PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles Commissioner Jim McEntire announced Tuesday that he will run for the state House of Representative seat now held by Rep. Lynn Kessler, who is retiring.
McEntire, 59, of Sequim is the fourth person to announce interest in Kessler’s seat. He will run as a Republican.
McEntire, who was elected to a six-year term on the port’s board of commissioners in 2007, said he wants to expand his public life by taking part in the state Legislature.
He said that he didn’t know if he would continue as port commissioner if he won the election.
“It is premature at this point to talk about that,” he said.
“I would suspect I wouldn’t. My wife would have a vote in that, of course.
“But I for sure won’t be quitting just to run.”
McEntire, who retired from the Coast Guard as a captain in 2000, said he had “spent my life in the public service.”
“Now whether I round that out as a port commissioner or as a state Legislator, I don’t know yet.”
Kessler, a 69-year-old Democrat from Hoquiam, is retiring after 18 years in the state Legislature. The House majority leader announced her retirement on the last day of the legislative session.
Spend less
McEntire said, if elected, he hopes to influence the state Legislature to spend less, rather than tax more.
“We are overspent, not under-taxed,” he said.
“It is clear from the foregoing that there is room to cut state spending — so that it matches tax revenues — not the other way around, by raising taxes to match spending levels.
He said that he considers himself a “fiscal conservative” and a “common-sense conservative.”
“I’m not an ideologue or movement kind of guy,” he said.
“I don’t have a particular ideological agenda. I’m more about the economy and jobs and the kind of state government that we need these days.”
Others interested in job
Clallam County Commissioner Steve Tharinger, D-Dungeness, who is considering running for Kessler’s seat, has said that if he decides to run and is elected to the part-time Legislature, he would keep his “day job,” the county post.
Tharinger is expected to announce a final decision the middle of this month.
Also interested in the job are Montesano chiropractor Jack Dwyer , a Democrat, and Larry Carter of Port Ludlow, a retired Navy master chief petty officer who had announced his intention to run against Kessler before she bowed out earlier this month. He reiterated his candidacy at a Tea Party rally April 15.
Saw an opportunity
McEntire said he wanted to continue to pursue public offices and when he heard that Kessler was retiring, he saw it as an opportunity.
“I still have a few good years left in me and I’ve learned over a long number of years that opportunities come along when you never would have dreamed or anticipated them,” he said.
“After 40 years in public service, I want to be where I can be most effective and to know what the needs are and how I can assist in meeting those needs.”
Dick Pilling, Clallam County Republican Party chair, said that he predicts that McEntire would be backed by the party.
Kessler is one of three legislators representing the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County. The other two 24th legislators are state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, who will be up for re-election in 2012.
Filing for the August primary election is in June. The top two vote-getters in the primary will run in the November general election.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.