State Sen. Randi Becker and state Rep. Gary Alexander will remain in the Legislature after scoring comfortable victories in the general election Tuesday. Returns announced Tuesday night after voting ended had Becker, a Republican, leading Democrat Bruce Lachney with nearly 60 percent of the votes counted so far. It was a much different result than the primary election in August, when Becker finished five votes ahead of Lachney. Alexander received 59.6 percent of the general election tally in his race against Greg Hartman, a Democrat and first-time candidate. A Republican, Alexander was running for the first time in the Second District, which he was assigned to through redistricting. The district's third legislator, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, ran unopposed for re-election. Lachney, 52, a former commercial airline and Marines pilot, runs a cranberry farm in Eatonville area. He's a member of the Clover Park Technical College Board of Trusteens and a former Eatonville School Board member. A focus of his campaign was improving the system of funding public education through changes in the state's tax structure, such as repealing some tax exemptions and creating new taxes to take pressure off the state's sales and business-and-occupation taxes. He contended that some type of reorganization is essential for the state to meet a court-ordered requirement for funding of education, which long-term is best for preparing students for the global economy. Becker, who was elected to the Senate in 2008 and is seeking her second four-year term, is an advocate of minimizing government's role in citizens' lives and making it efficient and affordable through budget cuts. As she has in the Legislature, she paid special attention in her campaign to healthcare issues. She once worked in the medical industry as an administrator for a surgical clinic. She also is a strong supporter of funding for public schools and higher education, wants to improve the economy and reduce unemployment, and labels herself a champion of rural communities such as those in her district, including the Eatonville area where she and her husband own a farm.
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