Mediaboss Marketing

State Rep. Robert Sutherland, R-Granite Falls, faces Claus Joens in the race to represent the 39th Legislative District in the state House. The district includes eastern Skagit and Snohomish counties and northeastern King County.

Sutherland was elected to the position in 2018 and is running for a second, two-year term.

Joens, a Democrat who resides in Marblemount, hopes to unseat Sutherland.

"I will do a better job than Sutherland has," he said in a statement to the Skagit Valley Herald. "As both a businessman and a teacher, I understand how budgets work, and education is our largest budget item."

Joens said additional strengths he would bring to the table include connections with agriculture having grown up on a small farm and the environment.

Sutherland on the other hand said in a statement to the Skagit Valley Herald that key issues he and Joens disagree on include rights to gather peacefully, gun rights, property taxes, and transportation taxes and fees.

"We need to strengthen, not weaken, our Constitutionally-protected rights," Sutherland said.

Joens said as someone who hunts and has a concealed carry permit he supports the Second Amendment's right to bear arms.

"But I do not threaten people with loaded guns," he said, later referencing news reports of Sutherland toting guns and making threats at protest events in April and June.

The Seattle Times reported that at an April protest in Olympia against Gov. Jay Inslee's COVID-19 stay-at-home measures, Sutherland took a microphone and told the crowd: When we go fishing, theyre going to send their guys with guns, and theyre going to write us tickets ... You send your goons with guns, we will defend ourselves.

As for taxes, Sutherland said he has a plan to do away with a state property tax that brings in about $3.7 billion a year. A bill he sponsored House Bill 2960, introduced to the Legislature in March states it would eliminate that tax, which is collected to support public schools, over a four-year period.

Joens said that tax, collected at a rate of $3.60 per $1,000 of assessed value, is critical to supporting public schools the state already struggles to adequately fund.

Follow this link:
Sutherland facing challenge from Joens in the 39th - goskagit.com