OROVILLE – The two candidates running for Seventh District Representative, Positions 1, Andrew Engell and Soo Ing-Moody, appeared at the candidates forum sponsored by the Oroville WA Chamber of Commerce and the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune. The forum 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.
Soo Ing-Moody
My name is Soo Ing-Moody and I am running for Legislative District Seven, Position 1. For the last 13 years, I have served as the Mayor of the Town of Twisp. I have been road-tested by three of Washington State’s largest wildfires and I have worked to provide for our town. We’ve replaced and repaired approximately 90 percent of our town’s water, sewer and street after the fires. And in planning after the fires, we worked to build a workshop and town hall that also does double duty as an emergency operations center when needed.
Of course, finances – straightened that up and cleaned up our water rates for our town.
Those are some of the things that happened during my tenure at the Town of Twisp. But also, for the past decade, I’ve spent much of my time in Olympia, fighting for Eastern Washington, advocating for rural broadband, improving public safety and fighting for more of our tax dollars to basically come back to us here at home.
My work has brought me the honor of being elected by peers in Washington state to become the president of the Association of Washington Cities, representing cities and towns across the state. It is to leverage these experiences, knowledge and established relationships at the state level, that I am now running to become your next state representative.
I am running because I care and that’s one thing 14 years of working with Okanogan County and other jurisdictions is proof of. I also believe it is a duty and an honor to share our God-given talents in service to others.
A little bit about myself that you may not know. I was raised to pull my weight and to be a part of the solution. I come from humble beginnings. As the middle daughter of immigrant parents from Canada, my parents worked hard even to put food on the table. Even though what we had wasn’t that much., what they did was try to teach me always to give back. So, I was raised to work hard, know the value of money and the importance of service.
I was the first to graduate university in my family, working multiple jobs to pay my own way through schooling. I am a Christian and my faith guides me in all I do. I am a Republican and I am fiscally conservative. I am also a proud American who believes in the rule of law and a need for us to work together regardless of party or affiliation to be united in defending our freedom and upholding our values.
I am glad to be here tonight and with my husband of nearly 25 years, we’ve raised two amazing young men, who like him were born and raised here in Okanogan County. I’m running for them and I’m running for you and for future generations.
The communities across our district need strong representation to shape the future that we want to be here. Like making sure our traditional ag industry and economy are protected so that farmers and ranchers have the tools and support needed to help feed our families but also to keep our communities intact so the natural resource industries can remain vital. Especially in light of the current housing crisis and so that future generations have the tools needed to be innovative in developing the industries of the future.
There’s a lot of work to do and I’m ready to do it.
The work is not easy, as the minority group, the Republicans will have to work together with Democrats to make sure that work gets done.
Andrew Engell
My name is Andre Engell and I am running for state legislature in the Seventh District Position 1.
I grew up in this district, in the Colville area where I have been deeply involved in my community throughout my life. I worked there: construction, welding, farming, small business and public service. The value of faith, family and freedom embodies who I am and what I stand for. Sunday mornings if you were to visit Colville, you could find me with my wife and children at First Baptist Church where we have been involved for many years.
As you get to know me, you’ll get to know I care about the freedom of other people as much as I do the freedom of myself.
Community service has defined my life. I learned that I loved serving others as a child and opportunities have been rolling in ever since. If any of you have been on a board, you’ll find that it’s harder to get off of them as on them. And I recently went through and added up my experiences and found that I held leadership positions in 17 community organizations, served as president in six of them. A few of those positions included president of the Colville Rotary Club, the chairman of the food bank, the Stevens County Farm Bureau, president of the Corpus Creek Water and Homeowners Association, Committee Officer of the Stevens County Republican Party, board member of the Chewelah Farmers Market and a firefighter and EMT.
As a result of my experience, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers hired me. When she did it was like living a dream. I was able to help people full-time and get paid for it. For the last seven years, I’ve enjoyed working with thousands of people and agencies, non-profits, local governments and state representatives. I absolutely loved that job every day.
Before working for the Congresswoman, I knew that we had issues with governance, but I found it much worse than I ever thought. And I really enjoyed working to identify the problems and work to find solutions through policy or case work.
It was incredible to work for the people. If you were to elect me to the state legislation I’ll make you, the people of the Seventh District, the center of my work in Olympia. Of the many issues I see that I will work on include supporting our law enforcement and enhancing public safety, supporting our veterans and ensuring they get the care they’ve earned, supporting and pushing back against out-of-control taxes and regulations, protecting our Second Amendment rights, making it easier to manage our forests. And, addressing our severe lack of housing by streamlining permitting and rolling back construction regulations.
