Meet Mike: All about me

I was born in Minnesota in March 1956. My family moved around a lot, but settled in Sacramento, California, by the time I started high school. I graduated from Bella Vista High School in Sacramento in 1973.

I joined the U.S. Air Force a few months after graduation, working on B-52 bombing and navigational computer systems at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, and was honorably discharged as a sergeant.

For the first few years after leaving the Air Force, I held a variety of jobs, the longest of which was several years at the Western Union telephone customer service center in Reno, Nevada, where I met Liz, the woman who has been my wife for more than 40 years. We have no children.

In 1982, I became an air traffic controller, working at Van Nuys and Burbank airports in Southern California for 10 years.

While in the FAA, I returned to college, earning an associate's degree in letters, arts and sciences from Antelope Valley College in 1992. In 1996, I earned a bachelor's degree in political science from California State University, Northridge.

Also in 1992, I started working at the Los Angeles Daily News, eventually becoming a copy editor. In 2005, I was hired by The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where I worked as a copy editor for more than a decade, and oversaw the opinion pages for my last four years.

I retired from The Spokesman-Review in 2021.

Why I'm running

Liz and I have been married for 40 years. One of the key reasons for that longevity is our principle that if one of us doesn't like the way the other is doing something, rather than complain, we do the job ourself (Pro tip: Tell your new bride your mom taught you how to make hospital corners when you were 10, and you'll be making the bed for the rest of your life). Well, I've reached that point in national politics.

I have some complaints about state and local government, but nothing that I think rises to the level of an existential crisis for our very country. But national politics has devolved into a vicious circle, where it's winner-take-all and the loser is the enemy who must be ignored. Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own party nine months into the job because he couldn't get enough votes from Republicans to keep the government open so he reached across the political aisle to the folks who represented the other half of America. The replacement his party decided on hasn't made that mistake, and the result is that little legislation gets through Congress -- the last few years have been among their least productive, with only a handful of bills actually making it through to the president's desk.

It's gotten so bad that last year, they just lumped it all into one "Big Beautiful Bill" that had very little serious discussion, virtually no input from the Democrats, and which was so bloated and misunderstood that the biggest push in Congress now is Republican lawmakers trying to shield their constituents from the damage.

So one of my goals is a return to bipartisanship. I'm not naive. I don't expect it all to change just because I show up. But it has to start in small places, and I want to be the 5th District's contribution.

But I also want to be an advocate for Eastern Washington.

In my opinion, the most important people in any society are farmers and teachers. I think the federal government should largely leave K-12 education to states and local communities, with the exception of a national literacy test of some kind. A high school diploma from Minnesota should mean the same education basics as a diploma from any other state to a potential employer. So I don't have many suggestions for our now-gutted federal Department of Education.

But our farmers have for too long been nothing but political pawns. They're the first victims in the oh-so-many trade wars, and the subsidies they're given for their sacrifice are quite often literally pennies on the dollar. I know they would rather be selling the crops they've grown to people around the world, instead of throwing away tons of food and cashing government checks.

I don't have any real preferences for which committees I might be assigned to as a freshman, but will make a special request to get on the House Agriculture Committee, so I can meet with the farmers in our district to learn what their concerns are and make sure they're heard in Washington, DC.

I'll be attending candidate forums around the district over the next few months, so I can get more input on issues facing Eastern Washington. I'll be posting them and possible solutions for them as I learn about them. Check back every week or so ...

Let's work together

If I were to adopt a campaign slogan, I think that would be it.

I'm a Democrat because I believe we're all in this together. But more important, I'm a progressive. That means I support ideas that move our nation forward. Ideas that shouldn't be ideological. Ideas that Republicans and Democrats can work together on, rather than each "majority" advancing its agenda until the other party regains control and undoes them.

Here's an AI definition I've cut-and-pasted: "Being a liberal generally means supporting a political and social philosophy that champions individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise. Modern liberals advocate for government involvement to promote social equality, welfare programs, and civil rights, while classical liberals prioritize economic freedom and minimal government intervention."

I consider myself a classical liberal, and I think the "modern" definition is part of the reason our country is so divided. I would never abandon those principles, but I think making them a central focus of your politics cannot help but alienate people who don't think the government -- which is supposed to represent everyone -- should be used in that way. Whether or not you agree with them, that is their belief, and rather than branding them our mortal enemy and locking horns, I believe it's more productive for our leaders to focus on things that we all want, such as safe streets, a healthy environment, affordability in housing, food and energy, et cetera. Everybody everywhere wants that.

So while I personally will always support social equality, as a representative of this district, I will only oppose efforts to restrict it. Pursuing legal remedies for societal attitudes has only led to more division and less true direction for our country. We must seek a more central path forward. An eagle can't fly on only one wing.