OROVILLE – Two candidates appear on the general election ballot for the seat of outgoing Washington State Seventh District Representative Joel Kretz, Democrat Paul Rock Dean and Republican Hunter Abell.

The two appeared at a forum was sponsored by the Oroville WA Chamber of Commerce and the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune and was held at the American Legion Hodges Post #84.

The candidates were given time to introduce themselves and then took questions read by the moderator, chamber president Rocky DeVon. The following are the candidates’ introductory statements.

Hunter Abell

My name is Hunter Abell and I’m running for 7th Legislative District to represent our area over in Olympia. Representative Position #2 is a position that was held for many years by Joel Kretz and held with distinction. I want to say that Joel has endorsed me for that position.

What I’d like to do tonight: I’d like to talk a little bit about who I am and why I’m running. I’d also like to talk briefly about some of the questions I’ve heard over the course of this campaign.

Who I am, I’m a man of faith, I’m a Christian, I’m a father, I’m conservative. I’m a veteran and an attorney and part owner of a family ranch about 10 miles north of Inchelium. I mentioned I’m Christian, my faith is important to me. The reason I tell you that is there are things that I will do in the course of my campaign and there are things that I won’t do in the course of my service and my campaign. My faith is a feature of my life and a cornerstone of my life. I hope to take those values with me into service over in Olympia.

I’m also a dad, I’ve got two beautiful little girls, ages nine and 11, that keep me on my toes. I had no idea it was so much fun being a father of daughters. I just had no clue, they’re wonderful… some of you may have met them before they’re great little girls

I’m also a conservative, sort of a fiscal, social conservative. I believe in the principles that are outlined in our founding documents by our founding fathers. Basically, I believe government works best that is closest to the people. I believe strongly in limited government and federalism, separation of powers.

I’m also a veteran. I originally enlisted in the Navy in the spring of 2003 during that wave of Americans who joined the armed services after 9-11. A couple years later I got commissioned and went off to Iraq in 2007/2008. I was talking to a lady from Oroville today who lost a son in Iraq a couple of months before I arrived. That was heartbreaking to get a chance to touch base with her about that and talk about her family’s sacrifice for our country.

Today I’m still in the military, as a member of the United States Navy Reserves, I’m a JAG officer, I’ve been a JAG officer for about 18 years and been in the military for a total 20 plus years as an active officer, Reserves and enlisted.

I went to the Gonzaga University School of Law. I was a typical 18-year-old, I grew up in Inchelium, went K-12 in Inchelium, and like most 18-year-olds I wanted to get out, left right away and four years later I came back home with my tail between my legs.

I think Eastern Washington is pretty great. I came back to Spokane for law school. Over the course of my career, I have developed and honed my legal skills in pursuit of a constitutional/conservative interpretation and approach in defending the Washington Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.

Long Rifle Ranch was established by my grandparents. I have 160 acres of it now. Frequently we have horses on it, but right now were basically just watching the trees grow. With my kids and having a fourth-generation ranch I’m really excited about that.

I’m running first and foremost to support our law enforcement and address the fentanyl challenge we have throughout our state. Talk to any law enforcement and they’ll say this is driving the criminal numbers on a variety of different fronts throughout the state. We need to ensure that our law enforcement have the resources, training and equipment they need to tackle this issue.

I also want to promote and protect our roads district wide. My theory is that people live in Oroville because they want to live in Oroville. They could live in Tacoma, Seattle or Spokane, but you chose to live here, or in this area of Okanogan County, because it is a special area. This is a really unique and special area to live and the key to that is property rights. I’m supporting ranching, supporting agriculture.

I’m also running to support and defend our second amendment rights to bear arms.

Paul “Rocky” Dean

My name is Paul “Rocky” Dean, I am running for the 7th District Legislative Position 2 and I’d like to tell you a little bit about myself. I’m originally from Southern California, I was born and raised, and at the age of 18 I left California and decided to go see the world. I joined the U.S. Army. So the first tour that I went to was in 1982 in Granada.

I was a commercial industrial sandblaster on nuclear power plants and military aircraft and submarines in Pensacola, Florida. After that I came back to the military in 2000 and I just retired in 2018 so that puts me in the military for just over 26 years.

I’ve been deployed seven times and I’ve done lots and lots of logistics _____ So I have a really good grasp on how to get things done. How to resource things and how to go to the right people in order to get those jobs done real fast.

Me and my wife landed down in Springdale, we’ve been down there for six and half years now. I’ve been on the town council for four and years I’m also on the utilities committee and the climate committee.

I have three core principles that I want to work for, the first one is small rural towns and communities. We need to build a program so these small communities have access to emergency funding when they need emergency money. I know you were talking about grants earlier, they don’t always work because once you get them written you have to wait seven to nine months. A small town can’t wait that long.

The second one is our schools. Our schools are suffering they don’t have the capital gains to maintain all the classes kids need to give the skills – automotive shop, woodshop, welding shop, stuff like this. Music and arts classes have been taken away, like the town I live in, Springdale. Those are the foundations and the building blocks for our children who are getting ready to step out into the world and take over this great country once we set it aside.

The third big one for me is, helping our veterans. Our veterans fought for this country, they shouldn’t have to fight for better healthcare access through the VA. So, they used to have a clinics up in the area here and I guess a number of years ago it was shut it down. So anybody who has to go from Tonasket, Oroville, Winthrop to the VA it’s a five- or six-hour round trip in a day for our older veterans. That’s not acceptable. We need to build a program they have better telehealth community access and ___.

We’re talking about bringing the broadband into the areas that could help a couple of things. It’s going to help the schools that we first talked about. It’s going to help bring in better, smaller businesses have better access. And it’s going to help our veterans out when they need to talk to their doctors to get the help they need in the current location that they’re at.

With that being said, I talked to the gentleman sitting there about his concern about the grizzly bears everyone has heard about that they want to bring over here. I’ve done a little research; I don’t know for sure that’s going to happen. It’s an apex predator and there are a couple of good things our predecessor Joel Kretz was talking about that I’d like to continue to build upon. I don’t like having to kill off animals if we don’t have to. I understand there are times that has to be done, but we need to see if there are better ways to relocate. Putting them close to the range like that, that could be pretty expensive after awhile.

I am running as a moderate Democrat. It’s time for someone to step into the middle of the aisle and reach across and talk to everybody. I’d appreciate your vote to send me to Olympia and we’ll work together to get something done.