Two more candidates enter House race

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Two more candidates announced their interest Wednesday in Rep. Dan Newhouse's recently vacated legislative seat.

Winery owner Mike Wallace of Grandview and Skamania County Auditor Michael Garvison of Bonneville join former Sunnyside councilman Don Vlieger, who expressed an interest Tuesday and confirmed his candidacy Wednesday.

The 15th District legislative seat opened Wednesday when Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, formally vacated it to take over as head of the state Department of Agriculture. Newhouse, a farmer who has held a legislative seat since 2002, was appointed to that spot last week by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Commissioners from the district's four counties -- Yakima, Klickitat, Skamania and Clark -- are charged with appointing a replacement from within the Republican Party.

Wallace, 66, is no stranger to local politics, having narrowly lost a 2006 Yakima County Commission race to Rand Elliott. He also has sat on numerous wine industry boards and is familiar with Olympia because of lobbying efforts on their behalf.

"Whoever gets appoint-ed is going to have to hit the ground running," Wallace said.

That's particularly true because the appointee will face election in November for the right to finish Newhouse's term. Wallace, who owns Hinzerling Winery in Prosser, said he'll be able to appeal to Yakima County farmers as well as other 15th District constituencies, such as tourism interests in Skamania County.

"I've been a business man as well as in agriculture," he said. "So I think I do take a slightly different approach."

Garvison, 37, believes his background in accounting is particularly relevant given the state's current budget woes. The latest unofficial projections from Olympia have the state facing a budget gap of around
$8 billion.

He pointed to his own office, where he has decreased staffing levels since being appointed in 2002. He was elected to a full term in 2002 and
re-elected in 2006.

"I'm not one of those elected officials that wants to build an empire," Garvison said.

Though he doesn't have specific ideas yet as to how he would close the state's budget gap, he said that no area should be immune from cuts.

"We have to get our fiscal house in order," Garvison said.

While Yakima County Republican Chairman Max Golladay has stated his preference for a Yakima County farmer like Newhouse, Garvison is the sort of candidate Republicans in Skamania County can get behind, said Peter Banks, the party chairman there.

"It's important that we get someone other than from Yakima County," Banks said. "I think it's time that the 15th has representation from someone who doesn't live in Yakima County and is not a farmer."

The other members of the 15th District delegation, Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger, and Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, are Yakima County farmers.

Republican leaders in Yakima, Klickitat and Skamania counties all expect more candidates to emerge before the party-imposed March 6 application deadline.

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