Campaign Phone Number
3609108493
Biography (max 750 char)
Diana H. Perez is a Vancouver City Councilmember, scientist, and lifelong public servant running for State Representative in Washington's 17th Legislative District. Raised in a union household, she spent 35 years as a fisheries biologist and public lands manager, protecting natural resources, responding to wildfires, and serving communities across the Pacific Northwest. Diana has also served on the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, where she worked to expand housing opportunities. She is running to make Washington more affordable by expanding housing, strengthening public safety, investing in education, ensuring reliable and affordable energy, and supporting working families, small businesses, and local jobs.
My top budget priorities are making Washington more affordable by investing in housing, public education, healthcare, childcare, public safety, workforce development, and reliable infrastructure. These investments strengthen families, grow our economy, and reduce long-term costs. If reductions become necessary, I would prioritize improving government efficiency, eliminating duplication, and evaluating programs based on measurable outcomes and not cutting services that working families rely on. For additional revenue, I support modernizing our regressive tax system by closing unfair tax loopholes, reforming the B&O tax to better support small businesses, and ensuring the wealthiest individuals and largest corporations contribute their fair share while protecting working families.
Washington should continue strengthening public confidence by protecting secure, accessible, and transparent elections while expanding civic participation. I support defending vote-by-mail, ensuring election officials have the resources they need, improving language access and voter education, and combating misinformation with accurate, nonpartisan information. We should encourage greater participation by young people, Tribal communities, rural residents, people with disabilities, and historically underrepresented communities. Public trust grows when government is transparent, accountable, and responsive. Democracy is strongest when every eligible voter can participate freely, confidently, and see themselves reflected in the decisions being made.
Improving public safety requires both prevention and accountability. We need to recruit, retain, and train well-qualified law enforcement, firefighters, and emergency responders while investing in their well-being, training quality, and crisis response services. I support evidence-based strategies to reduce gun violence, strengthen community partnerships, and address the root causes of crime, including housing instability and economic opportunity. We must also invest in wildfire preparedness, emergency communications, and resilient infrastructure. Safe communities are built when first responders have the resources they need, communities are engaged, and government delivers effective, accountable public safety services.
A healthy democracy depends on an informed public. Local journalism plays a vital role in holding government accountable, informing residents, and strengthening civic engagement. The state's role should be to support access to reliable local news without influencing editorial independence. I support exploring nonpartisan approaches that help sustain local journalism, improve public access to government information, expand digital and media literacy, and ensure rural communities have access to trusted local news. An informed public builds stronger communities, greater civic participation, and more accountable government.
Washington's independent redistricting process has helped reduce partisan gerrymandering, but there is room for improvement. I support increasing transparency, expanding public participation throughout the process, improving outreach to rural communities, Tribal Nations, communities of color, and people with disabilities, and making mapping data and draft proposals more accessible. District boundaries should reflect communities of interest, respect Tribal sovereignty, and ensure fair and effective representation while complying with the Voting Rights Act. Any reforms should strengthen public trust by making the process more open, accountable, and responsive to the people it serves and not political interests.
The greatest challenge facing the 17th Legislative District is affordability. Too many families are struggling with the rising costs of housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries, transportation, and energy, making it harder to build a stable future. State government should focus on practical solutions that expand housing, strengthen public education and workforce training, support small businesses and family-wage jobs, invest in reliable infrastructure, and ensure clean, affordable energy. Every policy should be evaluated through one question: Will it make life more affordable and expand opportunity for the people of the 17th District? My priority is delivering practical, fiscally responsible solutions that help people not just get by, but thrive.
Campaign Phone Number
5035043099
Biography (max 750 char)
As a retired Marine Colonel & Mayor of Washougal, I bring decades of leadership & public service to Olympia. In the Legislature, I serve on the House Local Gov’t, Environment & Energy, Healthcare, and Transportation committees. I am committed to fiscal responsibility, public safety, supporting our first responders & addressing the real needs of families in Clark County, including affordable housing, infrastructure, childcare & healthcare. I bring a straightforward, common sense approach to government. I believe in reducing wasteful spending, holding programs accountable & focusing state resources on what matters most to working families. As your Representative, I will continue to fight for stronger, safer communities across the LD 17.
My top budget priorities are affordable housing, transportation, daycare, and healthcare. We are significantly behind in all these areas, as well as others. This is why the majority party continues raising taxes.
Before searching for new revenue (which means raising taxes again), we must first examine where our money is currently being spent and identify waste.
When the Legislature allocates funds to any organization or program, that recipient should be required to clearly show how the money is being used and demonstrate a measurable return on investment.
By holding programs accountable and eliminating waste, we can make far better use of taxpayer dollars, achieve real progress on our most pressing needs, and reduce the pressure to keep raising taxes.
We need to ensure that every voter feels confident their vote matters and that our election system works. I have strong confidence in Washington State’s voting process, but no system is perfect. If we can identify and close any gaps or tighten safeguards, I would support those improvements.
The most effective state level strategies to improve public safety in Washington State start with rebuilding trust and confidence in our first responders. We must fully fund law enforcement, give officers the resources and support they need, and let them do their jobs without unnecessary political interference.
At the same time, we need to strengthen accountability in our criminal justice system. Repeat offenders and serious criminals must face real, swift consequences. This includes reforming policies that have weakened deterrence and ensure our courts and corrections system prioritizes public safety.
Local journalism plays a vital role in holding government accountable and keeping communities informed. The state capitol is “the people’s house”, and local journalists must have full access to report on what happens there. Washington state should support the conditions that allow independent local news to thrive, including strong open records laws and access to public meeting, while ensuring it does so without compromising press independence or favoring certain viewpoints.
At the same time, journalists have a responsibility to report accurately. They should be held accountable, just like any other institution, if they deliberately falsify information.
I support improvements to the redistricting process to create fair and representative maps for 2031 and beyond. Redistricting must accurately reflect each area’s demographics, communities & population changes. Districts should respect communities of interest rather than protect incumbents or favor political parties.
I favor greater transparency through more public hearings and easier access to proposed maps and data. We should require compact districts that minimize splitting cities, counties & neighborhoods, establish clear guardrails against gerrymandering and use the most accurate census & demographic data available.
Washington’s redistricting commission is a strong foundation, but we must continually refine the process to build public trust & ensure every voter has fair representation.
The greatest challenge facing our legislative district is the state budget and insufficient resources for local priorities. We urgently need more support for fire mitigation, childcare, healthcare, rural hospitals, roads, bridges, affordable housing, and public safety.
Instead of raising taxes, the state must first fix its spending priorities. The Legislature has been irresponsible with taxpayer money by funding programs that deliver poor results. State government should rigorously review expenditures, eliminate waste, enforce accountability, and redirect funds toward the real needs of our communities.
Fiscal responsibility and smarter spending will allow us to address these challenges without constantly increasing the tax burden on families.
