that we just don't have enough bodies to take care of these things.

So I think if we can get people involved in this process, then the structures that we have now I feel will actually work instead of trying to find other solutions.

I think the solutions we have now could work as long as we have other people in place.

- All right, thank you very much Mr. Perez.

All right, question number four.

And this one, certainly coming from a journalist and a university journalism professor, I'll call this a question about accountability because the state legislature has sought repeatedly to shield itself from disclosure of records, documents, conversations.

This is a debate that's gone on for a number of years now.

Courts have even weighed in on it.

What is your opinion of what's called legislative privilege and would you use it if you were elected Mr. Perez?

- Well, that one there for me would be that I feel everything needs to be disclosed, everything needs to be upfront if we are serving.

In our Washington state Constitution, Article One says that the governed are the people.

The people have the right to know everything that goes on at legislation.

And so I feel that some of those acts need to come out or be removed so that the governed aren't being governed, that they are the people that need to know this information.

And so for me, like even with my public disclosure statements that I have to report with as a candidate for legislation position two, if there's donations or contributions come in and I don't use those, we need to return that to the person that gives it to us.

And that's how I feel that this stuff needs to be told is bring it up front, let people know so that they understand that we're not just being taken advantage of their donations or their contributions.

That the money's actually being used the way it's supposed to be used.

And that for me is gonna be something that's gonna stop fiscal waste.

- [Host] All right, Mr. Perez, thank you.

Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, your thoughts on legislative privilege and whether or not you would think to use it?

- I think, you know, I've heard, and as a citizen you always wanna know some transparency and I think in the legislature there's opportunity for to be transparent and to offer that information to the public.

There's, I'm open to working on finding a solution on having a more transparent government, which that's something that we've heard a lot about.

- All right, Mr. Ruiz-Kennedy, thank you very much.

Well, moving on to question five, here in our forum with candidates for the position two representative seat and Washington's 14th legislative district, Ana Ruiz-Kennedy and Eddie Perez with us today, let's talk jobs now.

Now the latest report from the state shows Yakima County as the fifth highest unemployment rate in the state.

This district now includes Benton County.

How will you work to increase job opportunities for your constituents or do you believe they are adequate for our area, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy?

- This is a very important question.

We have in Franklin County and we were just discussing that, we have a medium age of 29 and creating and attracting businesses that would bring living wage jobs to our families is something that is important.

And also supporting small businesses because they do, they bring job creation.

So those are areas that we can focus.

And those are a big interest of mine.

I was part of the Somos Pasco, which is a strategic economic development, strategic plan in Franklin County and how do we grow the economy, how do we plan?

And I think that we have an opportunity as a 14 legislative district to bring the different organizations together, the different cities and counties to plan.

And so how do we attract, which businesses do we want to invite to come into our district?

- All right, thank you very much and Mr. Perez, that same question, I'll restate it for you.

How would you work to create job opportunities or do you think that they are adequate in this area?

- I do not believe that they're adequate enough.

In order to help people have jobs in our area, to help them work on it is education.

The education of these younger people that are coming into the workforce, the 21s to 35 year olds, majority of those folks grew up with a better life than what their parents had.

See I remember when my uncle was an advocate for the farm workers in the sixties and seventies here in the Yakima Valley.

And he did a whole lot to help improve the quality of life for the farm workers in our area.

And so these people that are coming now at third and fourth generation, they're now part of the tech industry.

And so in order for them to want to get jobs in this area, they're bringing in people from other areas to farm and work these different crops because the people here in the valley that have been here for two or three generations do not want to do those jobs unfortunately.

So I think education is showing these people that this is a job that you could do and stay out of the unemployment line would be a very great thing I think I would bring to education for the people in that age group.

- All right, thank you Mr. Perez.

All right, let's move on to question number six.

One thing that really hasn't changed in the district, agriculture as an economic driver, of course, along with the people who make that go.

Now, a shortage of housing for immigrants with visas coming to work in the agricultural industry has been in the news quite a bit lately.

As a legislator in the 14th, would you or how would you help farmers obtain housing for their workers, Mr. Perez?

- That would be a really good thing.

I've seen it in a couple of different other areas, especially up in the Yakima area where some of the bigger ranchers are building housing for their, not only for their workers, but also for the people of the community.

One name and place is Borton Fruit.

They've been going into the Yakima area and they've been building massive housing, you know, and they've also been doing that for some of their farmers and some of their workers.

And so I feel like I could be an advocate for other ranchers throughout the valley that would be able to do something like that and maybe do some type of legislation to help with some type of grants to help these farmers get this thing started so they have places to live, they have places to have good decent water and everything else because you hate to see these people come here, work all their lives and then be homeless.

You don't want that.

And so I feel like that would be something that I would be able to help with.

- Thank you Mr. Perez.

Ms. Ruiz, Kennedy, same question for you.

- Thank you, this issue has two parts.

One are the temporary workers that come here every season and the other are the local workers.

And we hear from the local workers how it's, and everybody sees it, how it's become unaffordable housing, the housing costs, so, and also the temporary workers that come here every season there's a huge need as well for housing as you're mentioning.

So I think there's an opportunity for the legislature to either some incentives, some tax incentives or some grants as Mr. Perez is talking about, they need housing.

So that's something that we need to be working on.

So I will be in support of the legislature providing some avenue to provide housing.

- All right, thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right, let's move on to question number seven.

And we had asked our position one candidates this question and because it came from members of the public, we want to ask it again as voters are looking at trust in the election and really gauging your level of trust in our election process.

So I'll just ask the question, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, what level of trust do you have in the election process and will you abide by the official results whether or not you are declared the winner?

- Absolutely, the state of Washington is one of the safe and the safest states.

And also I think in the US our election process are, we have safe elections and absolutely I would respect the election results and I do trust that while our elections are clean and they're fair as well.

So yeah.

- All right, thank you.

Yeah.

Mr. Perez, same question.

Would you abide by the results whether or not you're declared the winner?

- Yes, I would and the reason why is because this is a fair voting system.

We are a republic of democracy and the people of the Valley, Benton County, Yakima County, Klickitat County, which is three counties are part of this whole, for District 14 in case somebody doesn't realize that, is going to be what the people want them to be.

And and I'm a big advocate for Article One in our Washington State Constitution.

- All right, thank you Mr. Perez.

All right, our eighth and final question, and let's look long term here.

What are we, without a five to 10 year plan?

What do you see as the biggest challenge to our state in the next five to 10 years?

And what role will the legislature have in dealing with it?

Mr. Perez, we'll start with you.

- Oh wow, that one is a question that I really haven't thought about.

A five to 10 year plan on something like that for legislation is probably gonna be something that is gonna have to be part of what I feel is going to be water rights, property rights, that type of stuff.

I feel like if the government gets too strong and starts taking property and telling people what they can and cannot do, then I think that is gonna be a big goal that I would try to remind them that that's not how this works.

- All right, Mr. Perez, thank you.

And Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, let's hear.

- This is something that I am very passionate about and I have experience and I think when we plan, especially as a region and where we plan long term, it is a way for us to, everything you have to budget and sometimes it takes several budget cycles to get projects approved and funded.

So it would be, I would be a huge advocate for the area to plan together what is it that we're going, and we have the sets, each region has a sets plan and economic strategic plan.

So that's something that I would encourage for us to work together.

I hear the Lower Valley says why does Pasco has all these infrastructure and all these opportunities and we don't have it?

So I think there's a huge opportunity to work together with Yakima, with Benton, and with Franklin County and Klickitat, so to work in the future and as a delegation, how do we prioritize and what are we gonna be working on?

So we have a healthcare crisis that we have and we have a housing affordability problems that we have that we have to face.

So these are, these are long term issues that we need to tackle.

So those are, you know, it takes time.

We have to plan.

- All right, thanks Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy.

Well, as I said at the top of the show, we could talk for a long time about any number of issues, but our time is almost up.

We'll leave some time on the clock for closing statements.

Lemme just give a note to our timers out there.

Let's set that clock at a minute 30.

We have a little extra time today, so I want you to have a little bit more time to talk about one last thing, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, 90 seconds.

Any final thoughts here in your closing?

- Thank you and thank you again for the League of Women Voters for putting together this forum.

And you've done it for so many years and it has been super informative to all of us.

And this is a way that we can, you know, in the comfort of our home review and inform our vote when we're listening to the candidates.

So thank you very much for everybody that helped the ladies that are part of the League of Women Voters and for putting together, and to you also for working and giving us this opportunity.

The people of the 14 legislative district need a collaborative leader who will bring people together to get stuff done.

I've been a leader in my professional and community service roles, and I will continue to be one in Olympia.

We have challenges in our district, but even greater promise and opportunity, by working together locally and in the State House, we can move the 14th forward.

I respectfully ask for your vote in the August 6th primary, thank you.

- Thanks, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy.

Mr. Perez, 90 seconds your closing statement.

- Thank you and thank you League of Women Voters for inviting me to this today.

I just want to say that as a candidate for the 14 district position two, I feel that as I do this campaigning, I feel like if I am elected as your representative for the state of this district, I feel like whoever I get to work with, I feel like I would have a great working relationship with whomever else is in the district that I'm going to be working with.

Whether they're independent, republican, Democratic, I feel like my life is not too far left or too far right.

I'm kind of a more of a moderate person.

I can see things on both directions.

And so that is what I feel is gonna be my strong point in this district is that I can see both sides of the street and come up with a collaborate decision so that when I do come to legislation, that I will be bringing the people's voice, not my own opinion.

And so that is kind of where I'm at with this whole thing.

And I really believe, I really do believe that as we move forward in this process, that I would be able to help the man that's homeless on the street or the man that's sitting out the top of the liberty building in Toppenish or the guy that's up there in the top floor of the towers in Yakima.

I feel that I can help everybody from bottom to top.

And I think that's what this district really needs, thank you.

- Thank you very much and that's it for this forum.

We wanna thank again, Ana Ruiz-Kennedy and Eddie Perez for being here today.

Candidates for the 14th Legislative District position two seat.

They'll also be up against Deb Manjarez, who could not make it today.

Mr. Perez, Ms. Ruiz-Kennedy, thank you very much.

And just one more thank you to all of our candidates in this forum.

We know you have a choice to attend these events, but we also know how important it is to have an informed electorate.

And on that note, if you'd like to find out more information about these candidates, their opponents, or any number of races you see on the ballots, you can go to vote411.org or pick up a voter's pamphlet in your community.

And a reminder, the primary here in Washington is on August 6th, some key dates leading up to it.

If you're not registered to vote by mail just yet, that deadline's coming up on July 29th.

You can register in person all the way up to election day.

And that does it for our vote 2024 primary coverage.

If you missed anything from this program, you can watch the archive stream of it on the Northwest Public Broadcasting YouTube channel.

That's also available on the League's website and YouTube channel.

Also go to the Columbia Basin Badger Club and the cities of Richland and Pasco.

There we also have the crowded primary in the fourth Congressional District and the recording of our live coverage of this year's Attorney General's race.

Also, want to thank the crew here at Northwest Public Broadcasting.

For everybody at NWPB, we thank you for watching.