With the departure of both incumbents, voters in state legislative District 1 are guaranteed some new representation in Olympia.

In the case of District 1, Position 1, that new face will belong to one of two Bothell residents, either Republican Dennis Richter or Democrat Derek Stanford. One of the two will replace departing State Rep. Al O’Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace, who announced in 2008 that he would not be running for reelection this year.

Endorsed by O’Brien, Stanford took first place in the summer primary, earning 26 percent of the combined King and Snohomish county votes. The race for second place was extremely close. Richter took the prize with 23.7 percent of the total tally, less than one percentage point ahead of the third place finisher.

Like virtually every candidate in the current election, Richter has made the economy a focus of his campaign from the beginning. He said as he has traveled around the district, voters repeatedly have volunteered their opinion that government spending is out of control. Richter said that many times those voters are referring to federal issues, but he contends Olympia suffers from the same problem.

“People really feel like they are being overtaxed,” he said. “I really think the state can do more with the money it has on hand…. I think the state has enough money right now.”

At various times, Stanford has talked about a couple of different ways legislators can aid Washington’s recovery. During the primary, he argued Olympia can jump-start the state economy by accelerating capital improvement projects, generating jobs and giving the private sector a chance to regain any strides it lost during the recent recession. He also called for some revamping of what he termed the state’s regressive tax system.

“The less you make, the higher percentage you end up paying in taxes. We must change this,” Stanford said.

Most recently, Stanford talked about consolidating certain government departments.

For example, Stanford said a couple of separate agencies dealing with environmental issues can be combined. He later added Olympia needs to adjust to new financial realities resulting from the recession. Stanford said there is no doubt legislators will need to cut expenditures as they put together Washington’s next budget. Richter said he’s tired of Olympia constantly talking about budget cuts, that legislators have “nibbled at the edges of the real problem.”

According to Richter, Gov. Christine Gregoire was somewhat on the right track when she ordered her department heads to plan for across-the-board spending reductions as they prepare for the next state budget. Richter said Olympia needs to better determine what amount of government residents want and each department should then be asked to spend its money and set priorities accordingly. He said Washington may need to look at reducing public salaries and possibly more employee furlough days.

“We need to do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Richter said.

On a different front, both candidates acknowledged that Bothell is in the midst of some very ambitious plans to rebuild itself, starting with the city’s downtown. Since both candidates call Bothell home, can the city expect some extra support coming from Olympia in the future no matter the outcome of the election?

Stanford said since two state routes are involved in Bothell’s plans, it’s only natural for the state to be involved and he added Olympia has kicked in some funding to date. He wouldn’t be averse to adding more dollars later.

“But right now, the state shouldn’t be looking for new places to spend money,” Stanford said.

“I’m not going to be the kind of politician who does pork barrel,” Richter stated. He said local projects should probably, for the most part, be funded locally.

But Richter also added a strong belief that the Puget Sound region deserves a larger percentage of state dollars since a larger percentage of the state’s population makes it home here rather than east of the mountains.

Education is also a major issue for both candidates. Richter supports the idea of vouchers and charter schools, saying increased competition for the state’s public schools would force them to perform better. He added public school officials should have no fears about losing public dollars to private educators, saying the focus has to be on student outcomes.

“I would have to see some compelling evidence that is the way to go and I haven’t seen it,” Stanford said, regarding vouchers and charter programs. He said there is plenty of room for innovation in Washington’s schools as they are.

According to Stanford, Washington’s spending for students has been in free fall for a decade.

“We need to turn that around,” he said, while adding, that given the current economy, budget efficiencies need to found in every spending category, including education.