A Cathy Clone

In yesterday's Spokesman Review the editorial board touched on the three candidates who are running for the Legislative District 6 Position 1 seat replacing Kevin Parker who is not running for reelection.

Parker is endorsing first-time candidate Ian Field, a 26-year-old press secretary for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. He is four years removed from being the editor of the student newspaper at Walla Walla University. Since then, he has worked for and campaigned for the congresswoman.
The Legislature cut the budget mightily over two bienniums in response to the Great Recession. It cut services it admitted it needed, such as money for mental health, which ended up landing the state in court. The “waste, fraud and abuse” solution won’t generate the revenue needed. But it’s just about the only solution Field offered. 

Based on the Review's biannual endorsement of McMorris Rodgers that solution seems to be pretty good to apply at the national level. Go figure.

Field, a Republican, is enthusiastic but not ready to be a legislator. When asked about the various revenue challenges the state has faced and currently faces, his response was nearly always “efficiency.” Transportation? Against the recent gas tax increase that will finance the completion of the North-South freeway. Basic education funding? No new revenue. Where to find the money for both? Cut waste; be more efficient.

Well, of course his answers are "efficiency", "cut waste", and no more taxes. Of course he doesn't explain or expound on individual issues and provides a bumper sticker answer. He worked for Cathy McMorris Rodgers and that's essentially her modus operandi.