Fred Finn announces retirement; two Democrats announce plans to seek his seat

Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Fred Finn, who has rep­re­sent­ed Washington’s 35th LD since 2008, announced recent­ly that he will not be run­ning for reelec­tion in 2012, lead­ing two Democ­rats to announce their inten­tion to seek his seat.

Finn’s dis­trict includes Mason Coun­ty as well as parts of Grays Har­bor, Kit­sap, and Thurston coun­ties. He served as a Unit­ed States Army vet­er­an, and is a Shel­ton and Olympia-area busi­ness­man, involved most­ly with com­mer­cial banking.

Among those vying for the seat is Mason Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er Lin­da Ring-Erick­son, and Port of Olympia Com­mis­sion­er Jeff Davis. Both Davis and Ring-Erick­son are Democ­rats. No Repub­li­cans or inde­pen­dents have declared yet.

Ring-Erick­son said in a state­ment last week that her top three issues will be jobs, jobs, and jobs, echo­ing a refrain Den­ny Heck used in his unsuc­cess­ful con­gres­sion­al bid. This is Ring-Erickson’s first bid for the Legislature.

Davis, unsur­pris­ing­ly, is also con­cerned about Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty. He told the Belling­ham Her­ald, “We have to get back to find­ing ways to bring jobs into the state, and I think we can do it on a local lev­el successfully.”

It appears that low­er­ing unem­ploy­ment will be a hot top­ic in 2012, although none of the can­di­dates has released any spe­cif­ic plans for get­ting our state econ­o­my back on track. Nei­ther can­di­date has held a state-lev­el office before, though both have expe­ri­ence at the local lev­el. We’ll be watch­ing to see what, if any, ideas Ring-Erick­son and Davis put on the table as part of their campaigns.