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Q&A: Michael Baumgartner, Carmela Conroy Face Off for Congressional District 5 Seat by Kate Smith Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, October 21, 2024

"[T]he fish are under pressure from other factors, including warmer ocean conditions,
predatory birds and sea lions. Removing the dams is not the answer."
-- Michael Baumgartner

For the first time in 20 years, a new lawmaker will represent eastern Washington in Congress in 2025.

The candidates looking to replace longtime Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington's District 5 are Republican Michael Baumgartner and Democrat Carmela Conroy.

From his visits to Walla Walla, he has learned about local priorities from ensuring quality services at the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center to the need for improvements to U.S. 12 and the Walla Walla Regional Airport, and he supports maintenance of the Columbia and Snake River dams, he said.

"In general, I'm a firm believer that local communities know best their needs and where possible, our federal government should empower local decision making," he said. "If I am elected to Congress, I would plan to have an office in Walla Walla and hold regular town halls in the county to hear from constituents."

Conroy, 62, is a retired U.S. foreign service officer who lives in Spokane.

She said she is a third-generation union member running to protect personal freedoms, including organizing, and to address affordability issues for working people, veterans and military families.

On her visits, she has met with Port leaders in Walla Walla and Columbia counties, heard about immigration and labor issues from an orchardist in Dayton, and discussed issues from health care to housing.

"People spoke of their concerns that local health clinics are overwhelmed and understaffed, so they must wait for weeks or travel to Spokane to receive care," she said.

Both candidates participated in the forum hosted by the American Association of University Women-Walla Walla in September.

U.S. representatives serve two-year terms and are tasked primarily with making laws and passing budgets that keep the federal government funded. Each lawmaker serves on committees that evaluate bills as they move through the legislative process.

Campaign finance data will be updated by candidates on Tuesday, Oct. 15, according to the Federal Election Commission, the agency that enforces federal campaign finance law.

Baumgartner was leading in funds raised and expended as of July 17, the most recent update.

He has raised $790,180 and spent $519,739, according to the FEC.

Conroy had raised about a third of that with $234,412 and spent $211,519 as of July 17.

After Tuesday, results will be updated on Thursday, Oct. 24, the final update before the general election.

Here are questions and answers with Baumgartner and Conroy. Candidates were limited to 150 words per question. Some answers were edited for style and grammar.

In Congress, what will you do to ensure Walla Walla Valley residents, who often end up traveling for specialty care or critical care, have adequate access to medical and mental health care locally?

Baumgartner: Rural access to health care is an important issue across Eastern Washington and if elected to Congress I want to make it a priority.

We need more doctors and health care professionals in rural settings. In the State Senate, I worked with colleagues to bring a new WSU Medical School to Spokane to help train more rural doctors. We want a lot of those doctors to stay in Eastern Washington. When students gain experience in community-based health care settings, they're more likely to stay in those areas.

The federal government continues to play a role in efforts to address the challenge, from working to ensure an adequate workforce through supporting increased residencies, to community-based grant programs, incentivizing of rural practice, and provision of technical assistance to rural hospitals.

Telehealth has a role to play for some services, and use has expanded since the pandemic. Access to broadband is important in making that possible.

Conroy: It is unacceptable that communities like Walla Walla are in a health care desert when our district has one of the largest concentrations of health care services in the country in Spokane. Across the district, lack of affordable housing is a constraint on young professionals being able to relocate -- or stay -- in Eastern Washington.

I'll support making federal funding available to students attending technical schools or community colleges in health care and the building trades. I'll fight extremists who jeopardize our health care systems by proposing the mass deportation of our nation's 11 million immigrants.

I'll fight to restore the national right to access to reproductive health care, so women and girls no longer have to cross state lines to get the health care they need.

How do you plan to address the economic pressures facing residents, including inflation and rising costs?

Inflation is a direct result of the federal government spending too much money, increasing demand and forcing prices to rise. The current administration has passed one mega-spending budget after another. National debt is at more than $35 trillion, and interest payments are estimated to reach $1 trillion this year. Our government needs to spend within its means.

In the Washington State Legislature, we were required to pass balanced budgets. Congress must do the same.

We need to look at ways to reduce the regulations that increase cost, to address ongoing supply chain issues and to reduce our dependence on foreign energy that contributes to price volatility.

Conroy: The prices of housing, child care and health care continue to rise. While working folks, business owners, retirees and veteran and military families struggle to afford these necessities, major corporations are raking in record profits. I'd work to restore tax fairness, by collecting from high-income tax cheats and restoring pre-2017 tax rates for large corporations and the very wealthy.

I'd support the consumer protection and antitrust agencies in reclaiming from monopolists their junk fees and stop their coordinated rent gouging. I'd reinforce workers' rights to organize; restore the Working Families Tax Credit that lifted millions of children out of poverty; expand federal student loans and grants to students applying to technical schools and community colleges.

I'll fight radical schemes to impose taxes on imports, which would significantly increase consumer prices and could trigger retaliatory tariffs on our agricultural exports.

Where do you stand on the discussion of breaching, or removing, the four dams on the Lower Snake River in southeast Washington? How will you weigh the future of low-cost hydropower, irrigation, transportation needs and the survival of endangered salmon in your decision?

Preserving our salmon populations is important, and I appreciate and support the ongoing science-based salmon recovery efforts. Fish survival rates at the dams are comparable to free-flowing rivers, and salmon returns have improved over recent years. Unfortunately, the fish are under pressure from other factors, including warmer ocean conditions, predatory birds and sea lions. Removing the dams is not the answer.

Conroy: Anti-tax fetishists have created a false dilemma between salmon or dams -- we can have, and we need, both. Federal investment into research and refurbishing the dams will give us the best deal for energy, irrigation, transportation, the climate, and fulfilling the federal government's treaty duties to the original people who lived on this land.

Farmers, communities and commerce reliant on the dams have been jeopardized by a lack of infrastructure investment; we can do more for the health of the salmon, a keystone species throughout the Snake and Columbia River systems.