Date moved on Newhouse seat
Republicans say appointee must be able to run a strong campaign in the fall
By Rachel Cavanaugh
Editor, The Sentinel
Local Republican Party officials have pushed back the deadline for hopefuls to submit their name for consideration for the vacant state representative seat for the 15th Legislative District.
Initially, Party members set last Friday, Mar. 6, for the final day to turn in requests, but now have said they will continue to accept them.
Klickitat County Republican Chair Laura Cheney said the move is intended to make sure as much consideration as possible has been allowed for the replacement of Rep. Dan Newhouse, who stepped down last month to take a job as director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Furthermore, they’ve learned the first meeting on the appointment will not take place until later in the month, so they have more time.
“We still want résumés to come in,” said Cheney. “We still have time to field [them].”
Cheney noted the original date was meant more as a guide than a firm deadline. She said it is critical for the Party to find a strong replacement, calling the upcoming vote by the precinct committee officers the “most important job of a PCO.”
Rep. Bruce Chandler, who occupies the other Republican seat and worked side by side with Newhouse for years, reiterated the sentiment. He said more than any particular quality, whoever is chosen must be able to get elected in the fall.
“I think it will be a more competitive race than usual,” Chandler said.
Democrats will have a strong ability to campaign, he added, and the representative must be up for the challenge.
Rex Johnston, commissioner for Klickitat County, added that beyond political strengths, the representative must be able to bring in resources because the campaign will be expensive.
“We’ll have to find somebody that has the wherewithal to draw in the kind of support they will need to finance a strong campaign or we could lose the position,” said Johnston.
As of Monday, nine hopefuls were eyeing the post: White Salmon rancher Jake Anderson, Zillah mayor Gary Clark, Skamania County auditor Michael Garvison, Greater Wapato Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Debbie Manjarrez, Sunnyside Port Commissioner Jeff Matson, Skamania County resident David Stanton, Moxee agricultural consultant David Taylor, former Sunnyside City Councilman Don Vlieger and winery owner Mike Wallace.
If either Anderson, Garvison, or Stanton were selected for the seat, it would be the first time a Klickitat or Skamania County representative filled the position since 1981, according to Anderson.
The west-end farmer noted the importance of issues like energy and job creation to those regions.
“In Klickitat County, we’re going through an immense expansion of the energy we produce with our wind projects that separates us from all the other counties,” he said.
Garvison added that creating jobs is critical.
“We don’t really have the agricultural base that Yakima County does,” said Garvison. “In Skamania County, 65 percent go outside the county for employment. We don’t have the good-paying jobs in either of those counties.”
Both emphasized that whoever takes the post will have to be able to represent the whole district.
Commissioner Johnston said the people making the appointment will be interested less in where each candidate hails from and more what each can bring to the table.
“What we will be looking for, more than this county or that, is somebody with the strength, the intelligence, the personality, the education, [and] the background, to replace somebody like Dan Newhouse,” said Johnston.
On Mar. 21, a group of about 50 PCOs from the four district counties — Yakima, Klickitat, Skamania, and Clark— will gather in Goldendale to narrow the selection down to three candidates. From there, the decision will be passed onto county commissioners for the final appointment.
Whoever is chosen will immediately join Rep. Chandler for the last part of the legislative session in Olympia. Next, they will launch what will likely be an intensive campaign for the special fall election, to win over the general public.
In 2010, the representative will then repeat the cycle with a regular election.
“It’s a two-year marathon, it’s not a 60-day sprint,” said Chandler. He called it the “most difficult way for someone to come into public office.”
When asked who he would like to see by his side during campaign season, the legislator said he has not zeroed in on specific candidates.
“I’m not endorsing anybody,” said Chandler.
Ye whoever gets the appointment, he said, one thing is critical: republicans can’t lose the seat come fall. Although growing anxieties over the current administration’s handling of the economy have weakened the democratic advantage, he said, it will still be a tough fight.
When asked how he would respond to a democrat in the seat, Chandler hesitated.
“At the risk of sounding partisan,” said the legislator, “I intend for that not to happen.”
GHS removes bathroom doors to prevent unwanted activities
By Rachel Cavanaugh
Editor, The Sentinel
Goldendale High School administrators have removed the doors on the student bathrooms in an effort to deter certain activities and behavior.
According to Principal Clay Henry, administrators were concerned about what was happening inside when teachers weren’t around.
“There are things that were going on that we could hear,” said Henry. “[They were] not of a legal nature.”
“It’s been an ongoing issue,” the principal added.
He said some of the worries included students piercing themselves and the possibility of illegal activities.
The bathrooms, he said, should be a place for students to go in and out quickly, rather than stay to socialize.
The decision was made last month after Henry conferred with other district personnel and the doors were removed Feb. 26 and 27.
Each student bathroom was transformed, although Henry emphasized it is only the entrance-exit doors, not the stalls themselves.
What remains is much like at airports, where a wall acts as a partial divider but the space is open so people outside can hear inside.
The decision is long-term.
“This is not something new to the district because at the primary school it is how the restrooms are built,” said Henry.
“I also went to Kiona-Benton a couple of weeks ago for a principals’ meeting and their $20 million reconstruction of the building purposely included this restroom design.”
“Just this week we had an altercation that occurred that wouldn’t have been detected if the doors had been on,” he said.
“It was useful within the first week.”
KVH gets program grant
Goldendale health care facility is one of four statewide to take partKlickitat Valley Health hospital (KVH) in Goldendale is one of four healthcare facilities taking part in a distance learning nursing program this year.
The program, funded by a $135,500 Regence Foundation grant, is intended to “help students in rural areas get nursing degrees via distance learning,” according to Regence BlueShield media relations manager, Lee Tucker Therriault.
He said the grant allows students to live and work in their own communities while enrolled in the program.
Regence announced the grant to the Western Washington Area Health Education Center last month, saying it is also meant to help ease Washington’s nursing shortage, which is especially severe in rural areas.
“Nurses are at the heart of our health care system,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “They are often a patient’s best advocates.”
The program is geared toward people already working in the health care field. Students are sponsored by their employer, often in exchange for agreeing to stay with that employer for several years after earning their degree.
The students’ coursework is a mix of online education and clinical training in local health care facilities with local nurses as instructors.
According to the Health Care Personnel Shortage Task Force, Washington will need approximately 500 additional new registered nurse graduates per year to end the nursing shortage.
Other rural health care employers participating in the program include Ferry County Memorial Hospital in Republic, Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend, and Morton General Hospital in Morton.
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