2 very different Republicans compete for state's top financial job - The Seattle Times

2 very different Republicans compete for state's top financial job - The Seattle Times

OLYMPIA — As his campaign website puts it, you could “hire” Michael Waite, the Australian-born private financier and Seattle resident, to be Washington’s next state treasurer.

Or you could choose Duane Davidson, a longtime Benton County treasurer, who lives in Kennewick.

While Davidson and Waite are both Republicans, voters must choose between their day-and-night styles and philosophies for the state’s top financial job.

In the August primary, Davidson earned 25 percent of the vote, the largest chunk in the five-way race to replace Jim McIntire, a two-term Democrat who is retiring. Waite earned a little more than 23 percent; three Democrats split the remaining 51.5 percent.

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For voters, the treasurer may rank among the more esoteric of the state’s elected positions. The office manages the state’s debt, cash flow and some short-term investments. Among other things, the treasurer also sits on the State Investment Board and the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

It’s from that latter perch that McIntire recently made news. A former state lawmaker first elected treasurer in 2008, McIntire cast a symbolic protest vote against a May state budget-outlook forecast. It was another step in his efforts to draw attention to the state’s lack of progress on K-12 education funding.

McIntire’s outspokenness on education and tax revenue — which in 2015 included proposing his own tax-reform package — has provided some of the frame for this year’s campaign.

Davidson, 57, said he believes the treasurer should hang back and let state lawmakers come to a solution on their own.

“Once you’re in office you’ve got to act as nonpartisan as you can,” Davidson said, adding later: “You don’t jump into the legislative fray” like McIntire did last year.

He noted that the state also has a Department of Revenue and Office of Financial Management, so the Treasurer’s Office doesn’t need to be involved.

“One of the problems in government is we have too many people doing each other’s jobs,” he said.

If elected, Davidson said, he would want to help the smaller counties deal with resource shortages in their treasurer offices. And he promises to run an “open, accessible and accountable” office, according to his website.

Voters have elected Davidson four times as Benton County treasurer, a post he’s held since 2003.

Davidson grew up west of the Cascades, in Carnation, and said he worked on a farm there when he was younger. Those days he wrestled with what he described as a “really bad drinking problem,” which resulted in three arrests for DUI, the last time in 1994, according to court records.

Getting sober, Davidson said, allowed him to pull together a life he didn’t have before: marriage, a college degree, his career in finance. Before his election to county treasurer, Davidson worked as a financial accountant for the county and an auditor at the state Auditor’s Office.

Davidson realizes most voters in August chose a Democrat in this race, and he touts a long, bipartisan list of endorsements from county treasurers and state lawmakers.

He’s also drawn endorsements from the Washington Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, and the Washington Federation of State Employees. Each of those groups donated $2,000 to his campaign.

As of Thursday, Davidson reported raising more than $60,000.

“This is truly a Wall Street versus Main Street campaign,” Davidson said.

That fundraising disparity probably isn’t lost on Waite, whose campaign highlights the dollar differences between public service and private finance.

On his website, Waite describes the race as a choice between a “longtime county-level politician whose job is to invest millions” and “an experienced professional” who invests billions.

Waite, 39, grew up in the town of Naracoorte in southern Australia and said he first came to the United States as a tennis player.

A resident of Seattle, he’s currently a senior vice president at investment firm Bentall Kennedy, where he manages more than $10 billion in assets. Before joining the firm, Waite spent four years working at Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates’ private investment firm, Cascade Investment.

He doesn’t agree with McIntire’s 2015 tax-package proposal, which included a state income tax.

But Waite says he believes the treasurer should speak out on solutions for problems like school funding. And he promises to give analysis to lawmakers to help them figure out a funding plan.

When it comes to pushing for an education-funding solution, “My opponent has promised to do nothing,” Waite said one day over the phone from Spokane, where he was campaigning.

Waite also wants to find ways for the Treasurer’s Office to spend less money on consultants, increase the return on investments and make sure the state’s debt is being handled as efficiently as possible.

“You’ve got to make sure Wall Street doesn’t get one penny more than absolutely necessary,” he said.

As of Thursday, Waite reported bringing in about $155,000 in donations. Donors to his campaign include two big-time GOP contributors, Clyde Holland and Kemper Freeman — who have each given $2,000.

Rob McKenna, former state attorney general and 2012 Republican candidate for governor, has endorsed Waite. Several Republican state lawmakers have also thrown him their support, including chief GOP budget writer Sen. Andy Hill of Redmond.

McIntire hasn’t endorsed either candidate. In an interview, he said revamping Washington’s tax system and finding revenue to fund education will continue to be two of the state’s biggest challenges.

McIntire also took issue with the top-two primary system that prevented Democrats from fielding a general-election candidate.

“I’m distressed,” he said, “that the party that got the majority of votes in the primary ends up without a candidate on the general-election ballot.”