Over coffee in Port Townsend, I met with Marcia Kelbon, the independent candidate for State House of Representatives in Washington’s 24th Legislative District. The district spans the liberal stronghold of Port Townsend, the retirement community of Sequim, blue-collar Port Angeles, multiple Tribal reservations, and the economically struggling region of Grays Harbor County. She arrived on her Harley, from her home in the small town of Quilcene along Hood Canal. The Harley is not the only unusual thing about Mrs. Kelbon. She is a former Republican who has left the party to challenge for a State House seat that has been solidly in Democratic control for a couple of decades.
Mrs. Kelbon has an extensive professional background which includes work as a civil engineer, senior executive for a biopharmaceutical company and as a patent attorney. Her law degree is from the University of Washington. She currently serves as Fire Commissioner in Quilcene. She describes her family home as a “tree farm” located next to Rayonier forests whose clear cutting has raised concerns from her about the herbicides used after harvest.
Kelbon left the Republican party over platform disagreements in order to launch an independent bid for the open seat vacated by retiring Representative Steve Tharinger. She won a spot on the November ballot primarily because the Democrats split their vote between three candidates and a Democratic Socialist of America.
Q: What caused your split from the Republican party”
MK: “Well, I always disagreed with a number of issues, including hard-right stances by some in the party on abortion and marriage, and the party’s enthusiasm for Donald Trump. Contrary to what some claim, I did not vote for Donald Trump as a candidate in the primaries of 2016, preferring instead John Kasich of Ohio. I am dissatisfied with party extremes on both sides. As an independent I aim to bring a moderate point of view to the race and the legislature.”
Q. I understand that you support abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights. Those are positions usually thought of as Democratic positions. Are there other issues related to this that are not aligned with the Democrats?”
MK: “I don’t support minors undergoing gender-affirmation surgeries. I believe children are too easily swayed into irreversible decisions before knowing who they truly are.”
Q. What is your position on immigration?
MK: “I support closing the borders to stop illegal drug and human trafficking. But I don’t support the deportation of immigrants who aren’t criminals – we should instead create paths to green cards. We need immigrants in many sectors.” She named high tech and medicine as areas needing more immigrants to fill roles.
Her position on healthcare comes from personal experience.
MK: “I raised three children, all of whom were adopted including one through the foster care system. Two of our adult children have used the Affordable Care Act.”
She advocates the idea of a base support of government provided healthcare without insurers making profit in the mix, allowing everyone to get some coverage. She believes that would save a huge amount of money while obtaining better outcomes by getting insurance companies out of the job of providing basic healthcare insurance. While a great goal, that has proven to be almost impossible for either party to get close to doing.
Q. “What new ideas would you bring to the issue of criminal justice and the linked issue of addiction?”
MK: “Some people on the streets, not all – truly have had a stroke of bad luck or bad experience. But for many, there are issues of addiction and mental illness. Our current approaches… don’t appear to be effective in stabilizing people and preventing them from getting worse. Sheriffs and police chiefs tell me that the current gross misdemeanor penalty is not enough. I would like to restore a felony penalty for knowing possession of hard drugs – not so we can lock people up and throw away the key, but so that we can convince people to get into drug court and treatment rather than jail. I would also like to fund adequate facilities for addiction and mental health treatment.”
Q. “We have a lot of people wanting solutions to entry level homes for lower income people. What concrete ideas do you have for helping get more homes built here on the Peninsula?”
MK: “My father-in-law was a union electrician, and we have completed several builds, including with solar, so I do understand the issues facing the building trades. I would support revising the latest energy code applying to residential construction based more on a cost/benefit analysis. We have to lower the cost of buying homes for young buyers. I would also like to modify the Growth Management Act to make it easier to build in village centers.”
Q. “Taxes are something that Republicans always are complaining about, wanting to drive down taxes. What’s your position on taxation. What makes you different?”
MK: “Our current tax structure is inequitable, but layering an income tax on top of the current regressive sales tax system is not the answer. While voters have time and again rejected an income tax, I suspect they might support a comprehensive restructuring of state taxes that does not increase the overall tax burden. I am willing to collaborate with either party on meaningful tax changes.”
Kelbon remains opposed to the proposed land transfer of Protection Island and Dungeness Spit to the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.
Mk: “I am not in favor of that transfer at this time,” she explained. “I am concerned about commercial oyster farming and potential herbicide applications on Protection Island.” She also wondered about whether the Elwha and Port Gamble S’Klallam are supporting this land transfer.
Her path to victory is uncertain. She is banking on the fact that while Jefferson County remains solidly Democratic, Clallam and Grays Harbor counties are more conservative.
Even if she does win, it is unclear what she can accomplish in Olympia. Committee assignments are assigned by the two main parties. With the Democrats holding a large majority, it could be very hard to find an assignment. But that’s a long ways off. Until November, she needs to convince independents, disillusioned Republicans, as well as the people who never vote to turn out for her in this huge geographic district. She is trying to do that with a minimal campaign staff. That is not a small challenge. But if she can win and bring an ability to force the Democrats to modify positions to accommodate her vote, it could see some new policies that bring change to the Peninsula.
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Marcia Kelborn’s viewpoints are really aligned with the Blue Dog Democrats, as an example Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Unfortunately Kelborn’s viewpoints seem to be determined by conservative talking points rather than factual data. Gender affirming surgical procedures are rare for minors, i.e. ages 17 and younger. When they do occur, it is exclusively for chest procedures. The medical establishment does not allow any procedures below the waist until adulthood. Such surgeries only occur after extended mental health counseling with the distressed individual who is more often than not depressed and/or suicidal.
Similarly the point about cost/benefit analysis for energy code reflects a poor understanding of how the energy code process works. The codes take into cost/benefit analysis when they are formulated. The issue here though is that contractors are incentivized to skimp by installing energy inefficient systems because they are cheaper to the builder. There is no incentive for a builder to factor in the energy savings that a home buyer might see when those systems are used. The home buyer might see a slightly higher mortgage payment with an energy efficient house, but that will be offset by the higher utility bills that one might pay. In the big picture, the very modest increase in initial purchase price is not driving the home affordability crisis. The home affordability crisis is really one of asset inflation caused by a combination of Federal Reserve printing too much money and bad tax policy on those inflated assets.
As to the question of drug possession and use, we need to take into consideration that if you are interested in treatment and re-integration into society that there are real consequences for having access to jobs and housing with a felony conviction on your record as compared to a gross misdemeanor. I’ve heard professional mental health counselors who themselves are recovered addicts that the single biggest challenge to staying clean and sober is the ability to have some stability after release and to break with the environment that can trigger relapse. Having a felony conviction on your record is setting someone up for failure. There definitely needs to be changes in how we treat chronic addiction though. Changing the classification of possession in the law though is not as simple of a fix as it seems.
Yes, certainly all those things are interesting discussion points about her positions, but the article is really about how a person who was distinctly an “old school” Republican has left the party to challenge Democrats. Her position on felony’s was more nuanced, I edited it for brevity. She supports having the felony expunged after one year. This happens a lot, I’ve known a felon who had their record expunged after some years.
Yes, she does seem to be more “Yellow Dog Democrat” than Republican, especially given her positions on abortion, ICE etc.
The criticism of the building codes is a real selling point for the housing developer community & real estate people on the Peninsula and elsewhere. While the savings might be over years, this doesn’t change the story that it drives up the cost of housing. And affordable housing is the number one issue on the Peninsula from what I’ve seen online.
I still doubt she will overcome the pro-Union and anti-Trump sentiments of the people who actually get out and vote here. However, a huge population on the Peninula are retired military. They can be a wildcard if she can garner their support. She unfortuantely is not the most dynamic public speaker. Her Democratic opponent is a young mother, has a strong Democratic and Union backing. I will be interviewing her on Monday, so will have a follow up for readers next week.
A huge sign in Port Hadlock has one message, “Republicans, Get out and vote!” Her sign is attached to it.
Whenever I hear calls for “building code reform” I wonder why I never hear any SPECIFIC suggestions.
Like everyone else, I’m in favor of positive change — but MK — like everyone else — can never offer a SPECIFIC example.
Calling for better/more cost- benefit analysis is not a persuasive suggestion. It’s a placeholder for “I have no idea what else to say.”