Kraft reflects on freshman term as session gets underway

For one local lawmaker, making sure the government works for taxpayers maintains her top priority moving into her second term at the statehouse.

Rep. Vicki Kraft, R-Vancouver, sat down with The Reflector ahead of the 105-day session that began Monday. First elected in 2016, she is back for another two years after defeating Democrat Tanisha Harris last November.

This year marks the first time Kraft will serve as a ranking member on the House Local Government Committee, something she was excited to take on in 2019. She spoke positively of local government entities in Clark County, specifically on how they do a good job on reaching out to state lawmakers with their concerns. 

Now in her second term, Kraft had the chance to reflect on what she learned during her freshman years. One of the first things she learned was the importance of bipartisanship, something especially important given that Republicans have only 41 of 98 seats in the House this year.

During the 2017 session, the Senate had a slim GOP-favored majority while the House leaned Democrat. Kraft commented that the dynamic gave her a year to focus on the bipartisanship before the legislature moved more to Democrat control, giving examples of working on sex trafficking legislation as well as her bill providing reprieve for disabled veterans in building accessible housing solutions as some of that work.

“If I was not approaching things in a bipartisan fashion that could be hindering,” Kraft remarked. She noted that working across the aisle gave her insight on how lawmakers of any party work.

“My stand on issues has not changed and it won’t, but what I also have found through this process is I really, honestly believe that the people that are up there (in Olympia) by and large are there because they care about people,” Kraft said, explaining that although lawmakers’ approaches differed their overall goal was still solving constituent problems regardless of party affiliation.

Kraft added that in the first term she learned the importance of defining priorities to make sure the work got done.

“You really want to make sure you know what’s important for your citizens, what you want to run and try to really focus on, because it’s going to take a lot of focus to get all the way from the introduction of a bill to governor’s signing,” she said. In some cases, a constituent’s suggestion might not lead to legislation that year, as she stressed a “quality of outcome” over speed.

Kraft said the first part of any good work as a legislator was listening to constituents and their concerns.

“Ultimately I feel like as representatives we are in some senses facilitators of a solution,” Kraft said. “I don’t have to be the person that runs for the solution for that constituent if there is already somebody else working on policy that addresses that issue.”

Private-sector experience 

Kraft saw similarities between that facilitator role and her previous private-sector experience where she managed accounts for businesses, finding out the business’ issues and how best she could address their need.

Kraft gave examples of her work, noting one issue faced by a constituent she met while doorbelling on her first term’s campaign. The constituent’s daughter who had a fairly severe disability had been moved to a lesser level of funded care after she turned 18 which Kraft said wasn’t in line with the individual’s need.

Through conversations with the state Department of Social and Health Services Kraft was able to get them to take a closer look at the constituent’s needs, allowing for a higher level of service provided.

Another case dealt with work at the Department of Financial Institutions spurred on by another constituent’s issue. Though she couldn’t definitively say her work led to it, the department did end up decreasing fees following her taking on the constituent’s concern.

“Since government is supposed to be serving our public and our citizens,” Kraft said that representatives “need to help the agencies understand what our (constituents) need.”

Kraft said that helping citizens was her favorite part of the job, be it through policy or casework, reiterating that her top priority was ensuring fiscal responsibility and accountability with taxpayers’ money.

“I don’t take it lightly that you have to work very hard for your money,” Kraft remarked. She said that being on the House Appropriations Committee would give her better insight on bringing the state’s budgeting more in line with the type of household budgeting her constituents were likely to do themselves.

Kraft said one of the biggest challenges heading into the new session would be pushing back on new taxes that will be considered, especially given the greater amount of revenue the state has collected as a result of a strong economy.

“We have the money and we need to do a better job on controlling spending,” she said.