Hopefuls make case for state position

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, July 1, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Democratic state Rep. Adam Bernbaum leaned on a first-term record of representing the 24th Legislative District while Republican challenger Aiden Hamilton cast himself as a young political newcomer in a debate-style forum Tuesday before the Port Angeles Business Association.

Independent Ted Bowen of Port Angeles and Republican Eric Pratt of Quilcene, the two other candidates in the race for the Position 1 seat that encompasses Clallam, Jefferson and Grays Harbor counties, did not attend.

Representatives serve a two-year term.

Ballots for the Aug. 4 primary election will be mailed July 15.

In his introductory remarks, Bernbaum pointed to legislation he introduced, including a bill that eases housing construction in rural areas, a measure that expands childcare eligibility tied to the Fair Start for Kids Act and a pilot program that provides liability insurance coverage for prescribed burns after insurers stopped covering the practice in the state.

He noted that he helped secure state funding for a sewer line expansion in east Port Angeles and to repair the Upper Hoh Road. He said his priorities for the next session include addressing the state’s renewable energy project permitting process — he said Washington ranks last in the nation — and rural health care.

Hamilton, who graduated three weeks ago from Seaview Academy, the Port Angeles School District’s online education program, said his campaign centers on taxation, housing and education. He singled out population loss on the Olympic Peninsula, particularly among younger residents seeking affordable housing and lower cost of living.

The state budget has grown from about $30 billion to $80 billion over the past decade without commensurate benefit to residents, and it’s gone from a $1.2 billion surplus in 2024 to a $12 billion deficit, Hamilton said.

Bernbaum said the state’s budget gap is more complicated than simply a spending problem, pointing to the expansion of popular programs like paid family medical leave, the rising cost of delivering labor-intensive services like health care and education, and a budgeting practice in which the Legislature does not include anticipated collective bargaining raises in future budgets.

Hamilton cast the budget problem as one of political will rather than economics, saying the Legislature knowingly spent to the maximum allowable 4 percent revenue growth projection year after year. He called for ending the introduction of new programs, while at the same time, he said he would not seek to eliminate existing ones.

Hamilton said his goal would be to hold overall spending roughly flat and let the economy “catch up” through wage growth and easing the tax burden on residents over time.

The candidates split most sharply over Washington’s new tax on income above $1 million, sometimes called the “millionaires tax.” Bernbaum voted for it, saying it shifts tax burden away from businesses and onto high earners and could eventually let the state move away from its unpopular Business & Occupation tax.

He said he conditioned his vote on two promises: the creation of a budget stabilization task force and a commitment to stop assuming 4.5 percent revenue growth in the later years of the state’s four-year budget outlook — a budgeting practice he and Hamilton both criticized.

Hamilton said he supports repealing the tax, and he argued that new taxes and programs act as a catalyst for more spending.

Democrats, he said, “implement (projects) because they know that they’ll be too popular to remove.”

On housing, Hamilton called for reviewing existing environmental and land-use regulations to determine which has produced results proportional to their cost, noting such rules can account for up to a third of new home construction costs.

He criticized state policy that prioritizes multiplexes and other kinds of high-density housing when that’s not what families are looking for.

“They want a house, they want the yard, they want the fence, and they want that traditional single-family home,” he said.

While pointing to his rural housing legislation and an allocation of $200 million to the Housing Trust Fund Program in the last budget cycle, Bernbaum said the state’s energy code and Evergreen Sustainable Development Standard — environmental requirements that apply to affordable housing built with public dollars — add unnecessary cost without a clear measure of results.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.