PORT ANGELES — Incumbent Democratic state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege and Dan Gase, his Republican challenger, sparred over job creation Tuesday at a general election debate sponsored by the Port Angeles Business Association.
Van De Wege’s record on creating jobs was a constant theme in the Sequim resident’s successful effort to make it past the Aug. 17 primary election.
He is seeking to retain his 24th District Position 1 seat, which he has held since 2006.
The district includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and the northern half of Grays Harbor County.
Van De Wege, a Clallam County Fire District 3 firefighter-EMT, garnered 54.5 percent of the primary election vote.
Gase got 27.3 percent; 18.2 percent went for Craig Durgan of Port Ludlow.
Durgan was eliminated in the top-two primary.
Jobs creation
With about 35 people at the PABA breakfast meeting, Van De Wege touted his successful efforts to help Pennisula Plywood open at the former KPly site in Port Angeles and get the state Highway 520 bridge pontoons built in Grays Harbor County.
“The thing I am most passionate about is job creation,” he said.
“The No. 1 way to get us out of a recession is through creating jobs.”
But Gase criticized where those jobs came from.
“Government cannot create a job that is not going to cost you money,” said Gase, a Port Angeles real estate managing broker who presented himself at the debate as a political outsider.
“Free enterprise is the way to go. Government should set the table and get out of the way.”
The pontoon project “is nice to have for the economy,” Gase added.
“All it is is recycling tax dollars. It’s just the state spending more of your money.”
Van De Wege took that as Gase being against the pontoon project and the jobs it created.
“After hearing his comment on the 520 bridge pontoon project, quite frankly, I’m blown away,” Van De Wege said.
“We fought incredibly hard to get those jobs to Grays Harbor.
“That pontoon project is really a glimmer of hope to a very depressed area.”
The pontoon project would likely have come to Port Angeles had the state Department of Transportation’s planned graving yard on Marine Drive not unearthed the ancient Native American village of Tse-whit-zen in 2003, shortly after the project began.
Gase was quick to defend himself, saying “thank goodness” the pontoon project generated jobs and saying the state is 35th in the United States in transportation spending.
“There’s nothing wrong with people working,” Gase said, adding that he was just reminding people that when government creates jobs, it’s “moving our tax dollars to another source.”
After the meeting, Gase was concerned enough about the exchange that he e-mailed the PDN with a follow-up statement.
“At no time have I ever been against this project,” Gase said.
“Kevin was quick to turn my statement into a very inaccurate message, and the inaccuracy was repeated on more than one occasion.”
In response, Van De Wege stuck to his guns.
“He clearly said he did not support the 520 project being built in Aberdeen,” Van De Wege said in a telephone interview.
“That was a complete, defining moment.”
Sidestepping tax limit
At the debate, Gase also repeatedly criticized Van De Wege for voting to suspend voter-approved Initiative 960, which required the state Legislature to reach a two-thirds majority for all tax increases.
It was temporarily set aside during last spring’s legislative session to help House and Senate members vote for new taxes to plug the state’s deficit.
“Kevin is a great guy, but he must have been tainted with leadership or following the party line or just naive, because the people of the district have spoken, and [the state Legislature] set it aside and raised taxes,” said Gase.
Van De Wege did not defend his vote until the end of the breakfast meeting, saying I-960 was one of four or five initiatives approved by voters that had been suspended by the Legislature.
They included measures that would have limited class sizes and increased teachers’ pay.
“One of the biggest problems with I-960 was that it doesn’t allow the state to go in and change tax incentives that have been given out that become tax loopholes,” Van De Wege said.
“Tax incentives do not go to mom-and-pop businesses that run Port Angeles. They go to big corporations.”
But Gase said I-960 was part of an overall trend of “the people telling the government to stop spending so much of our money.”
On other topics, both candidates said they are opposed to Initiative 1098, the income tax measure on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.
The measure would impose a tax on yearly incomes of $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples filing jointly while instituting a 20 percent cut in the state property tax and eliminating business and occupation taxes for 375,000 small businesses.
The candidates differed on the degree to which Washington state is business-friendly.
Van De Wege said U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked Washington as the top state to start a business and that Forbes magazine ranked the state No. 2 in business. The state is also 30th in taxes paid, Van De Wege said.
Gase said that the state’s high rankings had more to do with such factors as the state’s quality of life and inroads made by technology companies and other aspects driven by private enterprise than they did with government-inspired efforts.
Different views
The candidates took different tacks on spending cuts, too.
Van De Wege favored making “surgical” cuts in services and said the Legislature has cut benefits and pay for government workers along with establishing furloughs for many state jobs.
Gase said there was a 25.4 percent increase in state salaries from 2005 to 2009 — and added his priorities “do not include” the state Department of Ecology.
He also suggested that privatizing the ferry system should be considered.
“There are lots of things that can be looked at to help with the problem of making up the deficit without raising taxes,” Gase said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
