PORT TOWNSEND — Bill Driscoll finds the federal deficit scarier than al-Qaida. Derek Kilmer urges bipartisanship in Congress.
The candidates for the 6th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Norm Dicks, who is retiring, discussed the federal debt and bipartisanship in Congress during their only scheduled joint appearance in Jefferson County on Monday night.
Election officials in Jefferson and Clallam counties will mail Nov. 6 general election ballots to voters today.
“There has been too much partisan bickering and not enough progress in Congress,” said Kilmer, a Democrat and state senator from Gig Harbor.
“Anytime you have either party determining its success as making the other guy look bad, it’s clear that it is not the way you can overcome these challenges,” added Kilmer, a native of Port Angeles.
Said Driscoll, who has served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan: “The deficit scares me in a way that al-Qaida and the Taliban never has.”
“Our debt service is running at $225 billion which is 6 percent of the federal budget at 1.4 percent interest,” added Driscoll, a Republican Tacoma businessman with roots in the forest products industry as well as the military.
“If interest rates go up to 4 percent, our debt service will be 18 percent of the budget,” he said.
More than 100 people attended the debate at the Masonic Hall, which was sponsored by the Jefferson County League of Women Voters and the American Association of University Women and moderated by Fred Obee, general manager of the Port Townsend-Jefferson County Leader.
The debate also featured candidates for the state Senate seat in the 24th District: incumbent Jim Hargrove, a Hoquiam Democrat, and independent Larry Carter of Port Ludlow.
The 24th District covers Jefferson and Clallam counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
The boundaries of the two-year ccongressional seat include the North Olympic Peninsula. Dicks, a Democrat from Belfair who has endorsed Kilmer, held the seat for 18 terms.
Kilmer, 38, and Driscoll, 50, both mentioned their young daughters in the context of the campaign.
National debt
“My daughter Anna, who is 8 months old, has a backpack that contains $51,147, which is her share of the national debt,” Driscoll said metaphorically.
“Every child today has the same burden, and our generation has a moral obligation to get together and solve that.”
Said Kilmer: “I have two daughters, 6-year-old Sophie and 3-year-old Tess.
“They will depend on public schools, and I will never forget where I came from and will always provide opportunities for middle-class families.”
With regard to Citizens United and the discussion about “corporate personhood,” Driscoll said outside money harms political campaigns.
“I’m not a constitutional scholar, and this is a Supreme Court decision,” Driscoll said.
“But we need to find a way to get that money out of political campaigns.”
Kilmer said: “I’m going to be a little more direct.
“I don’t think money is speech, and I don’t think corporations are people, and if the Supreme Court thinks that, I think we should change the Constitution.”
Recreational marijuana
Both candidates said they would vote against Initiative 502, which would allow people 21 and older to buy an ounce of marijuana from stores regulated and licensed by the state, where it would be taxed at 25 percent.
“I have always supported the use of medical marijuana,” Kilmer said.
“I think one of the most important roles of the federal government is to reclassify it so it can be like other medications, that you can prescribe it and receive it at a pharmacy.
“But I’ve talked to law enforcement and have heard their concerns about the initiative, so I will be voting against it.”
Kilmer said that if the initiative passes, “I’m not sure what the appropriate role will be to work with the federal government, but I’m open-minded.”
Driscoll said: “This is one issue that I don’t speak with much authority about.
“On the overall issue, I defer to the police, and I think they’ve come out against it, so I’ll vote no on it as well.”
Both Driscoll and Carter, who is challenging Hargrove, spoke of themselves as outsiders — not professional politicians who are instruments of change.
24th District
Carter, 64, a retired Navy command master chief, is running as an independent. He last ran as a Republican in 2010 against 24th District state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Sequim.
“We need to make a change,” Carter said Monday.
“Look at what has happened to our education system, where it was once two-thirds of our budget and now has fallen to less than half,” he said.
“We used to spend more on education than Medicare, and now it is the reverse.”
Carter added: “Something has happened to our state government, and a lot of the reasons are sitting right next to me.”
Hargrove, who is seeking a sixth term in the state Senate and who has served in the House of Representatives, responded: “I’m not going to apologize for being in Olympia for 28 years.
“Olympia is not Washington, D.C.,” said Hargrove, 59, a forester. “We don’t have gridlock in Olympia.
“For the last two years, we have worked together to develop budget solutions.
“We have done a lot of things to react to the economy as it has gotten tighter.”
Responding to a question about mental health funding, Carter said the state will need to make sacrifices.
“We need to provide all the necessary goods and services within our ability to generate revenues,” Carter said.
“I can remember when I was a kid growing up in Louisiana and it was Christmas, and we had no money for presents, and it was still a great Christmas because our father taught us the value of a dollar and how to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps.
“We have to make difficult choices, and it’s a matter of priorities,” Carter said.
“We need to exercise a little tough love, but it’s a heartbreaking thing.”
Hargrove argued that the mentally ill need more help.
“The mentally ill cannot pick themselves up by their bootstraps,” he said.
“We cut mental health a little more than we should have in the last budget, and there have been several high-profile cases where people have been shot by someone who is mentally ill.
“We need to do a better job with this, not just from a public safety perspective, but to help people who have a problem that is no fault of their own.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
