Everett Herald Endorses Sells

The 38th District has two House members who have made relatively quiet but concrete contributions, and are poised to do more.

We recommend re-electing incumbent Democrats Mike Sells and John McCoy to represent the district that includes most of Everett, much of Marysville and all of the Tulalip Reservation.

Sells’ legislative successes have come from his position as vice chair of the Higher Education Committee. He played key roles in creating a bachelor of science in nursing program at the University Center at Everett Community College, and the establishment of specialized aerospace courses to train workers for Boeing and its local suppliers.

The chair of that committee didn’t seek re-election, so now Sells is in contention to lead it. If he gets that role, he suggests he’d be ready to take a critical look at the structure higher education governance, which he says is too politically driven. He’d also keep working for the incremental growth of a four-year university presence in Everett.

Sells is challenged by first-time GOP candidate Iris Lilly, who works as a training specialist for an organization that serves developmentally disabled clients.

She’s passionate about the state’s responsibility to protect its most vulnerable citizens, and about rooting out waste and fraud in state programs to save money. However, she’s short on specific ideas for balancing the budget beyond eliminating waste — an area of limited potential compared with the size of the budget shortfall.

Before the Aug. 17, primary, we endorsed Democrat Nick Harper for the district’s Senate seat. That endorsement holds for the general election.

McCoy has become one of the Legislature’s leading experts on energy, technology and telecommunications as chair of the committee that deals with those issues, capitalizing on experience he gained during a 20-year career in the Air Force.

As such, he has helped guide progress throughout the state on the adoption of alternative energy sources. That expertise also comes into play in discussions about jobs, because McCoy correctly sees the link between encouraging new energy sources and attracting good-paying manufacturing jobs to the state. One example he cites: Given the local expertise in composite materials gained from Boeing 787 production, Washington should be a leader in the production of windmills.

McCoy faces an earnest and thoughtful Republican challenger, Hugh Fleet, telecommunications manager for the Marysville School District. He would bring a plain-spoken, straightforward approach to fiscal matters.

Fleet is right when he says Democrats have overspent and avoided tough decisions in recent years, irresponsibly “kicking the can down the road” on difficult issues like underfunded state pensions. He says the budget cutting process should begin by implementing efficiency recommendations already made by the state auditor’s office. He also suggests bringing in independent auditors on loan from the private sector to study state spending and offer a range of ideas for where and how to cut.

McCoy, though, also has workable ideas for getting spending into line with revenues, starting by consolidating as many services and agencies as possible — a process he has helped lead with the state’s information systems. The energy/technology niche he fills so well makes him worth retaining.