My Vision
I envision a state with strong communities; where individuals have social equity, organizations and businesses have economic growth opportunities and there is stewardship of the environment.
A State with the resources available to graduate the next generation of diverse and creative leaders for the State, Country, and the World and who foster innovation for our local businesses big and small.
- I believe we can build an education system that engages children, expanding on their unique creativity and talent, and that crafts an individualized plan for success.
- I believe in a state that is a leader in the technologies of the future thereby attracting corporations and organizations from around the world and that supports our small businesses and trades to ensure jobs for middle class families.
- I believe in a Washington that prioritizes inclusion, invests in humans, and embraces our diversity.
MY MISSION
To develop a thriving, prosperous middle class by investing in education, tackling our growth and traffic challenges and creating safe and secure neighborhoods for our families.
MY VALUES
The values that drive my personal life are compassion, action and justice. The values that will help accomplish our mission and take us to our vision are:
Community—Building connections, respecting the difference and value of others
Compassion—Having understanding and empathy for others
Responsibility—Taking accountability for decisions and actions
Honesty—Being fair and truthful
Integrity—Maintaining moral and ethical standards
ON THE ISSUES
As your State Senator, I will work every day to represent local families by listening to the unique needs of our communities, building diverse coalitions, and developing common sense solutions that are in line with our core values.
RESPONSIBLY FUNDING SCHOOLS
Public schools are the foundation of our democracy. We took important steps to fully fund public schools, but there is more to be done to decrease class sizes, invest in early learning and special needs, and ensure each child has an individual plan for success. Affordability is a huge issue on the Eastside. I helped pass a property tax cut for 2019 to provide relief for homeowners and put money aside for the future. In 2020, I worked with my colleagues to pass support for working people and small businesses. I will keep working to cut property taxes, close special interest tax breaks, and reduce the cost of college for local families.
MANAGING GROWTH & TRANSPORTATION
With our rapid growth, it is critical that we protect the character of our communities while creating affordable places for people to live and accessible, environmentally conscious public transportation so they can get around. I will push for investments in affordable housing so that families who have lived here for generations are not pushed out. Additionally, I am committed to reducing congestion on our roads and expanding transit. I will demand accountability, prioritize funding transit and high congestion corridors, and ensure our car tabs are fairly evaluated without delaying the expansion of light rail to Redmond and Kirkland.
BUILDING SAFE COMMUNITIES
Working with victims of domestic violence and their families, I recognized language and cultural barriers that prevent reporting and self-protection in violent situations. In the State Senate I will continue to advocate for policies that reduce violence in our homes and communities.
As a prosecutor and as Vice-Chair of the Senate Law & Justice and Committee, I remain focused on safe communities. I am proud to have taken steps in the legislature to address gun violence, provide protections for survivors of Domestic Violence, fund mental health and substance use disorder treatment, and much more. We can improve public safety and save tax dollars if we close the revolving door of jail, homelessness and crime that impacts our communities.
I am fighting to improve public safety, save taxpayer resources, and help people through difficult times by closing the revolving door of jail, homelessness, and crime that impacts too many Veterans and people struggling with mental illness and substance use disorder. Through innovation and reform, we can continue making progress at the state level in how we address these interrelated challenges, helping people and strengthening communities.
ACCOUNTABILITY
Government works best when there is trust. To develop trust, government needs to be transparent and held accountable. I am proud to be a leader who is standing up to lobbyists and big corporations when it comes to closing tax breaks that harm our communities and take on the challenge of improving our regressive tax system that unfairly burdens low and middle income families.
As your Senator I am working to increase government transparency and to close outdated tax loopholes so we can invest in the programs that are important to local families. By increasing accountability to you, we can secure the funds to support our seniors and veterans, to expand mental health services, and to invest in renewable energies and better protect our environment for our children and grandchildren.
INCLUSION & PROTECTING OUR RIGHTS
We are facing direct attacks on the progress we have made in building a strong economy, a skilled, diverse workforce, great public schools, and the fundamental rights of people of marginalized genders and immigrants. To protect what we cherish here on the Eastside, we need new voices committed to equity and inclusion and that are dedicated to breaking through the partisanship and gridlock that has held us back from reaching our full potential.
I am committed to protecting the health care rights of women, trans people, and standing up to hate to ensure that everyone in our communities has access to opportunity.
OUR ENVIRONMENT
I believe that data and science should drive our policies especially when it comes to how we preserve the world for our kids and grandkids. I am a mom who wants to leave a better world for the next generation and believe we need to be leaders when it comes to curbing carbon emissions and addressing climate change.
Further, we need to be embracing new green technologies to help grow our economy and ensure the rest of the world is not passing us by. We are a state of innovators and Eastside families want to be global leaders in this fight instead of watching from the sidelines.
Q: Why are you running for office?
A: I believe that Eastside families deserve experienced, professional and local leadership that is committed to solving our most pressing problems. I’ve lived in our community for over 20 years. I’m a mom who has been volunteering in our public schools and served as a senior deputy prosecutor, working to keep our communities safe. Through my role on the Board of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Eastside, I’ve been working to provide mental health services to those in need. I also helped found an organization called API Chaya that works to address domestic violence issues in the South Asian community. I will use on-the-ground experience to problem-solve and give a voice to hard-working, Eastside families. Together we can ensure our elected officials are representing people, not their political parties.
Q: What do you view as the most important issue in Washington today?
A: One of my top priorities is graduating our children from school with an individualized plan for success. Education is the state’s paramount duty and our public schools play an important role in serving as the great equalizers in life. They are one of the foundations of our Democracy and need to be properly funded. The Legislature recently took steps to increase school funding to better address the McCleary Decision but I believe there is still more work to be done to ensure we are meeting our obligations. A perfect example is the failure of state lawmakers to pass a state capital budget to better address the overcrowded classrooms throughout our state.
Q: Did you vote for the Seattle Head Tax and do you support an income tax?
A: I have never lived in Seattle and have never worked for the City of Seattle – I had nothing to do with the Seattle head tax. I believe that we need jobs, and we need the business in our communities to thrive. We need innovation, technology, and we need to advance. But we also have the most regressive tax structure in America. I do not support the implementation of a state income tax and such a policy has been deemed unconstitutional. I do not believe that we should nickel and dime people, but we need to take a look at our regressive tax structure and have a thoughtful and deliberate conversation about it.
Q: How will you balance the needs of big business and small entrepreneurs?
A: The Eastside is home to some incredible businesses, big and small, and it is critical we ensure ALL of our great companies can succeed. Some of the greatest challenges facing our largest employers are regional mobility and sourcing the skilled workforce they need. Further our small businesses struggle with regressive B&O taxes and deserve better support from Olympia. If elected I will prioritize projects to provide immediate traffic relief and plan to prioritize K-12, Higher Ed and technical training to ensure we have the skilled workforce for tomorrow. I plan to work with local small business owners and entrepreneurs to figure out how we can provide greater support and promote innovation within our communities. The Eastside is a dynamic growing region and it is critical we have forward thinking leaders willing to tackle our greatest challenges.
Q: Are you pro-choice? Do you support the inclusion of reproductive health care in all basic health care programs?
A: I am proud to be the only candidate in this race to be endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and Planned Parenthood Votes NW. I am 100 percent committed to protecting the reproductive rights of women.
Q: Do you believe in climate change?
A: I firmly believe in human-caused climate change and it ranks near the top of my priorities should I be elected. We need to leave a livable planet for our kids and our grandkids. That means we must look for ways that we can reduce carbon emissions. This is particularly important in light of what is going on at the national level. Washington can and should be a leader for the rest of the country and the world. Unfortunately, Senate Republican leadership in Olympia has blocked efforts to comprehensively address this growing problem. We can’t simply pretend that this crisis doesn’t exist and it’s time to act by embracing clean energy technologies.
Q: What is your position on the recent car tab increases enacted by the voters?
A: I understand voters’ frustrations. My husband and I were also shocked when we renewed our car tabs this year. I drive a 2011 Camry hybrid, and the cost of my tabs tripled. The legislature must find a new way to calculate vehicle valuation. I was very disappointed to see that nothing passed this session to address this issue. When Sound Transit 3 passed, I don’t believe that the voters who approved it were aware of the fine print around how their car tabs would change. We need to increase transparency in how these initiatives are presented to the public. However, we also need to ensure that the projects approved in ST3 continue to be delivered on time and under budget. I intend to work with Sound Transit to find a way to reduce individuals’ car tabs while keeping critical transportation projects on schedule.
Q: What is your favorite part of running for office?
A: Meeting the many great people throughout our Eastside communities and getting to know the incredible volunteers we have helping out on our campaign. If you would like to get involved please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@electmanka.com.