Former three term Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett is running as a Republican for 12th District State Representative, Position 1  Burnett entered the race as the result of a series of changes triggered by a redrawn legislative map earlier this year.  The Position 1 seat is currently held by Rep. Keith Goehner (R) who is not seeking another House term and instead, is sseking the open 12th Distrcit Senate seat occupied by Brad Hawkins.  The Republican state senator is vacating his Senate seat to run for Chelan County Commissioner.

After being asked to consider running for the office, Burnett said he thinks his law enforcement background and leadership roles at the state level will represent voter's concerns over problems with crime and homelessness

Burnett is a former president of the state association of Sheriff's and Police Chiefs and was appointed by Gov. Inslee to the criminal justice training commission.

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KPQ-- It is quite likely that Republicans will remain in the minority in both chambers in Olympia so you will be in the minority, if elected.  What are the issues that you really want to focus on for the 12th district?

BRIAN BURNETT--  No doubt, my history in public safety is a big piece of that. There's going to be an opportunity to get on the public safety committee, criminal justice committee, and actually have some good interaction and try to, I guess, derail or avert some of the very poor policy that came out, just the last few years.  That impacted rising crime rates and public safety has a huge impact to our local governments, our economies. I mean, you look at the dangerous drugs, homelessness.  Why are there a certain level of homelessness? Why are we seeing that rise and mental health.  Then,  you can take that back over to our small businesses.  What can we do to help them thrive? Because really, it's the heartbeat of our local economy, and this is what we need to be moving forward.  Everything I hear out there from the from the small business owners,  it doesn't matter which district you're in, doesn't matter what county you're in. It's the same thing over, over, over. It's over regulation. Let's put the things in place that's important for certain safety aspects on a statewide piece, but let's give that power and autonomy to to our local municipalities and the counties to say we need to reduce some of these things and take this off the plate,  if it's not a public safety issue or safety issue moving forward for development and different things like that.  Obviously affordable housing is a huge one. As people start to venture farther out, it used to be over in the North Bend area, and even in Monroe and Sultan, they're talking about.... before..... we were the bedroom communities, and now, all of a sudden, rising housing costs, is making it so they're no longer affordable for them either. And so people are asking, where do we go?  Where do we go from here that we don't have to commute an hour and a half, two hours to be able to make it to our jobs.  Can the jobs pay for in a family setting, what it is where we're living, and so that's a big piece of it really doesn't change.  I went to an Affordable Housing Consortium forum in Everett a couple months ago.  A private property developer and builder says, I have property today that I could go and put up apartment complex. But anything that's going to go multi level, is 300 to $350 a square foot.  That's not affordable housing. And I think the difference is to different groups, whether you're on the conservative side, or the more liberal side, Is it affordable housing you're talking about, or is it subsidized housing?  Because there's two major differences on what you call those and what those look like, when we're talking about truly affordable housing. So they need to go back to the builders, the business owners that do this on a regular basis, that really know the facts and start listening.

KPQ--  Whether it is in the Wenatchee Valley or North Bend and Monroe, what might be an example a business person or a developer saying the state's getting in my way?

BRIAN BURNETT--  I think when we talk about people saying, hey, I want to start a small business. I want to kick something off, it's really, really difficult. I hear they almost make it impossible. I want to encourage business owners, because that's going to make our economy thrive. Don't you want your businesses to do well in your local area, but I think foundationally, across the district and probably across the state, it's very similar. Now, there's going to be small things about every area that's slightly different, and there's going to need tweaking on here and there. But foundationally, people want to have a quality of life that they can raise their families, that they can make their mortgage and have a little left over and provide for their family moving forward and planning for the future. And I think what they're finding is that that's that's much more difficult in different areas.  We have different tax rates and different regulations based on the different counties, after it's passed down from the state what is required. And I think that was the greatest fear.  That's why I think I was approached, we need somebody that can help us go do this, secure the campaign, get elected and help us.  You know, keep the qualities that we want here, because they were afraid of certain things getting passed down from King County.   Now I want to talk about that King County, because they are a little more heavy on taxation and regulation.  At the same time, we've met amazing people across the board, regardless of what political affiliation they have. There's some amazing people in Chelan, Snohomish and King County, that's part of our 12th legislative district, with similarities in what it is they're looking for.  But one of the inspiring things for me is, we're not trying to shove certain things down people's throat.  We do believe on conservative values,  but the Republican legislators have some very  good ideas.  And what I'm hearing from some of the Democrats is that, and these could be new candidates saying, I'm running because I want change.  You're going to follow the party that has been voting in some very, very poor policy in the last few years, and it's failing. So if you want change, then let's sit down and talk about it. And that's one of the things we get asked in different forums and different radio or newspaper articles that we're getting interviewed in, is how are you willing, or what's your ideas of stepping across the aisle to be considering these different things?  It's the Democrats that have  passed most of these things. And no offense, but they need to step back and say, if you really want change and you want to move this dial and make it look better, then you need to sit down and start talking across the aisle to the Republicans and start really going for some real solutions.

KPQ-- What is your message from the 12th district to address how the state is handling of homelessness?

BRIAN BURNETT--  We have to enforce the laws, and keep laws on the books that allows us to enforce things that actually have a positive outcome.  I'll go back to that terminology, the war on drugs, the war on dangerous drugs, because, but it's much bigger than just passing a few policies.  We have to look at some bigger things. Because one, there's some there's some major flaws in the in the southern border policy that has allowed for the dangerous drugs, fentanyl, human trafficking and different things.  Now there's different impacts and reasons that people are homeless, but a massive majority of that is because of drug addiction, dangerous drug addiction, and so we need to go back in and look and say, how do we do this? How do we put laws back in place, allow our local law enforcement agencies to enforce these properly and prosecute them?  We were just on the edge of starting these drug courts, and they were going to have some positive impact, and then basically, they decriminalized much of our drug enforcement laws.  I think the the law enforcement side is kind of a middle ground, and then on the other side, you've got rehabilitation and reentry. Because what we don't want is people sitting in jail cells and prison beds, right? We want to see them be rehabilitated, get off drugs and be able to function properly, both for themselves, their families, for society and the communities they live in.   Because then, crime rates start going down, they get back to work and on and on and on.  So I think there's a big picture with a lot of different players. The government is not the only answer,�� is not the cure all. We need people that are going to volunteer their time.  We see faith based ministries helping with people coming out of the jail, doing different things, but but also just having simple mentors. Some of these people have never been shown. What does it look like to have a strong work ethic? What does it look like to lead a family? What does it look like to do this? And so government plays a role, and we need to get different entities involved,  different nonprofits and work together to function for a long term solution.

KPQ--  Why are you a better choice for the 12th district than your opponent?

BRIAN BURNETT--  I think my background and my leadership style.   I've been in a lot of different leadership positions, from elected sheriff to President of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.  I was a commissioner for the criminal justice training commission appointed by Governor Inslee. Not once did I seek that on my own. I always had somebody that come to me and said, Hey, I think you would be good fit for this. And here's why,  would you consider this?  And so with my background,  my networking with some really good, strong influencing skills based on public safety, I'm in that position, that I have the time to go and travel.   I work for a private business, mostly remotely, and they've given me the green light to do this, to work alongside them, to be able to to balance both.  My wife is in agreement. We're in that stage where we know where we could get out and find the opportunity to do this together, and it's just a great opportunity to learn.  I'm really excited about being able to serve and listen to the needs and work really closely with our current legislators. I think we have a great opportunity with myself, Mike Steele and Keith Ghoener, to work together as a true legislative team like the 12th district has never had before.

KPQ--  How can voters learn more about your campaign positions?

BRIAN BURNETT--  Burnett for state representative dot com is the best way to go.  Go and look at our endorsement page from the business, the builders, the small businesses associations. It's overwhelming, and you won't see that with my opponent. I'm  very, very excited to be able to have this opportunity to serve you. We're down to about 20 days to November 5, and I think the biggest thing to do is tell people to vote.

Burnett and Democrat Heather Koellen, an ICU Nurse who serves on the North Bend City Council will appear on the Nov. 5th General Election ballot.

 

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