Seattle Times

October 7, 2010 THE dire economic situation facing the Legislature requires the attention of voters. If voters do scrutinize the election there should be a slew of new faces in Olympia, including a couple from the 47th District.

One of those new faces should be Joe Fain. A Republican with deep roots in South King County, he is currently chief of staff to Metropolitan King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer. Fain gets the nod instead of incumbent Democratic Sen. Claudia Kauffman because of his belief that the old way of building budgets is dead. Fain, a self-described policy wonk, sees the economic crisis as more than cyclic. He wants Olympia to budget for an economy that will not be as robust as the past couple of decades.

Fain's experience in county government and his understanding that the Legislature's No. 1 priority is attacking the budget will serve him and the 47th District well in the Senate.