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John Stafford (Washington)
John Stafford (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 37-Position 1. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Stafford completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Stafford was born in Seattle, Washington. He earned a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1984, a master's degree from St. Martin's University in 2000, and a master's degree from Harvard Extension School in 2020. His professional experience includes working as a high school social studies teacher, teaching AP U.S. history, AP comparative government, and AP economics. Stafford's organizational affiliations include being a member of the executive board for the 37th District Democrats, serving as a steering committee member of the South Seattle Climate Action Network, acting as treasurer for the Environment and Climate Caucus of the Washington State Democratic Party, and authoring more than 40 articles for the South Seattle Emerald.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 37-Position 1
Incumbent Sharon Tomiko Santos defeated John Stafford in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 37-Position 1 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sharon Tomiko Santos (D) | 81.7 | 63,557 |
 | John Stafford (D)  | 16.9 | 13,165 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.3 | 1,043 | ||
| Total votes: 77,765 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 37-Position 1
Incumbent Sharon Tomiko Santos and John Stafford defeated William Burroughs and John Dickinson in the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 37-Position 1 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sharon Tomiko Santos (D) | 77.2 | 40,028 |
| ✔ | | John Stafford (D) | 11.8 | 6,141 |
 | William Burroughs (D) | 5.5 | 2,829 | |
 | John Dickinson (Unaffiliated) | 4.8 | 2,483 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 366 | ||
| Total votes: 51,847 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Stafford's endorsements in the 2020 elections, please click here.
2014
- See also: Washington State Senate elections, 2014
Elections for 25 districts in the Washington State Senate took place in 2014. A blanket primary election took place on August 5, 2014. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was May 17, 2014. Pramila Jayapal (D) and Louis Watanabe (D) defeated Claude Burfect (D), John Stafford (D), Sheley Secrest (D) and Rowland Martin (R) in the primary. Jayapal defeated Watanabe in the general election.[2][3][4]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |  Pramila Jayapa |
70.7% | 26,091 | |
| Democratic | Louis Watanabe | 29.3% | 10,807 | |
| Total Votes | 36,898 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic |
Pramila Jayapal |
54.2% | 12,235 | |
| Democratic | Louis Watanabe |
16.1% | 3,639 | |
| Republican | Rowland Martin | 10.3% | 2,317 | |
| Democratic | Sheley Secrest | 10.1% | 2,283 | |
| Democratic | John Stafford | 7.5% | 1,684 | |
| Democratic | Claude Burfect | 1.9% | 436 | |
| Total Votes | 22,594 | |||
Endorsements
In 2014, Stafford's endorsements include the following:[5]
- Renton Chamber of Commerce
- Eastside Golf Club
2010
John Stafford ran for the Washington House of Representatives District 37-Position 2. He was unopposed in the August 17, 2010, primary. He was defeated by Eric Pettigrew in the general election on November 2, 2010.[6]
| Washington House of Representatives, District 37-Position 2 General Election (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | |||
| Eric Pettigrew (D)
|
30,787 | |||
| John Stafford (R) | 5,702 | |||
| Washington House of Representatives, District 37-Position 2 Primary (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Eric Pettigrew (D)
|
15,401 | 82.73% | ||
| John Stafford (D)
|
3,214 | 17.27% | ||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Stafford completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Stafford's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
- Our era is defined by five concurrent crises: (1) Public Health (the Pandemic), (2) Economic Recession, (3) State Budget Crisis - $8.8 Billion over Three Years, (4) Climate Change, (5) Racial Justice. It is a painful but poignant and important time in our history. It is imperative to develop compelling proposals to address these crises.
- We need bold, structural change, not just incremental reforms. It is a time that demands the fundamental restructuring of our society in a number of areas.
- There are major challenges in our state that are not being addressed: tax reform, income inequality, racial inequities, climate change, universal health care,
(1) Do not balance the state budget via austerity. Instead, the state's rainy day fund should be utilized; the state's operations should be restructured to enable efficiencies; and hiring freezes and furloughs should be utilized. All of this is in support of avoiding austerity cuts to programs.
(2) The state desperately needs to implement a new progressive source of taxation. We have the most regressive tax system in the country. A new progressive source of taxation will provide much needed funding to address the state budget crisis, and also make the tax structure more progressive.
(3) We need to aggressively address climate change. I advocate for five bills in the upcoming session: (1) The Clean Fuels Program, (2) Declaring a Climate Emergency in Washington State, (3) The Healthy Environment for All (Heal Act), (4) Banning the Purchase of New Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles by 2030, (5) Instituting Mandatory K-12 Climate Change Education in the State's Schools.
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.
2014
Stafford's campaign website highlighted the following issues:[7]
Tax Reform (Washington State has the most regressive tax structure in the nation)
- Excerpt: "Repeal of Existing Corporate Tax Breaks (en masse, to extent possible)."
- Excerpt: "Restrictions on New Corporate Tax Breaks."
K-12 Education (Washington State has a low per pupil spending level)
- Excerpt: "Full (and genuine) compliance with the Supreme Court’s McCLeary Decision that calls for a significant increase in funding for public education."
- Excerpt: "Support universal kindergarten and pre-kindergarten."
Health Care
- Excerpt: "Support Single Payer Health Care System."
Minimum Wage
- Excerpt: "Support $15 minimum wage in Seattle, with possible eventual extension statewide."
- Excerpt: "Effectively addressing the details is critical. Failure would be costly as this would dampen support for similar efforts nationwide."
Global Warming
- Excerpt: "This is the nation’s primary area of public policy negligence."
- Excerpt: "Support introduction of Carbon Tax (revenue neutral) introduced at the state level (due to the likelihood of prolonged federal inaction)."
See also
2020 Elections
External links
- Official campaign website
- John Stafford on Facebook
- John Stafford on LinkedIn
- Washington State Legislature
- Profile by Vote-USA
- Biography from Project Vote Smart
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 14, 2020
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2014 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 20, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "August 5, 2014, Official Primary Results," accessed August 5, 2014
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Official general election results, 2014," accessed December 2, 2014
- ↑ Stafford for Senate, "Comments From Colleagues and Personal Endorsements," accessed July 11, 2014
- ↑ Washington Legislature Official primary results SOS
- ↑ Stafford for Senate, " Major Policy Positions," accessed July 11, 2014
