The top two contenders will move on from the Aug. 4 primary and face off in November.
While he didn’t necessarily want a strong intraparty challenger, Pedersen said it’s been good for him to “go through the process of reacquainting myself” with the 43rd District’s neighborhoods.
One example, he said, was hearing from neighbors of Aurora Avenue about the scarcity of safe pedestrian crossings in the Fremont neighborhood. He said that’s now on his radar for the next state transportation budget.
Sabio-Howell points to Pedersen’s polling and more active campaign as evidence he’s grown out of touch with the experiences of renters and workers struggling to make ends meet.
In her view, even the “millionaires tax,” which will put a 9.9% tax on household earnings of more than $1 million starting in 2029, does not go far enough.
She criticizes the behind-the-scenes dealmaking that accompanied the tax’s passage, including Pedersen and other Democrats quietly retreating on an estate tax increase they’d passed a year earlier. That increase raised the top rate at 35% for estates worth more than $12 million, drawing blowback as the highest in the nation and prompting fears that wealthy people would leave Washington. Lawmakers rolled the rate back to 20% in the recent legislative session.
She also points to the original version of Pedersen’s tax bill, which included a provision ending a temporary business tax surcharge for big companies a year early, saving those businesses an estimated $500 million.
Sabio-Howell called that concession “emblematic of the status quo approach to leadership that lets corporations set the agenda.” That provision was ultimately stripped from the final bill amid a revolt by progressives in the state House, led by Rep. Shaun Scott, D-Seattle, who also represents the 43rd District and has endorsed Sabio-Howell.
Pedersen defends the income tax deal as a historic achievement — an unthinkable win just a few years ago. The tax is expected to bring in $3 billion to $4 billion a year, with most of the money dedicated to state services.
If the tax withstands a lawsuit and ballot initiative challenge, Pedersen says it also could open the door to further reforms, like lifting a property-tax cap that has hurt local governments, or revamping the state’s widely reviled business-and-occupation tax on gross receipts.
When he’s not working on legislative business, Pedersen serves as executive vice president and general counsel for McKinstry, the Seattle-based green construction firm. Sabio-Howell has worked as communications director for Working Washington, a union-backed group that pushes for worker wages and protections. She also worked in Olympia as a legislative aide to Rep. Larry Springer, D-Kirkland, and for the state Senate.
At a recent candidate forum on Capitol Hill, the differences between the longtime incumbent and challenger were on display.
A state worker asked whether the candidates would promise to rule out layoffs and furloughs to close a state budget gap.
“I don’t think I can responsibly say that at this point,” Pedersen said, noting the complexities of negotiating a budget that can pass both chambers and win the governor’s signature. “In my position I cannot take off the table the possibility that there would need to be some reductions in the state workforce.”
Sabio-Howell seized on Pedersen’s answer as a telling contrast and pledged to rule out state job cuts.
“We would not need to cut to the bone and ask working people to tighten our belts if we had been more willing to tax corporations and make sure that all the progressive revenue options were being taken seriously,” she said.
Days later, the 43rd District Democrats, who had sponsored the forum, endorsed Sabio-Howell.
Jim Brunner: jbrunner@seattletimes.com. Jim Brunner is a political reporter for The Seattle Times, where he covers how the state’s elected leaders are serving the public with an eye for watchdog and high-impact explanatory stories.