Incumbent State Sen. Dean Takko, a Democrat from Longview, will compete against Susan Kuehl Pederson, an Independent-Republican from Aberdeen, to keep his 19th District Senate seat in the State Legislature. The office is on the Nov. 8 General Election ballot.

Takko was appointed to the Senate seat about a year ago after serving in the House since his election in 2004.

Both candidates stressed the importance of Washington complying with the court-imposed McCleary decision to adequately fund all schools in the state.

The state has been fined $100,000 a day for contempt since Aug. 13.

A solution is supposed to be ready before the end of the 2017 session and full funding enacted by Sept. 1, 2018.

Kuehl Pederson wants to see changes in the system that funds schools to one more equitable. Often, rural residents pay more in property taxes than people in urban areas. The levy formulas should be made more equal so the burden is “spread across the state,” she explained.

During this upcoming session, Takko said fulfilling McCleary will be the primary focus. How legislators accomplish it, however, “depends on who has control of the Senate after the election.”

He thinks modifying how revenue is collected alone won’t bring in enough revenue to do the job. But many property tax payers in the 19th District likely will be better off because they pay more than in higher population areas under the current property tax system.

“There’s going to have to be something else,” Takko explained. “A lot of local, voter-approved levies have been used for teachers’ salaries but the court decided that wasn’t a stable source of revenue. How do we handle that without local levies? … Regional salaries?”

Kuehl Pederson said the K-12 education system should support parental choices with vouchers if someone wants to send their children to charter schools, provide them with home-schooling or use online instruction. And merit pay should be provided so “excellent teachers are rewarded.”

Both of them agree rural concerns aren’t well understood in the legislature.

“Small communities shouldn’t have to be subjected to expensive land management tasks for growth when they have had no growth at all,” Takko said. “People don’t understand these restrictions. We need to see more flexibility for rural counties. But whatever is done has to work everywhere because one size doesn’t fit all.”

Republicans are more in tune with rural issues and “better understand how we prefer to manage large tracts of land,” Kuehl Pederson explained.

She also said the regulating process needs to be reviewed and cited the Millennium Bulk Terminals as an example.

“Four years is too long for permitting,” she said.

Takko has expressed a similar viewpoint regarding regulations but noted that legislators spend a great deal of time reviewing existing rules and revising them during each session.

“We’ll do it when it gets to critical mass,” he explained. “It happens slowly, but surely.”

New programs benefiting rural counties — and many other groups and interests — might not get much attention during this session because straightening out school funding will be a time-consuming and expensive task, Takko explained.

And bills moving slowly through the legislature is frustrating if it’s your bill halted because of one person. But it’s a good thing for the state overall.

“There are 3,000 bills introduced each year,” Takko said. “Would you want 3,000 bills coming to the Senate? Some bills are ridiculous and shouldn’t move forward.”

He also said a great deal of time in the legislature is spent these days finding solutions to problems not addressed properly in voter initiatives, such as liquor privatization and marijuana legalization and sales. He also sees a problem with the extreme protection order initiative, I-1491, the proposal on the upcoming ballot that seeks to allow courts to issue such orders to prevent someone from obtaining firearms temporarily if they pose harm to themselves or others.

“I’m not against I-1491 or extreme protection orders, but this initiative is written so poorly. Ex-parte court orders are unconstitutional,” he said. “We have to do something about this problem. This doesn’t quite fit the bill.”

Kuehl Pederson is against the bill as well, but for a different reason.

“I have a strong opinion about Second Amendment rights,” she said. “The ability to use a firearm to protect one’s family is very important to me and I don’t want to do anything to give that up.”

Both candidates noted that better mental health care would, at least, partially alleviate such problems.

Kuehl Pederson said she entered the race to “give voters a choice.”

She continues to split her time between Aberdeen and University Place, which is in Pierce County. Questions about her residency have come up and she explained she spends more time in Aberdeen. She is retired from the Grays Harbor PUD, where she worked as a power manager.

Her home on Aberdeen’s Broadway Hill has required extensive work and she sometimes stays there. One of her children used to attend school in Pierce County but is grown and long out of school.

“Many people have more than one home,” she added.

The 19th District includes Wahkiakum and Pacific counties, as well as parts of Grays Harbor, Lewis and Cowlitz Counties.