Issues old and new on table at debate

Business regulation, education, health care and state spending were the hot topics Thursday as the six candidates for a soon-to-open state House seat debated publicly for the first time.

That is until Scott Hess made age an issue.

Asked how he differs from the other candidates, self-described conservative Republican Hess, 35, responded that he's not a moderate Republican like Al Schweppe, not a Democrat like Vickie Ybarra, and he's half the age of Republicans Norm Johnson, Aubrey Reeves and Bob McLaughlin.

Johnson, a 69-year-old Yakima Councilman, shot back, pointing out that popular former state Sen. Alex Deccio, R-Yakima, had a long and accomplished legislative career after becoming a senior citizen.

"So let me tell you something," he said, turning to face Hess. "We old people may still have something left in us."

McLaughlin, a 67-year-old retired school administrator, addressed the matter later, in his closing remarks.

"I challenge the young man," he said of Hess. "I can work as hard as he can, and I've proved it -- over and over and over."

The forum, sponsored by the Forward Yakima Initiative, focused on a number of issues likely to make news during next year's legislative session, candidates ages' aside.

The six of them are vying to replace retiring Rep. Mary Skinner, R-Yakima, who announced in May that she wouldn't seek an eighth term in 14th District Position 1.

Regulation and health care overlapped a number of times. Answering a question about the increasing cost of health care and insurance, Ybarra was the only candidate who didn't flatly say she opposed a state role in insuring residents. She mentioned the need for preventative medicine and cited audience response from a community forum on the matter last week, where people overwhelmingly favored covering everyone.

"Covering all people will help to bring the costs of health care down," said Ybarra, the 47-year-old president of the Yakima school board and director of planning and development for the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

Reeves, a 67-year-old former Union Gap mayor who has owned Aubrey's RV in that city for 40 years, said he offers insurance to his employees but many opt out because the minimum coverage mandated by the state makes policies too expensive.

"I think we should be able to pick and choose (what is covered). ... That would bring the insurance payments down a lot," Reeves said.

Hess, Johnson, McLaughlin and Schweppe made variations of the same point.

Ybarra was also the only candidate who said she didn't support the use of state-funded vouchers that would allow parents to send their children to private schools.

"I do not support directing public funds to private education," she said.

The others offered variations of Hess' summation.

"I'm definitely in favor of choice," the political newcomer and employee of the National Federation of Independent Business said. "I'm in favor of vouchers."

All six agreed that changes could be made to improve the state regulatory climate for small business.

"That's the whole problem," said Schweppe, a 47-year-old Yakima attorney. "We've got one of the highest small business failure rates in the entire nation."

With Washington facing a projected budget deficit of more than $2 billion over the next biennium, the candidates agreed that state spending should be reduced rather than raising taxes.

"We got into this mess because there was a 33 percent increase in the state budget that could not be maintained. ... We need to get spending under control," Schweppe said. "This stuff has got to stop."

* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693, or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.