By Bill Lucia | Editor
This fall’s election will bring another wave of turnover at the state Legislature, with roughly 20 lawmakers vacating seats. Some are retiring, others seeking different offices. It’s not the first time in recent memory that there’s been so much churn. At the beginning of 2025, 29 members took new seats, either through their first election to the Legislature or a promotion from the state House to the Senate.
Also in today’s edition…
As summer comes to a close, the Northwest remains parched by drought and scorched by wildfire.
And, the parting letter a Fish and Wildlife commissioner who died over the weekend wrote to Gov. Bob Ferguson about the commission.
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Sunshine and the state Capitol on Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo by Bill Lucia/Washington State Standard)
By Jake Goldstein-Street
Some of the candidates who ran in this month’s primary are heavily favored to win in the fall general election, meaning the roster of lawmakers for the next session is already coming into focus.
For example, in King County’s 45th District, Vanessa Kritzer, a Redmond City Council member and director of the Washington Association of Land Trusts, is well positioned to take over for Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland. Springer is retiring after 21 years. The 24th District, on the Olympic Peninsula, has been leaning reliably Democratic. There, the primary results (four Democrats split over 60% of the vote) indicate former high school teacher and legislative aide Kaylee Kuehn has the advantage over Marcia Kelbon, who is running as an independent. And in Spokane County’s 6th District, Republicans Alan Nolan, a Mead school board director, and Jonathan Bingle, a Spokane City Council member, are the frontrunners to replace retiring Reps. Mike Volz and Jenny Graham.
For a full roundup, see today’s story.
By Alex Baumhardt
The last weeks of summer find much of the Northwest in historic drought. It’s exacerbating one of the region’s most active wildfire seasons, according to state and federal climatologists and hydrologists. Fish, water supplies, electric utilities and farmers are feeling the effects.
“Across the Pacific Northwest we’re substantially depleting our reservoir storage, and now we’re getting into kind of the later part of August and September, and reservoirs are being emptied out,” said Oregon’s State Climatologist Larry O’Neill. “There’s little hope for carryover into the next water year.” He noted that Washington, Oregon and Idaho are all seeing record-low streamflows.
COMMENTARY
By Victor Garcia
As we reported in yesterday’s edition, Victor Garcia, who Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed to the state Fish and Wildlife Commission last year, died over the weekend.
Yesterday, Garcia’s family shared a letter he wrote in his final days to Ferguson. Garcia joined the commission at a time when it’s been mired in controversy and described by some as “dysfunctional.” In his letter, he shared thoughts on the panel itself and suggested criteria Ferguson might use to select someone to fill the now-vacant seat.
“The Commission is struggling from a lack of public trust, as you well know. I believe the root causes of those struggles are Commissioners and interests not fully aligned with the stated mission, but instead aiming to impose elements of their own belief systems or agendas,” Garcia wrote.
“This imposition manifests in unproductive disputes that fail to recognize cultural traditions and sovereign Tribal rights,” he added. “It also results in the Commission (and Department) putting excessive time and effort into controversial or popularized issues such as black bear and gray wolf management, while leaving little time for larger but less-publicized issues of habitat protection and recovery, which support all species.”
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ICYMI
WA youth prison leader was fired after harassment probe | by Jake Goldstein-Street
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