Rick Hughes visited our group for the first hour. Rick’s family goes way back in the islands, and he was our county councilor from 2013-2020. He is a big supporter of the Land Bank, but in the past he has mentioned supporting a property tax on its property. When asked about this most recently, Rick said this was actually just an idea he was considering, and in fact, he would not favor a tax on the Land Bank. As to developing Land Bank property, he would only allow agriculture on it.
Rick would not reopen the vacation rental caps except to possibly restrict the percentage of them in certain neighborhoods. He only supports improving the current setup and would not bring up the issue himself.
Rick says we need at least 10% more county employees, including a second code enforcement officer. Should we run into a budget shortfall, he would want to have a conversation with the residents to see what they favor.
Rick has a lot of experience from his years in office. He also made lots of contacts in Olympia and Washington, DC, and he maintains those contacts.
Rick is a big supporter of renewable energy. He has installed 89 KW of solar panels on his commercial and residential buildings. He put as much solar on county buildings as he could while in office.
Rick will work to improve ferry service, especially making sure we never have a shortage of crew, perhaps going so far as to train the galley person as a crew member. He opposes cutting the number of sailings, would support at least partially owning a shipyard for repairs and building new boats, got a new boat while in office, maintained funding.
Rick is very pro-choice, advocates for reproductive freedom and services. As the owner of an independent pharmacy, he tries to get more access to pharmacy and medical services. During Covid, he worked to get vaccines and administered many himself.
Rick pledges that he will listen more, that he is more humble than before, will take a balanced approach to growth and tourism, try for more sustainability. We need to be prepared if we are cut off from the mainland.
Other points: Rick introduced a DEI resolution, wants local food sovereignty, more affordable housing, improve relationship between FH and county, cost of living here needs to be recognized for state funding of education, no interest in enlarging urban growth boundary for development, isn’t pushing for more population, will work with outlying islands and not take away equipment.
Next we spent about 45 minutes discussing the race for Congress. A young woman named Shauna Barrows presented for a group of young SJI progressives arguing for endorsement of Jason Call instead of Rick Larsen. Many of her colleagues and our veterans chimed in with similar sentiments. Ultimately neither Rick Larsen nor Jason Call were endorsed. We were heartened by the participation of these young people, we welcomed them profusely and thanked them for participating, and we hope they will return.
We then spent an hour or a little more on considering candidates and then voting on endorsements. Here are the results:
Public Lands – Dave Upthegrove
Treasurer – Mike Pellicciotti
Insurance – Patty Kuderer
Public Instruction – Chris Reykdal
Appeals Court Judge – Cecily Hazelrigg
County Council District 1 – Kari McVeigh
Attorney General – Manka Dhingra
Supreme Court – Sal Mungia
San Juan Island Library Levy – Yes
Already earlier endorsed:
Governor – Bob Ferguson
State Senator – Liz Lovelett
State Representatives – Debra Lekanoff, Alex Ramel
Congress – No endorsement at this time, as we could not agree on just Larsen or Call or a dual endorsement.
County Council District 2 – No endorsement at this time as we want to hear from the other major candidate, which will happen in August.
As we move into the general election after the primary, there will be further consideration of the two races not yet endorsed for.