Denny Heck, whose career spans local and statewide Democratic politics and 20 years as a business entrepreneur, ended weeks of suspense Wednesday when he formally announced his candidacy for the 3rd Congressional District seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Brian Baird.
“This race will be about who has the depth and breadth of experience to go to Congress and make decisions,” Heck said in an interview with The Columbian. “I’m the only practicing capitalist in this race. Nobody has to teach me that 70 percent of jobs are created by small businesses. I’ve done that.”
In fact, Republican congressional candidate Jon Russell, a Washougal city councilor who owns a family health clinic, might consider himself a “practicing capitalist” as well.
Heck joins a crowded field that also includes three sitting state legislators and a former Bush administration official. He announced on Dec. 14 that he was “strongly considering” joining the race and was prepared to invest $100,000 of his own money in the campaign.
What made up his mind, he said, was double-digit unemployment rates in the 3rd District, especially in its struggling rural areas.
Trying to stimulate job growth in the district “would get me up early and keep me working late,” he said. He favors the use of investment tax credits to help businesses create new jobs.
Heck, 57, was born in Vancouver and graduated from Columbia River High School, then from The Evergreen State College in Olympia. He was elected to the Legislature at age 23 and served from 1977 to 1985, representing the 17th District, which then included portions of Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties. In the Legislature, he served as Democratic majority leader, co-chaired the House Education Committee and wrote the state’s Basic Education Act.
He resigned to become chief clerk of the House of Representatives, and in 1988 lost a campaign for state superintendent of public instruction. He later served as chief of staff to former Gov. Booth Gardner.
In 1993, Heck co-founded TVW, the state’s public affairs television network, where he hosted an award-winning public affairs program. He retired from TVW in 2003.
He was an original investor in Real Networks, the digital entertainment company that pioneered streaming media on the Internet, and co-founded Intrepid Learning Solutions, a Washington-based worker training program that now has offices in eight states. He is also the co-owner of Bruin Development and chairs the board of Digital Efficiency, an electronic medical records company.
“I’m a believer in a market-based economy,” said Heck. “I literally practice it every day. But that doesn’t mean that all forms of market-based economy work. That was bad capitalism that caused, to this day, one in four mortgage holders to be under water. … We need financial institution reform to, frankly, protect Americans from bad capitalism.”
Heck said he supports tax incentives for investing in small businesses and tax credits for employers who create jobs. He said he also supports reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which was effectively repealed in 1999 and prevented commercial banks from engaging in the investment business.
Heck said he felt “an immediate tug” toward the idea that his business experience could help the nation’s economy recover if he were elected. He said his father was a truck driver and Teamster whose blue-collar job provided his family with a “good middle-class income.”
“It makes me heartsick every day that that seems to be fading from what is available to people,” he said.
The Daily News in Longview contributed to this report.
Who’s Running?
By The Daily News
The field for Brian Baird’s 3rd Congressional District seat is filling fast. Baird has served the district, which stretches from Clark to Thurston counties and includes Cowlitz, Lewis, Wahkiakum and Pacific counties, for six terms. The announcement that he is retiring has touched off a frenzy among potential candidates to replace him.
Here’s who’s running so far:
Republicans:
• Jaime Herrera, Camas, 18th Legislative District representative
• Jon Russell, a Washougal City Council member
• David Castillo, Olympia, former chief of staff for the Washington House Republican Caucus
• David Hedrick, Camas, a former Marine
Democrats:
• Denny Heck, Olympia, former 17th Legislative District representative, chief of staff to Gov. Booth Gardner
• Craig Pridemore, Vancouver, 49th District state senator
• Cheryl Crist, Olympia, a peace activist who has worked as a financial consultant, real estate agent and teacher
• Deb Wallace, Vancouver, 17th District Legislative representative
• Maria Rodriguez-Salazar, Vancouver, Clark County president of the League of United Latin American Citizens
Heck Lists Employment, Flooding, Steam Plant as Major Local Issues
By Marqise Allen
Creating new jobs and putting people back to work is Denny Heck’s number one concern, as three of the four counties within the district have the highest unemployment rates in the state, he told The Chronicle in an interview Wednesday.
As a county devastated by the collapse of the timber industry, Heck said he wants Lewis County, specifically East Lewis County, to see new jobs back in the industry.
“I’d like to see what we can do to help the timber industry be the green industry it is,” he said about managing forests in the forms of timber harvesting and tree growing.
He also thought trying to close the TransAlta plant after the mine closure would be counterproductive to fixing a stagnant economy.
“Those are awfully good jobs here in Lewis County,” he said, “and we ought not to be chasing away good jobs.”
Flood mitigation is the third issue Heck sees facing the 3rd District.
“We need a comprehensive and holistic solution that would need community consensus,” he said about trying to look at ways of combining the Army Corp of Engineers levee project and the Chehalis River Basin Flood Authority’s water retention project. “We’ve got to stay at the table and keep working.”
U.S. Rep. Baird said whoever took over the seat would have a challenge starting over from scratch, not having much sway within committees, but Heck said his age and experience would be a strength he would rely on if elected.
“I’m not a newcomer on how to get things done,” he said.
