Priorities and Differences

Why I Am Running

Years of one-party governance in Olympia and Seattle have raised the cost of living, constrained reliable power, and left visible disorder unaddressed. I am running to offer a practical alternative: keep more of what people earn, produce the energy we need, and require accountability alongside any path out of addiction and homelessness. Government’s proper role is to defend rights and enforce basic order, not to engineer outcomes or continuously expand its claims on income.

Taxes

Legislative record: Senator Frame was a sponsor of ESSB 6346, which imposes a 9.9% tax on individual Washington taxable income above $1 million beginning January 1, 2028. Individuals receive a $1 million standard deduction; spouses and registered domestic partners share a single $1 million deduction regardless of filing status. The Governor signed the bill on March 30, 2026. (Sources: Washington State Legislature bill page for ESSB 6346; Final Bill Report; session law.)

My assessment: The statute taxes income generally and relies on a deductible threshold. I oppose it because future legislatures could lower that threshold by ordinary majority vote, expanding the tax to ordinary income. History of income taxes elsewhere suggests that once the structure exists, the reach tends to grow. Repealing it now is the surest way to prevent that expansion. A citizen initiative to repeal the tax and prohibit future individual income taxes is also on the November ballot.

Energy

My position: Protect existing hydroelectric capacity, accelerate nuclear power including small modular reactors, and end or reform the costs imposed by the Climate Commitment Act. Reliable, affordable power requires firm generation that does not depend on weather or carbon pricing. Families and employers notice when electricity is expensive or scarce.

Comparison: Senator Frame’s legislative emphasis has been on progressive taxation, human services, and housing measures. I have not documented a specific Frame proposal for expanding firm baseload capacity (hydro or nuclear) comparable to the approach above. My alternative is to treat energy abundance as a prerequisite for affordability and growth rather than a secondary climate or equity goal.

Public Safety and Homelessness

My position: Pair any housing or shelter with enforceable treatment and behavioral expectations. Name open-air drug markets, fund a real exit, and require accountability. The Aurora corridor is the local test case: the same patterns appear at other nodes. A roof without rules is not a solution; it is managed disorder.

Comparison: Senator Frame’s record emphasizes expanded behavioral-health funding, human-services legislation, and progressive approaches to justice and housing. I have not located a Frame statement that pairs services with the same level of enforceable accountability and market disruption I am proposing. The difference is between expanded services and services conditioned on measurable behavioral change.

Additional Legislative Context

Senator Frame was the prime sponsor of SB 5375 (2025), which added clergy to mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. As enacted, the bill removed the prior exemption for information obtained in confession. A federal court issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the confessional portion against Catholic plaintiffs and priests under their administration. The state later reached a settlement under which clergy remain mandatory reporters, but the state agreed not to enforce reporting requirements for information learned solely through confession or its equivalent. Frame has publicly stated that she is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and that the experience informed her work on the bill. (Sources: Final Bill Report SB 5375; U.S. District Court order in Etienne v. Ferguson; Washington Attorney General settlement announcement, October 10, 2025; contemporaneous reporting of Frame’s statements.)

The episode illustrates a broader pattern: well-intentioned expansions of state authority that later require court intervention or settlement to limit their reach.

Transparency

The record: The Seattle Times editorial board, which endorsed neither candidate in this race, reported on October 18, 2026 that Senator Frame told the board she invokes legislative privilege to avoid the state’s Public Records Act. The board wrote that “all government communication ought to be open to scrutiny.” Frame has said she used the privilege on staff deliberations over an amendment she chose not to introduce, and that she may use it again. In 2018, as a state representative, she voted yes on ESB 6617, which would have exempted the Legislature from the Public Records Act; after public outcry she apologized, and the Governor vetoed the bill.

My position: I have spent decades building software, much of it public-domain. In that world transparency is the primary objective: everything is open, including the change history and the errors. As your senator, I will treat my legislative email and communications as subject to public records rules, and I will not claim legislative privilege to withhold them.

The Choice

Senator Frame offers continued progressive taxation and service expansion. I offer tax restraint before the income-tax structure expands, firm energy capacity so power stays affordable and reliable, and accountability paired with a genuine path out of addiction and homelessness. Those are the differences. Voters who want a different set of trade-offs have a candidate who will argue for them.