Neither Cantwell nor Kilmer have drawn a well-known opponent. Republicans challenging Cantwell are led by Michael Baumgartner, a freshman state senator from Spokane, while Kilmer faces Republicans Jesse Young and Doug Cloud — but it’s early, and others are still considering the race.
Gregorich has experience helping Kilmer. He ran Democrats’ state Senate campaign committee in 2010. In a Republican …
He was among those mentioned as a possible candidate as soon as longtime U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks made his surprise retirement announcement last week. But state Sen. Derek Kilmer made it official this morning. He is a candidate to replace Dicks as the representative from the 6th Congressional District of Washington.
Kilmer was even among the three Democrats mentioned by Dicks in his statement Friday. The others were Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland and Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown.
But Kilmer is the first to jump in, touting his work in the state Senate and with the Pierce County Economic Development Board. Derek Kilmer
“My job is creating jobs,” Kilmer said in a press statement. “When I’m not in Olympia, my job is to work with businesses in Pierce County to help them grow and thrive. We could use more folks in Washington who are focused on creating more jobs with better pay, and that’s what I’ll do in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
Kilmer is the chairman of the Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee. He also is vice-chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and is the lead senator on the state’s capital budget.
Kilmer, 38, was elected to the state House in 2004 and the state Senate in 2006. He was reelected to the Senate in 2010.
He also has an advantage in the sprawling district – he was raised in the northern section and now represents an area that makes up its densest population base. He grew up in Port Angeles but now lives in Gig Harbor and works in Tacoma.
“Norm Dicks may be the best Congressman in the history of Washington State,” Kilmer said. “No one can fill his shoes, but I’ll work to continue his legacy of fighting for jobs and standing up for the little guy.”
Here is the text of his announcement statement… Read more »
With U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks’s announcement today he is retiring, attention will soon turn to who might vie to replace him in the 6th Congressional District, running from Tacoma across the Narrows bridges to the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas.
One name that has been mentioned is state Sen. Derek Kilmer, the No. 2 Democrat on the Senate’s budget committee and a Pierce County economic development official. The Senate is on the floor this morning, but Kilmer confirmed in a text he’s considering a run (he also has posted to his Facebook page):
While Senate Democrats’ budget does raise some new revenue by targeting tax breaks on wind energy and big banks, it reduces state tax collections in other areas, including new tax credits for movie producers and other industries — and delaying sales-tax payments by the Tacoma Narrows bridge.
When the second Narrows bridge was built in 2007, lawmakers allowed it to hold off paying sales taxes on construction for five years.
That bill comes due in December, with the bridge scheduled to pay $5.8 million a year for 10 years. That’s part of what’s driving the need for an increase in …
Tolls on the Narrows bridge are almost certainly about to go up, driven by growing debt-service payments on the 2007 span. The only question is how much.
A measure in the Legislature might knock as much as 50 cents off of the necessary increase, according to the state’s toll director. Lawmakers are looking at forgiving sales taxes, and Craig Stone said Thursday:
that there could be about a 40 to 50 cent toll reduction for 2013 resulting from forgiving deferred sales taxes, but we’d want to have the traffic and revenue consultants run the numbers to get a more precise estimate
State lawmakers have adjourned for the year after approving $480 million in cuts, revenue and transfers, and they managed to pass a couple of other measures before bringing down the gavel on the emergency budget session.
One would help military spouses transfer their professional credentials from other states.
“This is an opportunity to make a difference for those families … so they can draw a paycheck rather than an unemployment check,” said state Sen. Derek Kilmer, who said a female soldier newly stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord approached him with the idea at a Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce event. …
A series of efforts aimed at helping veterans and military families won unanimous backing today from a task force of state lawmakers.
The ideas endorsed by the Joint Committee on Veterans’ and Military Affairs could be considered by the Legislature in the ongoing emergency budget session but are more likely to wait until January. They include:
An expedited process for professional licensing of military spouses. Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said his proposal would apply to wives and husbands who are licensed in another state and are transferred to Washington. They would get a temporary license and a quicker
The latest and possibly final version of the state’s transportation spending plan calls for replacing “as soon as practicable” the machines that read Good to Go passes on the Tacoma Narrows bridge.
Replacement machines would cost $620,000, says Sen. Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, who pushed for the budget language and said federal money would likely cover the cost.
Wherever WSDOT finds the money, lawmakers prohibited …
