Civic and political leaders are honored by Mainstream Republicans of Washington
2023 awards are presented at organization’s Cascade Conference
Mainstream Republicans of Washington paid tribute to Washington political and civic leaders at their 2023 Cascade Conference in Leavenworth May 5-7.
The organization’s awards are presented each year to recognize good governance, political leadership and dedication to principles. Mainstream Republicans of Washington, founded in 1969, is dedicated to promotion of mainstream Republican principles statewide.
The 2023 winners are:
Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm – Wilcox earns the Slade Gorton Award, for displaying political courage, integrity and deep respect, and standing for excellence in public service for the institutions he has served throughout his career.
Wilcox was best known as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of family-owned Wilcox Farms in rural Pierce County before entering politics with a House race in 2010. Wilcox served as House Republican Leader from 2017 until April 2023, maintaining responsible and steady leadership of his caucus during a tumultuous period. Wilcox stepped down from his leadership position at the end of the 2023 legislative session, but remains a member of the House of Representatives.
Mike Vaska – Seattle attorney Vaska earns the Joel Pritchard Award, honoring his dedication to the advancement of mainstream Republican principles.
Vaska, an attorney at Foster Garvey in Seattle specializing in business law, was chair of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington from 2017 to 2020. During his time as chair, Vaska accomplished significant reorganization and improved the organization’s political reach. Vaska was a candidate for state attorney general in 2020. He has remained a spokesman for problem-solving over partisanship, arguing in a recent Seattle Times op-ed, “We must begin once again to build coalitions defined not by who voted for which presidential politician or party, but of those who care about our community and want to make it a better place.”
Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup – Gildon, deputy leader of the Senate Republican Caucus, earns the MaryAnn Mitchell/ Andy Hill Award, for putting mainstream principles of good governance into practice.
Gildon has represented the 25th Legislative District since 2019, originally in the House and moving to the Senate in 2021. Gildon has been a thoughtful voice in the Senate, a believer in negotiation through strength who has proven his ability to work across the aisle. His accomplishments during the 2023 session included leadership on the housing issue, working to pass important legislation to promote new home construction. One bill this year incorporates an idea Gildon picked up from Florida – requiring a reduction in permit fees when local approvals are unreasonably delayed. An interest in criminal recidivism led him to pass a bill ensuring substance abuse treatment for prison inmates due for release, and he won funding for a study of prisoner rehabilitation programs. As assistant ranking member on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, he was part of the negotiating team invited to the table in the Senate, and was part of the painstaking work that goes into budgeting line-by-line.
Nadine Woodward – Woodward, mayor of Spokane, earns the Norm Maleng Award for consistent dedication to moderate mainstream principles throughout a long career in public service.
Woodward, mayor of Spokane since 2019, earned the public’s trust after 28 years as a reporter and TV news anchor. She has earned it a second time as leader of the state’s second-largest city. A strong supporter of law enforcement and efforts to revitalize downtown business, she has taken tough measures to restore order to downtown streets. Under her administration, the city has gone to court to force the closure of the once-massive Camp Hope homeless encampment erected on state-owned land within the city limits. Due to city action, a camp that once numbered 600 and caused crime to spike in the surrounding neighborhood was reduced to 28 inhabitants by May 2023. Woodward has been a strong voice against efforts to defund police, and she advocates restoration of police authority deliberately weakened by legislative Democrats in 2021. Woodward has faced numerous challenges during her first term as mayor -- COVID, racial justice protests, debates over policing, workforce shortages, the city’s first targeted drive-by shooting of a law enforcement officer – even a riot. Today she faces a different sort of challenge in her re-election campaign. Woodward is up against Lisa Brown, the former leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus, turning the race into a local referendum on the “progressive” policies favored by Democrats statewide. “I am not willing to hand over a city I love to an ideology I don’t agree with,” she says. “We don’t want Spokane to become Seattle.”
Bill Bryant – Former Port of Seattle commissioner Bryant earns the Dan Evans Environmental Leadership Award in recognition of extraordinary leadership for good government policy.
Bryant has become an articulate leader on environmental issues in the state of Washington, in the same mode as former Gov. Dan Evans in the 1960s and 1970s. Best known for his own 2016 bid for governor, Bryant maintains Republicans should look to their traditions of responsible stewardship and establish leadership on the environment. He cites Teddy Roosevelt’s pragmatic environmentalism as inspiration for his passionate advocacy for environmental programs that work. He has long been vested in environmental causes, including extensive work through non-profit agencies to promote salmon habitat restoration. Bryant has been a voice for responsibly reducing carbon emissions, and a critic of state programs that would punish the poor by driving up energy costs and denying economic opportunity. Yet Bryant also led protests of the Trump Administration’s plan for oil-and-gas drilling off the Washington coast. Bryant says, “With environmental issues at the top of most young Americans’ minds, it is imperative that conservatives lead with common sense, market and technologically driven reforms, programs and protections.”