PORT ANGELES – Clallam County resident Brian Pruiett has formally announced his run for Washington State Representative to take on Democrat incumbent Steve Tharinger, who’s term expires this year in the 24th Legislative District.
Pruiett is a Pacific Northwest native and describes himself as having had a dual career, serving in the US Army for 34 years and as a civil servant with the Bureau of Land Management.
Pruiett, a Republican, talked about his priorities and why he’s running for office. Here’s what he said about education.
“This is a broke system. My wife ran for school board because she learned that 25% of the kids who go in at 9th grade don’t graduate. And 25% of the senior high school kids didn’t graduate either, out of senior class. We aren’t providing that careers, and that’s where I think we need a real change in our education system. There’s a lot of kids that don’t really need to have a STEM education. They need to be a plumber that makes $125,000 a year, or maybe they need to be a truck driver that can make $76,000 a year. But I see so many kids getting college degrees, have gone through the system, they get in debt, and where are they? They’re trying to serve coffee. We need to look at a holistic education system that is appropriate for everybody and stop leaving 25 percent of our kids off the table.”
On taxes:
“You know, I used to listen to gripes about taxes. “Oh, their taxing me to death”. Well, you what? This year, they are. Most definitely. That’s what prompted me to run for the legislature. How can you add on another 12 billion dollars in taxes? When these tell you, “This carbon tax will change the environment”, it will not. And this state’s spending habits are proving that dramatically. If they tell you a carbon tax will improve the environment, they are absolutely lying. Taxes have never done that anywhere in history. It’s just another burden from more excessive spending and it’s putting businesses out of business.”
Pruiett also weighed in on the Sequim MAT clinic controversy.
“And I’m tired of the disdain we were offered by the incumbent’s in office here. You know, we got the thing going on in Sequim right now, with the clinic, and the Tribe, and the town, and people upset about that. And you know, I think it could have been handled a lot better. When people see all the criminal addiction going on and all the damage and theft and everything else going on, of course you’re upset. And they’re decent people that are upset. And bringing more of it is scaring people. And we need to stop condoning that. And we need to address the problems. And I don’t think that the incumbents did it correctly. I think they did it wrong. They tried to sneak it into the budget. “Oh, the budget’s public”. You know what? They didn’t come out and say, “We’re going to get a new clinic in Sequim. Let’s talk about it up front”. No, they didn’t do that. And I think that’s wrong, to treat people that way with disdain.”
Pruiett and his wife currently own a small organic farm in Clallam County and have a small business that invests in real estate. For more information on Pruiett and his platforms, visit www.vote4pruiett.com
(Brian Pruiett photo)