Our choice in the nasty Newhouse vs. Sessler race + U.S. 5th and Senate | Editorial

We wrap up our election recommendations with three congressional races. Voters in the Mid-Columbia will help elect two U.S. representatives and one U.S. senator.

House District 4: Rep. Dan Newhouse

Make no mistake, Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse is a conservative. Fortunately for the region, he is not a dogmatically partisan conservative incapable of building consensus on critical issues. The 4th House District includes the Tri-Cities and Yakima north to the Canadian border.

Newhouse has represented rural Washington well for a decade.

He challenged Biden administration policies to remove Snake River dams. He worked across the aisle trying to give the agricultural industry better access to legal migrant workers. And he has been an advocate for smart development strategies at Hanford.

His knowledge and effectiveness addressing issues important in this part of the country earned him the chairmanship of the Congressional Western Caucus since 2021.

Notably, he broke with his party and voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Newhouse has earned people’s vote. That he’s running against an unqualified firebrand makes the decision even easier.

Thanks to Washington’s top-two primary system, Newhouse faces off against fellow Republican Jerrod Sessler.

Sessler has no experience in elected office and runs not to represent the region but to be “the best ally in Congress that President Trump ever had.”

He acts and speaks like a far-right Republican interested more in disruption and fealty to the former president than serving his constituents.

We recommend voters give Newhouse another term to continue doing the people’s work.

House District 5: Michael Baumgartner

The 5th District, which covers the eastern third of the state, will have a new representative next year because Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers did not seek re-election.

Both candidates – Republican Michael Baumgartner and Democrat Carmela Conroy – bring impressive backgrounds and interesting ideas, but forced to choose, we believe Baumgartner will represent the district marginally better.

Baumgartner’s greatest asset in the race is his experience as an elected official. He served four terms in the Washington Senate and is finishing four years as Spokane County’s elected treasurer.

As a state senator, Baumgartner worked across the aisle with Democrats on issues important to the region. He must cling to those ideals in the nation’s capital where the pressure on first-time lawmakers to shut up and follow party orders is immense.

One vote stands out for those worried Baumgartner might put entrenched political interests ahead of his constituents. In 2018, as a state senator, he cast one of the few votes against a bill to give the Legislature expansive powers to keep secrets from the public.

He also had a reputation as a budget hawk. That’s something Congress could use as the federal budget deficit reached a non-pandemic record $1.8 trillion in 2024.

Yet voters worried about the state of the world as well as the state of Washington should give Conroy a look. A graduate of the U.S. Naval War College, she served as a U.S. foreign service officer for more than two decades and then as a deputy prosecuting attorney in Spokane County.

We hope to see her name on the ballot again someday soon, but for now we recommend Baumgartner.

U.S. Senate: Maria Cantwell

Let’s be upfront about this. Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell will win re-election. She’s polling 20 points ahead of her Republican opponent, buoyed by support in the populous Puget Sound region. The thing is, she deserves support all over Washington, including in the Mid-Columbia.

Cantwell has distinguished herself over almost a quarter century in the Senate. She has pursued policies and funding to help the agriculture industry.

She has advocated for responsible development and cleanup at Hanford, holding both Democratic and Republican administrations to account. She was a leading advocate for research being conducted by Battelle and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. And she’s been much more cautious about removing dams than many other statewide officials.

Rural Washingtonians might not agree with her on everything, but there’s no denying she’s done right by them. We recommend they reward her record at the ballot box.

This story was originally published October 23, 2024 at 12:53 PM.