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Joe Kear

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Joe Kear
Image of Joe Kear

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments
Last election

November 8, 2022

Personal
Birthplace
Jacksonville, N.C.
Religion
Unaffiliated
Profession
Manufacturing
Contact

Campaign website

Joe Kear (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 17-Position 2. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Kear completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Joe Kear was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. His career experience includes working in manufacturing as a certified mechanical inspector. Kear has been affiliated with the Democratic Party and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.[1]

Elections

2022

See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2022

General election

General election for Washington House of Representatives District 17-Position 2

Incumbent Paul Harris defeated Joe Kear in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 17-Position 2 on November 8, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Paul Harris
Paul Harris (R)
 
54.6
 
37,860
Image of Joe Kear
Joe Kear (D) Candidate Connection
 
45.3
 
31,407
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
125

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 69,392
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 17-Position 2

Joe Kear and incumbent Paul Harris defeated Earl Bowerman and Justin Forsman in the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 17-Position 2 on August 2, 2022.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Joe Kear
Joe Kear (D) Candidate Connection
 
44.5
 
20,737
✔
Image of Paul Harris
Paul Harris (R)
 
30.2
 
14,074
Image of Earl Bowerman
Earl Bowerman (R)
 
12.9
 
6,012
Image of Justin Forsman
Justin Forsman (Independent Republican Party)
 
12.2
 
5,699
 Other/Write-in votes
 
0.2
 
78

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 46,600
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Joe Kear completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Kear's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

I have always fought for people's rights including for school desegregation, women's rights and legalizing reproductive choice, and I helped organize some of the first LGBT marches in the country as a young gay man.

I am most proud of a lifetime of union work. I worked for the City of Portland and then for 21 years I worked at the local truck plant. In 2005 I was elected by the membership to be a union representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and I helped organize and represent members employed throughout the area. From my experience as a union negotiator, I know how to get real results for working families.

I live on forestland and understand rural issues in our district. I have experience on boards and committees, and volunteer work and helping the homeless. I worked on my area comprehensive plan, serve on a pension board, and serve my local conservation district. I have served in the past as the chair of a homeowners association, and was on Oregon OSHA's Advisory Committee. I was a Labor's Community Service Agency Navigator, and have served on the local labor councils. I was vice-president of the Machinists district union and have held officer positions in several organizations.

I know how to collaborate, negotiate and achieve the most possible when possible, and still keep us focused on our long-term goal: We need our economy to work for everyone!
  • Working Families Need A Break! It's a real crisis for some families. We need investments to support families and good jobs, small business and local industry. Costs are out of hand. Lets invest in affordable healthcare, childcare, eldercare. Lets support housing and comprehensive programs for the homeless. We need investments in infrastructure, broadband, clean energy, education, small business and our local farms and forest. Instead of subsidies for big-money corporations, invest in working families so everyone will benefit.
  • We face an environmental crisis. Consistently hot, dry summers have us dealing with more forest fire danger and dropping water tables and wells drying up. Let's push investment in clean energy and all the local jobs that can bring.
  • I want to restore community, where everyone is valued and treated with respect. We need to listen to each other. We need funds for community policing, and training in equitable law enforcement. We need funds for unarmed local crisis response teams relieve law enforcement of dealing with individuals in mental health or drug crisis. We need good family-wage jobs where we live. Good jobs make good communities. Everyone does better when everyone has the opportunity to do better.
1) I have personally helped the homeless, including taking in someone during the pandemic. It is a problem throughout our area, including rural areas. We need to recognize this is a complex issue needing many solutions. With rising housing costs, a job loss, a bump in rent, or an eviction can leave a family without options. First / last and security deposits can be overwhelming. We need more immediate support for folks in this situation. And we need support for new housing, with an emphasis on affordable housing. State support for low-interest loans and loans for down payments for first-time buyers could be upped. The biggest challenge is helping the chronically homeless who characteristically have long-term behavioral issues. Many were abused as children and have a history of drug use (self-medicating). We need more funds for a comprehensive approach. Providing more case workers to held individuals navigate the system and get into transitional housing or rehab facilities is key. And we need those rehab facilities. Our area ranks among the worst in country for having the fewest rehab facilities available.
2) We have an unfair tax system that burdens working folks, and small business. We should look at ways to help our economy work for everyone. We should be open to ideas like a state bank, like North Dakota has, which could invest in our economy. We should study a wealth tax on the billionaires who have benefited from our system and received many tax breaks.
I look up to the leaders of struggles, who influenced my life. Union leaders like John L. Lewis and Farrell Dobbs. African American leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcom X. I admire people who can communicate well and inspire involvement and community action.
Honesty, and a spirit of public service. A good elected official will place priorities on getting accomplishments for constituents, without being motivated by personal advancement or achievement.
I have alway been helping people. I have done this being a union representative. I have worked with agencies that help folks with hard times. I have individually helped folks. I have always been community minded and active in community organizations. I have always been involved in struggles for people's rights and for individual rights. I am resolute in standing up for people and in pursuing solutions to problems.
Representing constituents in crafting legislative solutions to our common problems, and representing constituents in finding solutions to individual problems that can be addressed through existing programs or agencies.
The assassination of JFK. I was 12, in middle school and the vice principal interrupted class with the news.
Working for a travel agency as a summer job.
A Short History of a Small Place. It's a quick, fun and sentimental story of a small town where people know each other, quirks and all. It reminds me of how we all long for a sense of place. Community is important to me and I want to help us restore our sense of belonging and treating everyone as valued and respected.
I believe the Governor is responsible for proposing budgets and a course of action but the legislation can be instrumental in setting priorities and crafting programs.
We have an economic crisis to address. We can do things in state that Congress fails to accomplish. We can promote local industry, help create family-wage jobs, and get our tax system better balanced so not to burden working families.

We also need to address our environmental crisis and transition to clean energy. We can accomplish this while also creating new family-wage jobs.
A unicameral legislature could be more responsive and quicker to accomplish legislation. It can also be more representative. The drawback is the lack of more opportunity for review and input with two houses.
It could be beneficial, but the legislature is supposed to be comprised of working representatives who bring various occupations and backgrounds to the mix and are more representative of the people in that way.
Yes, it is crucial to have collaborative relationships to be able to come up with the best legislative solutions to the problems we are trying to address.
We have a non-partisan process in place in Washington, which is good. It needs some work to be more effective and to have more opportunity for transparency.
I anticipate being part of the majority and will work with the caucus to be assigned to the committees that I could be most helpful participating on.
No.
An woman told me of losing a good union job because of her plant closing. She eventually ended up working in a restaurant and struggles to help grandchildren. We have lost so many good union jobs in our state and it has cascading consequences that effect our local economies. We need policies to prioritize local family wage jobs.
Yes.
Yes it is necessary. I think principled person can keep the long-term goals in mind, collaborate and compromise to accomplish the most that is possible for the people you represent, and communicate the need to keep pushing for further progress in service of the long-term goals.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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External links

Candidate

Washington House of Representatives District 17-Position 2
  • Website
    		•

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 4, 2022


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