Vetting Opposing Republican Candidates
A conservative district deserves a conservative Republican
I recently had the opportunity to chat with candidate for 7th District representative Soo Ing-Moody, and I found her likable and qualified. As the former mayor of Twisp (2024 pop. 1,087), she’s very knowledgable about the challenges of mayors of small towns in Washington. During her time as mayor, she handled three major disasters and improved the state of the town’s finances. She championed the development of the new civic center, working with state legislators to secure funding sources. She’s obviously smart and hard working. She’s proud of her ability to work effectively with both conservatives and progressives to achieve positive results for her community.
Now, Ing-Moody is running as a Republican to be a state representative for the 7th Legislative District, against Andrew Engell, another Republican. You probably remember that legislative districts are how we select our state senator and two state representatives who go to Olympia to make laws and solve problems. In the last state redistricting, Twisp was pulled out of the 12th LD (Chelan-Douglas) and moved into the traditionally more conservative 7th LD. Ing-Moody has the support of 12th LD Republican leaders, but she is largely unknown to Republicans in the 7th.
From Nonpartisan to Republican
This is the first time Ing-Moody has run in a race that required a party declaration and many who live in Okanogan County were surprised she declared as a Republican candidate. While I believe that she is fiscally conservative, unfortunately, she has no track record as a Republican. According to the PDC, she has not made any financial contributions to any political candidate or political party, Republican or Democrat. She has not been active in the Okanogan Republican party, and does not attend Republican fundraising events. As far as I know, she has not even had a conversation about the needs of the district with our current Representatives Kretz and Maycumber.
In fact, Ing-Moody has deliberately avoided political party ties in order to facilitate her ability to work with all her constituents in the more liberal Methow Valley. In our conversation, she also refused to discuss national political issues, because she feels they are immaterial to the position she’s running for. That’s unfortunate, because I can usually judge a person’s political leanings with a discussion of national politics.
Ing-Moody also refused to participate in the candidate vetting process held by the 7th District Republican committee. She may be a Republican, but she’s not been active as a Republican, and she’s not willing to be vetted by Republicans. It’s simply not possible to judge her future political choices based on her past associations with Republicans or support of conservative issues. So, in order to evaluate Ing-Moody’s political fit as a representative of the 7th LD, it’s necessary to refer to other data points.
The Gun Control Letter
During her term as mayor, Ing-Moody signed an open letter from over 700 mayors to President Obama, which urged Obama to adopt an agenda which “... will make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns, and easier for police and prosecutors to crack down on them.” That sounds reasonable, but among the demands from the mayors were increased background checks and bans on high capacity rifles and ammunition magazines. Unfortunately, her signature on this letter implies that Canadian-born Ing-Moody doesn’t entirely agree with the “shall not be infringed” phrase in the Second Amendment.
For me, this support for a gun control agenda completely disqualifies Ing-Moody as a good match for the conservative 7th District. There are ways to protect school children from gun violence that don’t include violating the Second Amendment, and those are the types of solutions a Republican would normally advocate for.
Progressive Democrat Donors
Fundraising is the hardest job of being a candidate. Candidates have to be very persuasive to convince donors to open their wallets and support their campaign. Usually, there’s some kind of alignment between the candidate’s beliefs and those of the donor. So it’s problematic for me that some of Ing-Moody’s most generous donors are progressive Democrats and radical environmentalists.
For example, Gail Pigott of Seattle has also donated to Bob Ferguson, Jay Inslee, Defend WA (an organization dedicated to stopping conservative initiatives) and Planned Parenthood. Peter Goldman, a Seattle Attorney, and his wife Martha Konsgaard have donated to Jay Inslee, Chris Reykdal, Emily Randall, the 34th District Democrats and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. Peter Morgan, a Twisp retiree from Seattle has donated to Patty Murray, Jay Inslee, and Christine Gregoire. Ing-Moody claims they support her because they trust her effective leadership, but these donors never support conservative Republicans. Would these donors support Ing-Moody if they thought she was a conservative?
Andrew Engell: Endorsed by the 7th District Republicans.
Given all these concerns about Soo Ing-Moody’s lack of strong Republican alignment, I’m supporting her opponent, Andrew Engell, who is the only candidate in this race endorsed by the 7th District Republican Committee. Andrew has also been strongly endorsed by former 7th District candidate Teagan Levine. Andrew knows the district well and understands our top priorities from his work for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers out of her Colville office.
Engell is highly qualified, well-known and well-liked by many elected officials and our district’s active Republican volunteers. Our conservative district deserves a representative who closely aligns with our conservative values. You can learn more about Andrew’s conservative values at electandrew.com. It’s very important for our more conservative voices to be heard in the Legislature! I hope you’ll join me in voting for Andrew Engell for State Representative 7th District, Position 1.
Nancy Churchill is a writer and educator in rural eastern Washington State, and the state committeewoman for the Ferry County Republican Party. She may be reached at DangerousRhetoric@pm.me. The opinions expressed in Dangerous Rhetoric are her own. Dangerous Rhetoric is available on thinkspot, Rumble and Substack.
Sources:
1) Twisp mayor’s leadership through 3 devastating disasters has forged an inspiring sense of community and resiliency, 7/5/2020, Seattle Times, https://bit.ly/3Tf4xzZ
2) City Mayors: US Mayors against Guns, https://bit.ly/3AGBwXx
3) PDC Report for Soo Ing-Moody, https://bit.ly/47dc5cc
Wow, Nancy! Great research and I'm impressed you can find the time to speak personally with our candidates! Very helpful for us busy homesteaders. :-)