Because Republicans have long dominated the 5th District, many observers were surprised by one of the August primary election contests for the Legislature.

Democrat David Spring garnered nearly 49 percent of the votes in his challenge of the eight-year Republican incumbent, state Rep. Glenn Anderson. Two other Republican incumbents in the district, which includes Maple Valley, finished at least 17 percentage points ahead of their Democrat foes.

Anderson and Spring are now in the stretch run of their race for Position 2. The general election is Nov. 4.

Spring attributed his showing in August to voters being “mad as hornets” about education funding in the state. The North Bend resident and father of a third-grader has already drafted several bills that, if he’s elected, he would introduce in an effort to increase state education funding.

Spring wants a referendum to lower the threshold for passage of a school construction bond from 60 percent – dubbed the super majority – to 55 percent. He also wants to reduce class sizes, increase per-pupil funding, and raise teacher pay closer to the national average.

Additionally, Spring wants the state to fund 50 percent of the cost of new school construction.

He said the money needed to fund these measures, even as the state faces a budget deficit, can be found by ending corporate tax breaks, which he said Anderson had supported as a “former corporate lobbyist.”

Anderson said he was a registered lobbyist in Olympia from 1996 to 2000 as he advocated for stronger background checks on adults who work with children. He denied being connected to corporate lobbyists, and said he has voted for a decreasing number of business tax breaks over the years.

“It’d be nice to sit there and say that you could wash out a lot of corporate tax breaks, and to be honest, I think there are a lot of them that we could do without,” Anderson said. “Over the last almost eight years, the Democratic Party has been in charge, and they’ve granted all these tax breaks. You can vote no, and that’s what my record is.

“I’ve voted for my share of tax breaks. But I’ve gradually voted for less and less because they are just people wanting to pay less than others, and that’s not fair.”

Anderson also refuted Spring’s claim that within the pending House Bill 1612, which Anderson co-wrote with fellow 5th District Rep. Jay Rodne, is an attempt to raise property taxes. During the education funding reforms of the 1980s, the levy lid was set at 24 percent. Some school districts were grandfathered in with higher levy lids, however, and the state has been mandated to standardize the cap. Anderson’s bill would raise the maximum school levy lid to 30 percent statewide.

Spring said raising the lid would place a greater burden on homeowners by allowing for higher property taxes.

Anderson said raising the lid simply gives school districts more options when they approach taxpayers for levies.

Meanwhile, on the subject of transportation, the candidates have different ideas of how the region should resolve issues. Anderson focuses on cars and buses. Spring sees light rail as the future.

Anderson claimed increasing the gas tax will stifle the economy. He said sales tax revenue for auto sales, parts and services that currently goes to the state general fund should instead be used to fund transportation projects.

In terms of public transportation, Anderson thinks adding buses is better than expanding the Sound Transit light rail system because “the bus rapid-transit approach is going to get more people out of vehicles and be environmentally sensitive.”

Spring, on the other hand, said light rail “is the only way that we are going to reduce emissions” to help global warming. Quite frankly, I believe that we will run out of oil in 40 or 50 years.”

The Snoqualmie Valley Record, part of the newspaper group that includes the Reporter, contributed to this report.