Attack of the (campaign) clones

Plus an update on the gas initiative, slumping cap gains returns, and one thought on the debate

Jesse Young and Michael Kelly are running on a lot of the same ideas. You could even say their campaigns are borrowing those ideas verbatim.

Readers will remember Kelly from our story on the Washington GOP’s four-way fight for the 4th legislative district. He launched his campaign with a bombastic all-American website. We couldn’t help but notice its uncanny resemblance to the star-spangled spectacle of Young’s campaign to hold the swing 26th District for the House Republicans.

Young is running to reclaim his old House seat after Rep. Spencer Hutchins, R-Gig Harbor, decided not to seek a second term. The ever-competitive 26th spans some 32 miles of the Kitsap Peninsula which Young represented for almost a decade before losing a brutal faceoff against Bremerton Democrat Emily Randall for her state senate seat. 

He has two tough opponents this election: Democrat Adison Richards, a housing attorney who’s running as a friend to tenants, and Republican Jim Henderson, a lobbyist for the Rental Housing Association of Washington. Two have racked up a steady stream of endorsements from lawmakers in their respective parties and are threatening to turn the race into a housing fight, particularly over the dicey issue of rent restrictions the Legislature took a pass at this year.