The three candidates running to replace the retiring Democratic Rep. Helen Sommers in Seattle's 36th Legislative District, Republican Leslie Bloss and Democrats John Burbank and Reuven Carlyle, will meet tonight at 7 P.M. at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard for a debate sponsored by the Municipal League Foundation.

On the Democratic side, where voting history suggests both Democrats will move beyond the "top two" primary, the race in the 36th has been one of the state's most heated. Fundraising numbers have been among the highest in the state and candidates joke that it is the only state-level legislative position that requires a foreign policy.

The stakes will continue to be high tonight with three weeks remaining until the Aug. 19 primary and each candidate looking to build momentum with a strong showing, and hoping to use tonight's debate as an opportunity to show voters what separates them from the field.

Republican Bloss hopes her voice is heard

[img_assist|nid=1739|title=Leslie Bloss|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=162|height=199]Republican Leslie Bloss, though, hopes mainly to just get her fair share of attention. Given the high profile nature of the Democratic candidates, and the vast fundraising gap between them and her, Bloss has been left out of many 36th district media pieces, but she nevertheless feels that her message could resonate in the heavily Democratic district.

"I feel that it doesn't matter how much money I've raised," Bloss said of her status as a candidate. "I'm very interested in education and fiscal responsibility, the elevated viaduct and casino revenue."

She hopes to speak about better functioning education programs like the one implemented in Union Gap by former superintendent and current candidate for LD 14, position 1 state representative Bob McLaughlin,  and her strong support of maintaining an elevated Alaska Way Viaduct.

"Four years ago the state government said themselves that the viaduct is critical to regional mobility," Bloss said. "They said that the viaduct carries 103,000 vehicles a day through downtown Seattle and I want to know what has changed. It is still a lifeline."

Bloss also thinks that the state deserves a bigger share of tribal casino revenue, and would work to get a bigger piece of the pie, and wants to use the debate to emphasize less government spending.

"We have to really start being fiscally responsible and my opponents are not fiscally responsible," she said of the frontrunners.

On the Democratic side, where both candidates are solidly progressive, the tactics become a little more complicated.

Burbank looks to tout integrity, health care

[img_assist|nid=1024|title=John Burbank|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=281|height=182]"In terms of what I would like to emphasize," Burbank offered, "I think it is important to emphasize what our main priorities will be in the legislature and how we aim to achieve those priorities."

Accordingly, Burbank looks to push his commitment to expanding health care and education in the state.

"Those are two very important things, especially when we look at the gather clouds of the recession," Burbank said of his top issues.

He also aims to strike a populist blow on issues of campaign finance reform, something he has spoken about all campaign while refusing corporate and certain special interest contributions.

"I think that is a defining difference between the two of us. Reuven does take contributions from corporations such as Eli Lilly and the Washington Restaurant Association," Burbank said citing two groups that he claims try to block progress on health care and minimum wage issues.

Burbank, who heads up the Economic Opportunity Institute in Seattle, also believes that removing corporate power would help shore up the state's budgetary woes by making it easier to end corporate "loopholes" that he says take nearly a billion out of the state's coffers each biennium that could otherwise pay for full day kindergarten and greater state health care programs.

"The whole point of serving in the legislature is to try to serve the interests of the people of the 36th Legislative District, in terms of serving their economic security," Burbank stated. "A small section, 1% of our population, has gotten quite wealthy but the middle class has gotten hollowed out. [We must] rebuild this social contract between the people and the government. That's what I want to do as a state legislator."

Carlyle wants bold change, new blood

[img_assist|nid=1026|title=Reuven Carlyle|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=260]Carlyle, on the other hand, wants to show voters that it is a mix of substance, style and hope that shapes the better angels of his campaign.

"The fundamental question of our campaign is, ‘do you believe in the ideal of a citizen legislature, or do you believe that only inside professionals, 30 year lobbyists and legislative staffers should have the inside track?'" Carlyle posited, attempting to paint Burbank as a long-serving party insider. "And I think the people of our district believe with passion and conviction in the concept of a citizen legislature where real people living real lives can serve and tackle the public policy issues of our time."

Although Carlye and Burbank share many of the same key issues, with Carlyle swapping health care for the environment and adding transportation to the mix along with education and the economy, Carlyle wants to show voters that his style is better suited to their needs.

 "I think those are the issues that my district is focused on and the difference is really that we're living in a Barack Obama world where people want to move on," said the former high tech executive who frequently invokes the presumptive Democratic nominee and has the support of his state chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-Tacoma). "They want progress, results and change and not more excuses, tired old fashioned ideas and an addiction to incrementalism."

He also touts the endorsement of many of the area's top progressive interest groups to help illustrate the distinction between him and Burbank.

"The difference is that the Sierra Club, Washington Conservation Voters, Service Employees International Union, the single most progressive entrepreneurial and effective organizations, are behind me and they are behind me because of my experience, my public policy background and my ability to move forward," Carlyle boasted.

But ultimately for Carlyle, he hopes that voters will see him as the agent of big change.

"There are policy differences and there are style differences. My opponent is addicted to incrementalism and is intimidated by bold progressive change because he has had the hope squeezed out of him by the Olympia institutional subculture," Carlyle said of Burbank, again invoking an oft-repeated Obama line. "But my sense is that we live in an exciting time when people are demanding results, accountability and a sense that it is simply time to move forward."

Those are the types of things voters of the 36th LD can expect tonight up in Ballard. But, as Burbank pointed out, it will be the Municipal League's debate, with their questions and their parameters. The malleable confines of a phone interview can merely provide a glimpse of what is to come.

For the real deal, stop by the Nordic Heritage Museum, 3014 NW 67th Street in Seattle at 7 P.M. tonight.