David McDevitt
David McDevitt, a Vancouver Democrat, set up shop at the Dollars Corner Fire Station on a warm evening in early September. Outside the 20-year-old Mercedes-Benz that has ushered him and his fiance all across the 3rd Congressional District of Washington had a campaign sign wedged in the sunroof and stuck in the grass nearby was a yard sign of the same likeness.
Just a year-ago McDevitt, a U.S. Army veteran, lost out on the democratic nomination to Jim Moeller in the primary election, who then went on to lose by a landslide to incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, in the general election.
Along with working to create a prominent presence on social media, McDevitt is taking an old school approach to his campaign by putting rubber to the road.
Since early May, fashioned with leftover campaign swag from last year’s run, McDevitt has been on an expedition back-and-forth across Southwest Washington, sitting down with groups small and large to chat about issues related to Southwest Washington, oftentimes over a slice or two of pizza.
In June one of his stops was at the Veteran’s Memorial Museum in Chehalis; in July he met with citizens of Cowlitz County at the Longview Public Library; August found him again at a library, this time farther east, at the Goldendale Community Library.
Throughout September, he could be found behind a booth at Esther Short Park in Downtown Vancouver, again chatting with anyone passing by who might have a question.
Still more than a year until voters put pen to ballot, McDevitt’s progressive message is intact and it is already, he said, resonating in a district that less than a year ago gave Herrera Beutler — and what he calls her right-leaning ideology — the nod for a fourth straight term.
“I think there’s enough sentiment in the community that feels like it’s ready for some kind of a shift,” he told the handful of folks who met with him in Battle Ground. “Especially with some of the actions that have been taken by the person living in the White House and some of the actions that have been taken by Congress. So I think people are upset, I think people are rightfully concerned — Jamie’s doing a pretty good job of appearing as a moderate, but she’s nowhere near it.”
McDevitt’s push to meet with as many people, and hold as many town halls as he can, is partly to answer a cry among many of Herrera Beutler’s critics who feel she needs to hold in-person town halls — she’s held one this year, in January, while holding mostly phone-in town halls.
“She’s not stepping up to the live town hall demand that people want,” he said, and compared the three telephone town halls she has held this year to his 19 in-person town halls.
McDevitt hopes to hold more than 60 before next July, including four he has lined up in October.
“Many, many people of the 3rd Congressional District — all the way from Goldendale to Long Beach and up to Raymond and across to Chehalis and Centralia — don’t feel represented,” he said. “What I’m doing differently, I’m holding town halls as frequently as I can; I’m getting out and meeting with as many people as I can, and making phone calls to as many people as I can.”
Here’s a quick glance at where David McDevitt stands on four key issues in Southwest Washington:
Minimum wage: “We must raise the national minimum wage to $10.50 per hour or more, preferably $15 per hour because people working 40 hours per week should not be eligible for social assistance,” McDevitt writes in an article section titled “Key Issues” on his campaign website. “Corporations paying less than these minimum wage amounts are having their compensation costs subsidized by the social assistance programs. Setting the minimum wage at a level that lifts working people out of poverty will reduce the amount of assistance they need from government programs, improve the lives of children, and break the cycle of poverty that impoverishes individuals, families and communities.”
Small businesses: "Small businesses are the driver of the economy, “McDevitt writes. “We should have economic policies that encourage small business growth by using tax credits, streamlining regulation and providing small business loans, all essential to economic growth.”
Transportation: McDevitt wants to create a bi-state joint powers authority between Oregon and Washington, much like that of New York and New Jersey.
Although he is not supportive of tolls, McDevitt said U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s hard stance focused on tolling isn’t the right method.
“It’s going to prevent us getting together so that we as a metropolitan planning area can solve the problem,” he said during his visit to Battle Ground.
McDevitt details two ideas for relieving congestion on his website.
The first he calls “Vancouver-Portland Area Rapid Transit,” and describes it as “a circular system encompassing east to west in both Multnomah and Clark counties, going through downtown Portland and the airport.”
The second is a freight-only alternative on the west side, which would run from somewhere around Longview then rejoin Interstate 5 south of Woodburn, Oregon. This plan would also include replacing the I-5 Bridge with what he calls a “Clark-Multnomah Bridge.”
Healthcare: “The next step (after the Affordable Care Act) in improvement is to move to a health care for all — single-payer model, similar to Medicare,” McDevitt writes. “No person should have to question receiving or seeking healthcare. Nor should any person have to worry about their ability to pay high deductible amounts. Additional steps would be to overhaul our medical billing practices.”
