40th Legislative District election features Dem vs Dem, and a write-in candidate
Only the two House members are up for election Nov. 8 in the 40th Legislative District, which includes the southern half of Bellingham and the rest of southern Whatcom County, the western part of Skagit County and all of San Juan County.
House position 1
State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, is running for a third straight two-year term for House position 1 against Shannon Perkes, a Republican from Skagit County who was a write-in candidate for the Aug. 2 primary.
▪ Lekanoff, an Alaska Native and the only Indigenous woman in the Legislature, spent 20 years working for the Swinomish Tribe before she was elected to the House in 2018. She received 94% of the August primary vote.
In the Legislature, Lekanoff is vice chair of the House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee and is a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Rural Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
Politically, she’s championed environmental and social justice issues such as the 2021 HEAL Act, which requires state agencies to adopt environmental justice as part of their mission and directs them to use environmental health disparity data as they consider new policies and in considering enforcement or investment decisions.
Lekanoff began her campaign with a balance of $51,765 and raised $66,104 this election cycle — including $36,550 from political action committees, $10,100 from business interests and $16,620 in individual contributions. She’s spent $54,227, according to reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission through Oct. 18.
Her endorsements include the Skagit County Democrats, Whatcom Democrats and 40th District Democrats; the Riveters Collective; unions that represent nurses, Teamsters, electrical workers, machinists and carpenters; Planned Parenthood and Pro-Choice Washington; the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs; and the Washington Housing Alliance Action Fund.
▪ Perkes qualified for the general election by filing as a write-in candidate for the Aug. 2 primary and receiving 1.7% of the vote, or 615 votes of the 36,487 ballots cast.
State law allows a write-in candidate to advance to the general election if they place second in the primary and get at least 1% of the total vote.
A political newcomer, Perkes is campaigning for “clean, fair, transparent and auditable elections,” without saying what she would change about Washington state’s elections system, an all-mail ballot that offers broad access to voters and is known for its security measures.
Without citing specifics or evidence, Perkes said at her website that she will push the state to “investigate the undue influence and false claims that drove the fake water crisis negatively impacting farms and families in Skagit and Whatcom counties.”
She didn’t respond to a Bellingham Herald request to clarify her position on this and other claims.
She’s endorsed by the Washington Farm Bureau and the Skagit County Republican Party.
Perkes had filed no fundraising reports with the PDC through Oct. 18.
House position 2
Voters in the 40th Legislative District will have only one party to choose from on Nov. 8 for House position 2, because state Rep. Alex Ramel is facing a challenge from union official Trevor Smith. Both are Democrats who live in Bellingham.
Ramel outpaced Smith in the Aug. 2 primary by a margin of 73% to 24%, but both advanced to the general election because they were the sole candidates in the race where the top two finishers qualify, regardless of party.
▪ Ramel, who is seeking his second full term in the Legislature, is climate policy adviser for the environmental organization Stand.Earth and has a bachelor’s degree in environmental policy and planning from Western Washington University.
He was named to the Legislature in January 2020 to replace Jeff Morris, who resigned to take a job in private industry, and won a full term in November 2020.
“I am committed to a rapid and just transition to a clean energy economy,” Ramel said at his campaign website.
“As we rebuild the economy, let’s put people first: living wages, training, and opportunities for everyone,” he said.
For the 2021-2022 legislative session, Ramel was assigned to the Environment and Energy Committee, Finance Committee, House Rules Committee, House Transportation Committee, and Elections Committee.
He serves as the House deputy majority whip and was the primary sponsor of several bills, including those that address climate change and energy efficiency.
Ramel has raised $196,556 and spent $173,008 through Oct. 19, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.
Some $111,321 of that came from individual donors, $35,578 from political action committees and $39,233 from sources the PDC lists as “other.”
Ramel is endorsed by several unions and political, environmental and social justice organizations, including the Skagit County Democrats, the Whatcom Democrats and the 40th District Democrats ; Planned Parenthood, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Washington Conservation Voters, Sierra Club and the Riveters Collective; and a broad range of unions, including the Washington State Labor Council AFL-CIO, Washington Education Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Whatcom County Firefighters Local 106,
He’s also backed by many statewide and Whatcom County elected officials, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu and Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood.
▪ Smith is the political director and business agent for Laborers Local No. 292 that covers five counties from Whatcom to Snohomish.
He is an elected Democratic precinct committee officer and a former chairman of the 40th District Democrats. He graduated from the NW Laborers apprenticeship program and from Skagit Valley College’s Leadership Skagit program.
Smith has spoken to the Bellingham City Council several times recently in regard to the city’s Climate Action Plan, urging elected officials to ensure that family-wage union jobs are preserved in a “just transition” as the city shifts toward renewable energy.
“I’ve been advocating from the trenches of city and county council meetings, Port Commission meetings, and while sitting on various governmental boards concerning workers for years both before and during the pandemic,” Smith said at his campaign website.
“I’ve been a strong voice for working-class families in the 40th for almost a decade now. Where there’s been unfairness and exploitation of working people, I’ve been there, on picket lines, in marches, and behind the scenes putting pressure on those who could do something about it,” he said.
Smith has raised $59,610 and spent $23,202 through Oct. 19, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission. Some $33,335 of that comes from PACs and $13,245 from individual donors.
In addition, a political action committee called Citizens for Legislative Accountability has reported spending $140,813 on Smith’s behalf.
Little information was available about the Lacey-based PAC or the origins of its funding, but its PDC report shows that it is apparently allied with a group called Enterprise Washington, which works with its members to advocate for lawmakers who support business.
By law, Smith cannot cooperate or communicate with the PAC about how it conducts its advocacy on his behalf.
He’s endorsed by a broad spectrum of Western Washington labor unions, including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 77, the Northwest Carpenters Union, Laborers Local 292, Laborers International Union of North America of Southwest Washington, the Building and Construction Trades Council of Central Washington, and the Plumbers, Pipefitters, Steamfitters, Sprinklerfitters and Service Technicians Local 26 of Western Washington.
