A talk with Kaylee Kuehn

Photo provided by the campaign.

I sat down over coffee in Port Townsend with the Democratic candidate for the 24th District Position 2, Kaylee Kuehn. We had a candid talk on a wide range of issues. The following interview was edited for brevity.

Kaylee Kuehn (pronounced Keen) is running for the open seat vacated by long time Olympia powerhouse Steve Tharinger. Kuehn was raised in Sequim, attended Evergreen college, and has a Masters in Education from Grand Canyon University. She is a mother and her husband is a former prosecuting attorney and now serves as an Assistant Attorney General for Clallam and Jefferson counties. She beat out two other Democrats and one Democratic Socialist of America for her place in the fall elections.

The defining factor in her running is her youth. At 28, she does not bring huge range of experience to the position, but does bring a youthful energy and has worked in education as a high school teacher and as a volunteer for a regional union, the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers in partnership with Pacific Northwest Regional Strategies. She is the first to admit that she does not have a lot of background on the issues facing the Peninsula.


KK: When I decided to run for this seat I wasn’t spending years of my life planning and prepping for doing this. I’m not trying to sell myself as more knowledgeable or experienced than I am. I can ask questions gather all the information and hopefully make the right decisions. That’s what I’m hoping to bring to this seat. I understand that a lot of people want a politician to come in and make all these sweeping changes and solve everything, and I just don’t view politics that way. I think that is very rare. I think there is a lot of value in pragmatism and balance to decision making about really important things that affect all of us.

Q: Steve Tharinger has been there for a long, long time. Where do you see your differences from Steve? Do you feel like you just take over where he left off, or do you see some, you see some differences between what you bring versus what Steve brings?

K.K: I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Steve several times, talking with him, and getting to know him a little bit more, and now that I’ve made it through the primary, he’s now gotten involved in the race. I see that we’ll be similar in a lot of ways, how we treat people.

I think where we differ is just our perspectives. I think the biggest difference will be that I am a young working mom. I’ve been riffed from a union job before. I know what that feels like. I know what it’s like to move every single year because of the rising costs of rent. But I would also like to bring my voice to this because I think that in the 24th, we’ve had nobody liked me before. With so many more working families living throughout the district, I think it’s good to have someone who actually has experience with the challenges that we face.

Q: What committees are you wanting to be assigned to if you win?

KK: I don’t have specific committees I am targeting. I think what’s important as a legislator is understanding how the process works. I would like to be on a fiscal committee, maybe on a policy committee. I was thinking about education, coming from that world. Adam (Bernbaum, the other Representative in the 24th) is going to be on healthcare and transportation, they don’t put freshmen on appropriations, so the capital budget makes sense for me. And perhaps housing. I think that would be a really impactful way that I could make a difference for our district, because it does come up so much.

Q: What do you think that you can actually address in housing?

KK: I do think we get very focused on process over outcome. So with housing in particular, I talked to so many people who said, I want to be able to make my property livable for somebody. I want to be able to rent it out. But the financial and timeline barriers are too much for virtually every person I talked to. And I think at the state level, we can ease those requirements. There’s probably something in between that just gets people housed and gets people into a situation where they can work towards.

Q: That sort of circles to the Growth Management Act (GMA).What do you think that needs to be fixed or changed in it?

KK: It’s pretty important. I’m not a planner. I don’t have those answers right now. I would like to understand it. There are definitely areas where I am not there yet about knowing the specifics of what I would like to propose or change, but I will learn it, and do what’s right for folks.

OPEN: What are your priorities?

KK: Number one, I would like to talk to the cost of living, affordability. I know that it’s a very big area. I am supporting the millionaire’s tax. I do think that it’s horrific that we have the second most regressive tax system in the United States. I don’t want to push business out. I feel like I want to be a friend to business and to understand the issues and want to keep them here. I also think that there have to be decisions that ultimately level the playing field. We need to be a lot more open to embracing just everyone having an equitable share so the burden isn’t more on working folks.

Q: The Climate Commitment Act (CCA) has been very controversial. We’re using the money (from the CCA) to build new electric ferries. That great. But I thought that the goal was to reduce carbon? And it’s causing the state to add more taxes to gas for blue collar people. So what do you say to those people?

KK: I was one of the only ones in the primary other than Marcia to be critical of the CCA. With the CCA, this is something that people have very strong feelings about. I just think that we have to look at, like, practical outcomes. It would benefit us politically, to not keep raising regressive taxes. We say there are benefits, but actually, a lot of people, especially out here, don’t see them. They feel they get hurt by them.

Q: So where do you cut the budget?

KK: I’ll bring up a kind of controversial thing, you know? One of the best things that we’ve done in Washington, I think, is implement paid family medical. It’s also a massive part of our budget. People say, why did the budget get so, so much higher? It’s because of things like this that are really good. I got a benefit from that (law), to stay home with my daughter for a long time and my husband did also.

But that’s a giant part of our budget. I think we shouldn’t be cutting from anything that has to do with children. Cutting the budget, it’s not just numbers to me, it’s real outcomes.

Q: So where do you cut? I mean, you have a pie that’s just so big. Right? We just don’t have the revenue stream to be able to do everything that we used to do or want to do, and so where do you see yourself supporting cuts? Former Governors Gregoire and Locke along with Ferguson say you have to cut. Would you support an across the board 5% of everything? Or only a specific cuts?

KK: I think I think it would come down to what makes the least direct impact? So unfortunately, if there’s some type of subsidy or something, or a decision like taking away spots that kids would have had to transition into kindergarten. I would not want to cut there. I am obviously not against kids getting school lunches. In an ideal world, we just would have all kids get free lunches all the time. But we probably need means testing. I work and I can afford to give my child lunch and pack their lunch for school. I think most people, that are lower middle class can do that. And I’m gonna piss some people off, saying that, but why not?

Q: On the environment, there is this whole issue of forest cutting. Out in Port Angeles right now there’s many environmentalists I know fighting for saving these small older growth parcels. $40,000, I think, is what Port Angeles would have gotten or will get, whatever, from that cut. So that’s something that they needed to budget for, and now that’s $40,000 out of their budgets for schools and police and all the rest. That’s mainly handled by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) but I would assume that the legislature has some impact in being able to talk to DNR about budgeting issues.

KK: I think that one thing that’s kind of misunderstood is that a lot of this land, when it’s being sold, was already designated as needing to be sold. I’m kind of unsympathetic, because I understand that people want to protect these old growth trees. I would also like to, but to what extent, to what end? And what are we missing by doing that?

Q: Have you talked to those folks that are opposing the cut out there?

KK: You mean has every side has been talking to me? Yes. I had lunch this past weekend with Dave UptheGrove (the director of DNR). It was a great chance to sit down, ’cause I’m getting pressured on both sides. I agreed not to take timber money, and now I’m getting timber folks saying, can we send you campaign money? You know, for me, the funding thing. I’ll take all the campaign contributions I can get because now I’m not bought and I don’t care what anybody thinks. My vote is not bought by anybody. Someone wants to help me pay for my childcare (by donating to my campaign). They can. They get a meeting just as much as any other constituent would get a meeting and small business owner. Nothing comes above my constituency, if I’m elected.

Q: So have you made a decision yet on this issue?

KK: I just haven’t made up my mind yet. This is probably the biggest area out of any other policy area where I feel like I cannot, in good conscience, make a firm decision right now about what type of policy I’m gonna make, because I want to look it. I with talked with our mills and the industry and union were very aligned. because they’re concerned we’ve had so many mill closures.

Q: What are your thoughts about the Protection Island / Dungeness Spit Land transfer. Have you come down, one way or another, on what’s going on with this possible land transfer, that U.S. Representative Emily Randall is promoting?

KK: I know. I heard her talk about it at the little recent meeting. Yeah very contentious right now. I understand that.

I haven’t got the tribal perspective from it. I was hoping to sit down with Ron Allen but we haven’t managed to get together yet. The biggest concern is that it’s their sovereign status. Once they get the land they get to make their own decision and we don’t have any way to have input. Emily Randall said that there’s going to be a lot of conversations before this happens. It is not going to pass for several years if it even does, and we’re really going to work on it and get a lot of public comment. And at the end of the day, it is just the fact that it’s transferring it over and we’ll have no say. The US government would have no say in it.

I’m interested to hear different perspectives. I’m not saying I don’t have an opinion on it. One issue that I really do understand, and I take it very highly right now. is that I don’t I don’t trust the Trump administration.

Q: No, I don’t either.

KK: I don’t trust them (the Trump Administration) to manage it properly. What is great is that, like you said, it’s a co-management right now.

OPEN: What are your thoughts about your opponent, Marcia Kelbon?

KK: I really respect her independence. But to do this job, to be effective, to be able to secure funding for, is it a department or a district, to be able get in the majority caucus room and have be a voice for our district. You have to play the system. You have to. You have to understand it.

Last night (at the Marrowstone debate) she was very optimistic. That whole thing (about having a voice in Olympia) came up, and she said, “Well, I think that I can build a relationship with people.” I don’t doubt that. But Olympia is a machine. It’s serious. I mean no disrespect to my opponent. But no one cares about one person’s agenda. They really don’t. They have stuff to get done. Everyone’s got their own little game. And it’s sad, I think, but that that’s how it works.”

New Canadian Tariffs Crush State Businesses

Trump’s insane tariff battle hurts the very businesses who love his deregulation.

Today’s Seattle Times has an article detailing the crushing blow to Washington State businesses due to King Trump’s personal vendetta with our Canadian neighbors.

Washington State does a huge business with Canada, from exports of a wide variety of products to tourism. Canada is our number two trading partner (China of course is first but much a lot of that trade is made up of Boeing planes). Many of these tariffs hurt industries that have loved having Trump’s deregulation to do away with environmental concerns. It appears that Trump has bit the hand that has fed him.

Times columnist Danny Westneat stated in his article on the tariff war:

Last year, Canadian visitors to Seattle plunged by 600,000, from 1.7 million in 2024 to 1.1 million, Visit Seattle announced last month. Canadian tourist revenue dropped by $215 million just in Seattle, the group estimated.

We just were recovering from that previous fiasco in the last months, but now it may be even worse than that.

A separate article behind the Times paywall points out that the hardest hit agricultural industry is shellfish, and the largest shellfish grower is Taylor Shellfish. This blog has documented over the last twenty years the lobbying against regulations on their industry, including undermining Marine Resources Committees in the north Sound while buying their support by offering to help with the restoration of Olympia Oysters. Their employees showed up to jeer anti-net pen lecturers and a manager of their Jefferson County operations attacked anti-net pen leaders like Alexandra Morton. The company has fought lawsuits by local landowners in the Hood Canal and Puget Sound that have attempted to slow their relentless conversion of virgin bays and shorelines into industrial monoculture aquaculture farms. The industry has spent a minimum of tens of thousands of dollars lobbying in Olympia and Washington D.C. with success. As significant employers in these small rural counties they have supported both Democrat and Republican politicians who hew to their demands in Olympia. I have no doubt that they supported and were thrilled at Trump getting elected a second time. They likely saw his new regime as one that would finally eliminate environmental regulations entirely. And that has been happening.

Now, they unfortunately have found out the cost of that support.

Trump’s insane decisions have not only affected the shellfish industry but might also sink our local paper mill. While I am not clear how much of their output gets shipped to Canada, they are owned by a Wall Street firm (Atlas Holdings) that has also owned a Canadian paper mill that is a sister company to Port Townsend Paper. Crown Packaging is a large corrugated packaging facility in British Columbia. Additionally, there may be sawdust supply that comes from mills in Canada by barge, given the strength of the U.S. dollar to purchase Canadian raw materials at a discount to U.S. ones. The mill in Port Townsend runs on a slim profit margin, and a huge tariff could conceivably see the closure of the mill.

According to the Times article, Washington State sells $460 million in paper and paper board goods to Canada.

The closure of the Port Townsend mill would be an economic disaster to the town and the Peninsula. Many of the mill employees live out of town, due to high costs of living in Port Townsend. Their incomes help prop up not only P.T. but also the towns they live in, like Sequim and Port Angeles.

So we wait to see whether Trump wakes up tomorrow and is given a sound tongue lashing behind closed doors in the White House and changes his mind. He seems to take great relish in attacking “Blue” states like Washington, giving us far less FEMA support for our wildfire victims, the majority of whom likely voted for him, since they live in districts that went heavily Republican in all three of the last elections. While he thinks he is simply hurting Canada, the real victims are his supporters in industries across this state.

Oregon lawsuit could upend federal management of public lands

From the Washington State Standard.

“A new lawsuit challenging a logging project in Oregon threatens to unravel the management plans governing hundreds of millions of acres of federal public land….“They’ve opened Pandora’s Box here,” said Susan Jane Brown, the attorney who filed the lawsuit and serves as principal at Silvix Resources, a nonprofit environmental law firm.”

If there ever was an environmental reason to make sure Democrats take back Congress this fall, this is it. You likely have never heard of this issue before now, but it’s been used to undue numerous environmental protections across the country.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/06/26/repub/oregon-lawsuit-could-upend-federal-management-of-public-lands/

WA Fish and Wildlife panel confronts high tensions and harsh testimony – Washington Standard

The never ending drama of the State Wildlife Commission continued with an open session allowing comments from both sides in the controversy. We urge the Governor to take steps to remove Director Kelly Susewind. The Governor never had any need to follow the lead of the hunters associations as they hated him from the beginning and never would have voted for him in the past or the future. These attacks on Commissioners nominated for their environmental protection stance and the ability to follow science rather than the hunting communities perceived needs to kill bears. This continues attacks across the country on environmental protection under this radical regime in Washington D.C. that fuels this behavior.

Commissioner Smith is a local environmental activist from Jefferson County. I’ve known her and worked with her and her husband Darrell for decades. She was part of the team that lobbied congress to get Protection Island turned into a National Wildlife Refuge in 1982. She has fought for wolf and cougar protection along with protecting bears from slaughter. This hunting often leaves orphaned cubs in its wake. There is no one more qualified to fight to protect the issues of the environment than her. If the Governor abandons her, it will be a stain on his supposed environmental credentials for the rest of his term.

From the Washington Standard:

Surly public comments are a staple of Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission meetings, revealing the deeply personal stakes of those fighting over how far the state should go in protecting various species or allowing for hunting or fishing.

But last week’s session carried a slightly harsher tone, fueled by an investigation into whether commissioners violated open meetings and public records statutes ahead of a decision in 2022 to ban spring bear hunts, and a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the agency’s director by a commissioner targeted by the probe.

The meeting took place Thursday to Saturday in Olympia. Speakers vented grievances with decisions of the citizen panel, actions of individual members and leaders of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which the commission oversees. Some called for commissioners to resign, others for agency Director Kelly Susewind to be fired.

Read more at

Washington Standard Article

And support local journalism by donating to it if you can.

Northwest just finished warmest fall on record, scientists report and NCAR Research shutdown

The Washington State Standard is reporting that not only did we finish the year with the warmest year on record but our recent rain will not do much to help the ongoing drought in central and eastern Washington. Why? Because it’s falling as rain and not as snow.

This record warm spell includes all temperature data going back to 1880. These floods, this warming, is exactly what scientists have been predicting for decades. Now we reap what we have sown in fossil fuel use. So what is the government doing? It’s shutting down research on the atmosphere.

The Trump Administration has announced the closing of the greatest atmospheric research lab in the world, at National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the largest federal climate research lab outside Boulder in Colorado. This cynical ploy to rob of us global climate data is directly linked to the fossil fuel industry that underpins this administrations every action. Every drop of gas one buys is funding this destruction of our most valuable commodity, the scientific research to understand the processes of our planet. The announcement was made by OMB chair Russell Voight, the author of Project 2025. His statement said, “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country…” without providing any evidence except his own opinion.

The Governor of Colorado stated, “Climate change is real, but the work of NCAR goes far beyond climate science,” Polis said. “NCAR delivers data around severe weather events like fires and floods that help our country save lives and property, and prevent devastation for families. If these cuts move forward we will lose our competitive advantage against foreign powers and adversaries in the pursuit of scientific discovery.”

If you supported Trump and the politicians who make up his sycophant society you are helping support these disastrous decisions that continue to destroy our country and turn us into something resembling the Soviet Union or worse. Clearly our Senators and House members do not support this shut down of NCAR Colorado. Is this the kind of country you want to leave to your children and grandchildren?

This is not Making America Great Again, it’s an attempt to create a totalitarian government based on the beliefs of the fossil fuel industry. Better rethink your support of this maniac and act now to stop him before it’s too late. Send your donations to the ACLU and other organizations fighting for out rights. Contact friends in Red states to make sure they have heard this news and tell them to contact their Federal representatives to overturn this insane dictate.

You can support a green economy now by buying or leasing electric vehicles, walking and biking whenever possible, donating to the national organizations fighting the administration in court and supporting local farmers who strengthen our resilience to the effects of climate change .

Our hope is when this administration is finally out of office, that we can rebuild better the destroyed institutions that they have worked to eliminate in the name of the gas station of yours down the street. But that will take more than words on a blog. It takes every one of us doing something to change the direction of this out of control ship of state.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/climate-change/trump-administration-break-climate-research-center-ncar-rcna249668

Washington’s last coal power plant will transition to natural gas – Washington Standard

The Washington Standard is reporting on the conversion from coal to natural gas for the Chehalis power plant. The roots of this go back to the 2000s, when People For Puget Sound (I was a board member and lobbied for our legislative priorities) , The Sierra Club and many other environmental groups started lobbying to shut down the plant.

Finally, almost 20 years after we started the efforts we are just now seeing the conversion discussed as happening soon. There was no mention in the article about *when* the conversion would happen, only that it *is* going to happen. The company (a Canadian firm) waited until the very last month of the very last year before they would have legally been mandated to announce the conversion rather than the shut down of the plant. It has to be asked whether or not the Legislature, in their 2011 agreement couldn’t have simply pushed the deadline to 2012 and we could have seen the coal particulate gone 13 years ago? How many more cases of cancer did we see and have to pay for medical bills between then and now? We’ll never know.

Obviously, this shift to natural gas, another fossil fuel, only minimally reduces our need on those fuels or the harm to the environment. It does reduce the particulates in the smoke that causes cancer, but continues to accelerate our slide towards an unstoppable global warming scenario.

Once again, our politicians acted with no urgency, in the benefit of a foreign corporation who exploited their lack of urgency to the last minute they could. Wonder how much lobbying money went to the swing votes in that legislation? Again, who knows. Those politicians are long gone, maybe even to the company itself. It is no wonder that the voters continue to see little value in the political class who seem undermine every effort to protect the environment and take the lobbying money thrown at them by the very people they are supposed to be protecting us from being harmed by their industries.

“And so it goes.” Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five

Ralph Munro walks on

The master of bi-partisan politics and perhaps the greatest politician this state ever had the honor to call one of its own, Ralph Munro, passed yesterday at the age of 81.

I had the good fortune to interview Ralph and spend a few hours with him a decade ago. He was a gentle, always upbeat and positive person. But his accomplishments are one of the greatest list of public service achievements we have ever seen.

Ralph was Secretary of State for five terms. During that time, he instituted vote by mail and voter registration (Motor Voter) when getting a drivers license or renewal.

But Ralph was also the person that Governor Dan Evans called on to go down to California and see about the Vietnamese refugees after Democratic governor Jerry Brown did not want them relocated there. Munro helped to bring them here to resettle in Washington State.

He was a champion of developmentally disabled children and helped get the first law in the country passed to support their needs, called the “Education for All” act. He befriended a 7 year old with developmental disabilities, eventually becoming his legal guardian.

He was a champion of environmental causes. He personally was responsible for ending the Orca hunt and capture in Puget Sound.

He was well respected by Puget Sound tribes. He allowed the tribes to do archeological digs on his property and was honored by them.

And on a personal note, he was the only Republican that I have ever voted for.

My sincere condolences to his family and friends. We will miss him. I doubt, given the current political system that we will ever see anyone like him again in Washington politics.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/remembering-ralph-munro-5-term-washington-secretary-of-state-and-statesman

Hilary Franz’s DNR work prioritized political gain, some staffer say: Seattle Times.

Department of Natural Resources (DNR) head Hilary Franz, is again in the hotseat, as allegations surface from numerous staff of hers that her image and race for higher office has been the focus of her tenure at DNR. As someone who has covered the Commissioner of Public Lands since her first run for office, I can say that these charges do not surprise me at all. Her lack of honesty in dealing with issues has been a hallmark of her tenure to those of us who have needed her support. A simple example is that she denied she ever approved the controversial DNR leasing to an industrial aquaculture company of the waters inside the Dungeness Spit Wildlife Refuge, even when shown her own signature on the DNR documents. Her comment to me at the time was, “I have no idea about that.” That staffers openly say her only goal was higher office also goes hand in hand with what I’ve witnessed in her dealing with Jefferson County Democrats during fundraisers. As readers know, this blog has come out in favor of her opponent, Emily Randall.

The Times has endorsed Franz, and even beloved cartoonist David Horsey decided that the charges were not worth worrying about in his editorial. Needless to say, he has never worked with her, nor needed to deal with her department to try and protect the shores of our waters. And this is the problem, to a casual observer, she appears to be a great choice, but when one actually has to work with her and her department, it’s a totally different story. Horsey claims Hilary doesn’t kowtow to industry, when all of us who have been involved in following her choices know that is just not true. To Horsey, I would only say, Hilary is not just an ambitious politician, she is all about whatever it takes to promote Hilary’s march to Washington. And the environment is just a prop to gain power and distract those that are not paying attention.

Franz came and talked to the Jefferson County Democrats in her first race for Lands Commissioner. We welcomed what seemed like a bright, energetic woman who claimed she was all about protecting the environment. We also could tell how ambitious she was, in her slapping her buttons on the chests of those of us in line to get in before even introducing herself to us. It was an odd introduction. But after she took office, we began to see that she was far more interested in promoting industry over the environment and that all the issues were about Hilary and her supposed accomplishments. It was not listening but telling. Always a warning when dealing with a politician.

Long time Jefferson County Democratic party activist and environmental leader Connie Gallant, tried to work with Hilary on numerous occasions and came to same conclusion. Ms. Gallant sent a strong letter describing her feelings about the Times article to her environmental email list, redoubling her support for Emily Randall.

If this candidate was a Republican, or Donald Trump, the Times would likely have more real outrage about the allegations. But given that Hilary plays well with the environmental movement leaders in places like Bellevue and Seattle who never seem to get out of their tower offices to see what is happening on the ground in places like the Olympic Peninsula, papers like the Times will cheer her on.

It’s totally likely that she will be our next Congressional Representative, given the support Franz has received from the usual suspects. I guess we could at least say she will be out of our hair on a local level and worrying about a much wider range of issues than the environment. Her support of business over the environment will likely have less negative impacts. She will have a replacement who hopefully will care more about protecting the environment than she has, though our state’s reliance on turning forests into tree farms and turning virgin shorelines into industrial aquaculture farms means the fight will have to go on indefinitely.

Here’s the crux of the Times story. Please either subscribe to the Times, as it is one of our only regional newspapers left or go to your local library and read it for free. And take a look at our choices for elected officials we have found listen to us, do the hard work to stand up for environmental protection, or have pledged to do so. Our recommendations are at

Election24: primary recommendations | Olympic Peninsula Environmental News (olyopen.com)


Fifteen current and former DNR employees described in interviews with The Seattle Times how Franz aggressively used the agency to burnish her image to run for higher office — first for governor and now for Congress — in ways that some say blurred lines governing the use of public resources for political purposes.

The current and former employees, including women and men who have worked as senior aides and managers, said they were pressured to organize official events driven by Franz’s campaign needs and to help her secure political endorsements.

The current and former employees, including women and men who have worked as senior aides and managers, said they were pressured to organize official events driven by Franz’s campaign needs and to help her secure political endorsements.

Hilary Franz’s DNR work prioritized political gain, some staffers say | The Seattle Times