CANDIDATE PROFILE: Representative Amy Walen, District 48

With the primary race behind us and looking ahead to November, I have been speaking with candidates from both sides of the aisle about their personal lives, what inspired them to enter politics, issues they are passionate about fighting for, and of course, their thoughts on the rental housing industry in the Evergreen State. I had the esteemed privilege of interviewing Representative Amy Walen a Democrat from District 48. For those not familiar, District 48 is composed of parts of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Clyde Hill, Medina, as well as Yarrow and Hunts Point.

Representative Walen was born in Oregon but spent much of her adolescence and early adult life in Australia where she practiced law before moving back to the Pacific Northwest to reside in Kirkland. After her return, her goal was to pass the Bar Exam so she would be authorized to practice law. While she was working towards that goal, she began to work in the car dealership world. She did pass the Bar Exam with some help from an early manager in the car industry, but she became so enthralled with the car business that she never actually went on to practice law in the United States. She is now the Chief Financial Officer of a dealership she runs alongside her husband.

I asked Representative Walen about her thoughts on Australian law versus United States law.

“It all comes from English Common Law. So, the fundamentals of English Common Law, and then you add on legislation. I think, you know, Australia is less populated, less complex. Sort of more traditional solicitor and barrister system. Honestly, it’s much more reputable to be a lawyer there. They’re not allowed to advertise. They’re not allowed to take contingency fees,”

 Walen said with a little laugh.

“So that changes the reputation of the profession.”

 I asked the Representative about what really spurred her into politics, and she spoke to her mindset after her mother passed away from breast cancer, which was one of her reasons for moving back to the United States, as well as her own breast cancer diagnosis and her journey out of cancer.

“I wanted to be of service when that happened. I wanted my life to be different. I wanted to do something worthwhile. So, I was trying to find a way to do that. I drove a lot of women to treatment, and I tried to get involved in support groups,” she said and spoke about one fateful day when she spoke at a Kirkland Chamber of Commerce event, and it was suggested she run for Kirkland City Council. “I didn’t think I was qualified; we were pretty new residents. There were a lot of big issues before the council. The redevelopment of Totem Lake and the annexation of the city, you know, we were going to double in size.”

She won that election and several years later she was chosen by her fellow council members to be the Mayor of Kirkland from 2014-2019. Towards the end of her time as mayor, she launched her campaign for State Representative of the 48th district and was elected in November of 2018 and has held the 2nd Representative position in her district ever since.

After this upcoming November election, some Legislative Committees may be reassigned, but Representative Walen is currently the Chair of the Consumer Protection and Business Committee as well as a member of the Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, and Finance Committee. I asked her about some of the work she is passionate about in her committee work including property tax reform, public safety, caring for those who are most vulnerable, and protecting consumers in Washington State.

“I know about taxes, and we need tax reform so that’s why I wanted to be on finance. And also, in my district where older people bought their homes in the 1980s and 90s and they can’t even afford the taxes now.” She elaborated on her Civil Rights and Judiciary work with regard to public safety and gun violence, but also taking care of every member of our society with some per sonal experience of her own as she became the legal guardian for her nephew after her sister passed away.

Representative Walen’s favorite committee is the Consumer Protection and Business which she chairs. Walen feels like she understands the balancing act between the business and the consumer side and has something to say about her committee that you don’t often hear in politics.

“The members of the Consumer Protection and Business Committee are some of the best members of the legislature. Both sides of the aisle and we get along and we do work in a bi-partisan way, and we cooperate. I mean really consumer protection is not a partisan issue right.”

We ended our conversation on rent control and her no vote on HB2114 where she was only joined by three other Democrats. She wrote a lengthy post about her opposition to the bill at the time of her no vote which I will quote some of here.

“We know where rent control programs are in place, home maintenance tends to fall behind, and families feel the inability to move from homes that they have outgrown. I would also submit that first-generation landlords or working families where their hard-earned rental unit is their only retirement are at risk of being driven from the market due to fear of complex regulations. I think this limits the marketplace to corporate landlords who are sophisticated enough to navigate the regulatory environment and who can absorb more vacancies and rent changes. So, rather than encouraging a stream of development, then condo minimization of what’s been built as a pathway to home ownership, we halt the supply stream and therefore confidence in the market.”

Representative Walen had a more detailed statement, but I wanted to highlight and acknowledge that she understands the supply-side issues that come with this type of legislation and how this will lower current supply along with new supply and drive up rents at the end of the day. We closed our conversation by talking about the penalties outlines in the failed rent control bill. Walen spoke about how the penalties overstepped consumer protection boundaries and how the bill had the audacity to assume that every housing provider is acting with ill intent if a mistake is made or if they attempt to remove a problematic tenant from their units. As a result, she tried to add a number of amendments which were all rejected.

“It doesn’t acknowledge that we have problematic tenants that are far behind in their rent and that the non-profit community can’t even build housing. The penalties in the bill, it brings in Consumer Protection Act penalties instead of just leaving it RLTA. That is very punitive, I mean it’s punitive. And it really opens small landlords up for huge lawsuits against them. I don’t believe in rent control fundamentally either. We need to work on supply, and I think this bill does the opposite,” Walen said and expanded on her concern about the penalties even further. “I believe they put in a per se violation meaning that there’s a presumption that its deceptive conduct, a presumption its not reasonable in the course of business. The trial lawyers are just going to tee off on landlords, they can’t wait. Every lawyer in town is gonna be, I don’t even have to prove the landlord did anything wrong. Is that fair? I don’t think so.”

I want to thank Representative Amy Walen for taking the time to speak with me for this month’s issue of Current. She is running once again for her 48th District seat and we look forward to seeing her back in Olympia in January to help RHA and our collation organizations to continue advocacy against rent control.