-I have the right professional experience to take on this role
and really hit the ground running.
-There's so many things where it feels like having
a clinical voice would be important.
-Disability rights advocate Darya Farivar
and pediatrician Dr. Lelach Rave
are vying for an open seat to represent northeast Seattle
in the 46th Legislative District.
-Hi there!
-Both candidates are first generation Americans,
and they're taking their credentials
and endorsements directly to voters.
-I'd be happy to give you my materials.
What works is having folks proactively go out
and meet people where they're at.
-Whom should voters send to Olympia?
-We have zero doctors in the legislature.
-The race to become the 46th district's
next state representative, coming up on "City Inside Out."
♪♪
Welcome to this edition of "City Inside Out."
I'm your host, Brian Callanan.
When State Senator David Frockt decided earlier this year
not to run again for his 46th District seat
in northeast Seattle, that set some wheels in motion.
Representative Javier Valdez is now running for that position.
And first time candidates Darya Farivar
and Dr. Lelach Rave
they are going after the open state House seat.
Farivar, a disability rights advocate,
and Rave, a pediatrician,
say their backgrounds working in the health care field
have them well-prepared for this job.
But now it's time to take the temperature of voters
in the newly redistricted 46th
to see how they'll choose between two
progressive Democrats.
-So let's huddle up a little bit.
-For Darya Farivar,
the 46th legislative district in northeast Seattle
is more than just a home.
-I have lived in this district my entire life.
-The daughter of Iranian immigrants,
Farivar is running for state representative
in the hopes of becoming the first Middle Eastern woman
elected to the legislature; and, at age 29,
the youngest person ever to represent the 46th District.
-I'm really running this race to make sure that communities
that haven't had a voice, haven't been
a part of our decision making, have a voice.
-Farivar was the lead vote getter
in a five way August primary with nearly 32% of the vote.
She's raised $109,000 for her campaign as of late September.
She's endorsed by the 46th Legislative District Democrats,
Planned Parenthood, the Children's Campaign Fund,
and all three of her opponents who lost in the primary:
Nancy Connolly, Melissa Taylor and Nina Martinez.
-You can use that as a conversation starter.
-Farivar is the public policy director
for Disability Rights, Washington,
co-chair of the Seattle Women's Commission and policy chair
for the state's Special Education Advisory Council.
She says her career has helped her gain the understanding
of how policy decisions on homelessness, behavioral health
and the criminal justice system can often overlap.
-I really think that I have
the right professional experience
to take on this role and really hit the ground running.
I want to make sure that as we are trying to tackle
these big systemic issues,
that we're not looking at things in silos
and that we're really looking at the interconnected nature.
Can I interest you in some materials?
-If elected, Farivar wants to put the diverse
lived experiences of people in the 46th District,
now entirely contained in northeast Seattle,
at the center of the decision making process in Olympia.
-I want to make sure that the communities
that are directly impacted
by the different legislation we're putting forward,
the different work that we're trying to do,
are directing us and telling us what is going to be meaningful
and actually make an impact.
-Her opponent, Dr. Lelach Rave,
says she would bring her own unique experience
to the legislature.
-I think we need that clinical voice.
-Rave is also a first generation American.
Her parents emigrated from Israel.
-I'm also all about kids.
-The mother of three is hoping
to become the first pediatrician elected to the state legislature
and the first doctor in ten years --
a medical perspective, she says, is sorely lacking in Olympia.
-I've been a pediatrician taking care of all sorts of patients
from all sorts of backgrounds for 23 years.
So really what I can do
that I think is unique is bring all those families
and all those stories around the policy table.
-Rave came in second in the August primary
with 28% of the vote.
She's raised nearly $257,000 for her campaign
as of late September.
She's endorsed by The Seattle Times,
the Seattle Education Association Teachers Union,
the Washington State Labor Council,
and 46th District Senator David Frockt,
who decided not to run again this fall.
-Thank you very much. In my clinic...
-Rave has served on the legislative committee
of the Washington chapter
of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
She helped establish our state's
Children's Mental Health Work Group
and has helped write bills on issues from screening for autism
to providing medical interpreters
for non-English speakers.
-Really making sure that folks have access regardless
of where they are from, regardless of their status,
regardless of how much they have or haven't been able
to integrate yet in this country is very important to me.
-Rave lists health and safety,
reproductive health care and homelessness
as her top priorities, and says,
much like she treats the whole child
in her medical practice,
she wants to bring a holistic approach to these crises
down to Olympia.
-There are so many things that stand between folks
and the wellness that they and I both want to achieve,
and those are system level issues.
And really we need to work at a systems level
to come up with solutions.
-The question that needs a solution now: who wins the race
for 46th District Representative?
Voters, November 8, have the answer.
And here they are, the two candidates running
for the 46th District representative position.
We have Darya Farivar
and we also have Dr. Lelach Rave.
Thank you both for being here. We had a coin flip
before the show, Darya, you're going to go first.
An opening statement. Keep it to a minute, please.
-Okay. I'm running simply because, you know,
the 46th is my home. I've lived here my entire life.
My family, when they fled Iran because of the revolution,
they put down roots in the Lake City neighborhood.
And we've been in Lake City ever since.
I'm running really focused on addressing the intersection
of behavioral health crisis, housing and homelessness
and the criminal legal system.
And those are issues that Lake City is really,
really experiencing.
So that's part of why I'm focusing there.
But it's also because it's the work that I do right now.
I'm the public policy director at Disability Rights Washington.
So I spend my days working on complicated
civil rights legislation.
And I also have some experience
working with behavioral health diversion programs
and part of a team that oversees them.
And they're amazing programs doing good work.
I want to see more programs like that.
I want to make sure that as we are developing these solutions
to address some of our biggest problems,
that we are making sure we're taking direction
from people with lived experience.
And that's why my slogan has been lifting every voice,
and that's been the pillar of my campaign.
-Okay. Thank you for that.
Dr. Rave, you're next, an opening statement.
Let's keep it to a minute, please.
-I am a pediatrician. I have been taking care
of thousands of patients for the last 23 years.
I'm also a mom to my own three kids,
and I really come at this work from a place of seeing
all the things that I could not do as a pediatrician.
So many challenges that families that I have were struggling
with that were systems levels issues
and really required systems level solutions.
And so when I look at
where we are right now in the legislature,
we haven't had a voice looking at systems
and looking at health from a science perspective
in ten years, we have not had a physician in the legislature,
and we've actually never had a pediatrician.
So I'm really excited to bring a very unique
and new perspective to our policy process.
And when I look at how much of our money,
it's actually the second biggest --
biggest bucket that we spend as a state is towards health
and how many things are health related.
We're emerging from the pandemic,
we have this scourge of gun violence,
which I consider to be a public health issue.
We have our attack on reproductive health
and we have the mental health crisis.
There's so many places where having that clinical voice,
I think, could be really critical.
And I'm excited to bring that perspective to the legislature.
-All right. Thank you. I wanted to point out,
as with a few other races for state legislature this year,
you are both candidates
who have not held an elected office before.
Both Democrats, I would say,
would likely vote in a similar way in Olympia
if you were elected here, so I want to talk about
what differentiates you from your opponent.
And, Lelach, can I have you start on that first?
-Sure. So I would say the big thing
that differentiates me is actually
the thing that differentiates me from every other
sitting legislator and every candidate in the state,
and that is my health care expertise.
I'm really wanting to bring that subject matter expertise
to the process because I think ideally
that's what our policy should be led by,
not by ideological winds that blow in all sorts of ways,
but rather what is the science,
what is the expertise that we can bring to bear on the issue?
I also, as a clinician,
really bring a problem solving approach.
So I am not someone who goes for ideological purity tests.
I'm not someone who believes that every bit of legislation
will be perfect -- I know it won't be.
But just like when I'm in an exam room with a patient,
the goal is how do we make steps in the right direction?
How do we solve the problem in front of us?
And sometimes that involves compromise.
Sometimes that involves bringing in unlikely players.
But at the end of the day,
if we have where our true North Star is
and we make movement in that direction,
that's what I want to have done.
And that's what I would like to bring,
is really to be a problem solver
and get things done for our district and for our state.
-Got it. Darya. Your thoughts here.
How do you explain to voters
how you're different from your opponent?
-Yeah, I think there's a couple things here.
I would say, first and foremost, my content expertise.
You know, we are dealing
with some huge challenges in the state,
and I really think a lot of those come back down to,
again, behavioral health crisis,
housing and homelessness and the criminal legal system.
Those are the areas that I work in right now
as a lobbyist in the legislature.
And I've also had the privilege of working
on implementing lawsuits
about the state's failure to understand those intersections.
Right. The reality is that folks in Washington
who experience a behavioral health crisis,
who experience housing, who experience homelessness,
excuse me, are almost guaranteed to come into contact
with our criminal legal system.
So to build systems and programs
that don't acknowledge that set us up for failure,
we need to have more folks in the legislature
who understand how the criminal legal system plays into this,
which leads me into my professional experience.
You know, we need people who can hit the ground running.
As public policy director,
I have been responsible for my agency's
entire legislative agenda and strategy.
My role relies on me being successful in the legislature,
understanding the ins and out,
and really sitting around at those negotiating tables,
right -- the underside of the process
that you don't see very often.
It relies on understanding your community's values
and priorities and coming to that negotiating table,
knowing exactly where that line is.
Because the reality is that nothing you enter
into the legislature, nothing you drop,
comes out the same way.
I've been able to see that up close and personal.
And one of the reasons I feel so strongly about this work
is because I've been working with people
with direct lived experience,
spending time with folks in the jails and state hospitals.
That's critical experience
that's missing from the legislature.
-Thank you. I wanted to make sure I highlighted another
similarity between your backgrounds here,
and that's the fact that you both had parents
who immigrated here to the U.S.
from Iran and Israel, respectively, here.
What impact does that have on your candidacy?
What do you want voters to know about that?
-Darya, can you go first, please?
-Absolutely. It is a huge part of who I am.
You just, you can't ignore it. When you look at me, you see it.
It is a big part of why I'm running as well.
My family being from Iran, they fled because
the revolution, they, you know, met at Roosevelt High School,
which was where I went to school.
And their experience is critical.
And it's another experience that's also missing
in the legislature.
Right now, we don't have anybody in the House,
in the Senate, in the executive branch --
we don't even have a commission
for the Middle Eastern community.
And we need to make sure that this community's voice is heard.
If I'm elected, I'll be the first Middle Eastern woman
and first Iranian woman in the state legislature.
I don't take that lightly,
especially when things like the murder of Mahsa Amani happens.
We need to make sure that our community
has a institutional voice
to continue to get this work done.
-Thank you. Lelach, some thoughts about your background
and what you want voters to know about it?
-Sure. So my parents were immigrants
to the United States a few years before I was born.
I joke with everyone that I have a more difficult
to pronounce name than any of my younger siblings
because my parents didn't quite realize
that "huh" sound just didn't work for Americans.
-I'm working on it. -You're doing great.
So, you know, I grew up with English
as a language that I learned when I got to school,
and I was translating for my parents
when it came to doctors appointments or writing notes
to excuse myself from school.
So, for example, the recent Seattle teachers strike
where they were looking at extra funding for kids
who were multilingual or kids with learning disabilities.
That was really personal. I was one of those kids
who learned English as a second language.
I have two of my own kids who have learning plans.
So I think that's, you know, it's real. It's real.
And, you know, in -- fast forward many,
many years now, my husband actually leads an organization
that resettles refugees.
And so this continues to be a theme in my life
and in my family's life of what do we do
to welcome in individuals
who are coming from very difficult times and places?
How does our safety net catch or not catch people?
And what do people deserve to have
when they come to us for refuge?
And my family was very lucky to have a safety net.
And it's certainly something that I've benefited from.
I would like to see others benefit from going forward.
-Thank you both. And I wanted to make sure
I followed on one more piece here --
with regard to supporters of your campaign, Lelach,
your campaign has been one of the top money raisers
in the state this year, fifth highest among
all the representatives running as of late September.
I want you to tell people who's supporting you,
where the funding is coming from.
What do you want voters to know about that?
-Yeah, so I would say that I have been very fortunate
to have support from multiple different levels.
I have had, you know, $5 supports from someone
who I go knock at the door and they say,
"Oh, I would really love to support you,"
to people from all over the state,
because my background in terms of policy
has been working with the American Academy of Pediatrics
and our statewide legislative team.
And so in that capacity,
I actually chaired that legislative team for six years.
So did extensive work in Olympia there,
but also really worked with physicians
from around the whole state.
And I think within the medical community,
there's some excitement of, wow, we could actually have someone
who understands what this system really is like.
What is it -- what is it like to work here?
How is it broken for our patients?
How is it broken for the people who are providing care?
How can we make it better for all of us so that it works?
And so my support really is statewide in that regard.
Prior to the primary, at least,
I had more in-state support than anyone else in the race.
I don't honestly know what the latest numbers are,
but very proud of the fact that the vast,
vast majority of the support was actually in state
and local, people really seeing that this is a voice
that hasn't been in Olympia that they would like to support.
-Got it. Darya, your thoughts on this.
I know you're behind your opponent in fundraising,
but you won the primary vote back in August too --
talk to us about your supporters,
where your funding is coming from,
are you feeling pressure to raise more, what's going on?
-Oh, yeah. I mean, it's obviously no secret
to anyone that that's an area
that my campaign struggled in. Right. We raised, you know,
just under $70,000 going into the primary.
And I'm really proud of the work that we were able to do
and the support we were able to rally there,
you know, pre-primary and also right now,
I was really proud to have the lowest average donation
amount out of all the candidates.
I think that really speaks to the values of my campaign
and who this campaign is for.
It is a grassroots movement.
And, you know, that's reflected in my team as well.
My team is all young women
from different life experiences; students,
students with disabilities, people from the LGBTQ community,
immigrants, refugees, you name it,
it's represented in my team.
And that's really exciting for me.
That really speaks to, you know, our mission,
our pillar of, you know, lifting every voice,
trying to make sure that communities
that haven't necessarily been represented are represented.
You know, as part of one of my campaign core values,
I am not taking corporate PAC donations.
I've also signed the "Patients over Profits" pledge
to make sure that, really, truly,
every part of my campaign is focused on serving patients
and really putting them at the center,
putting folks at the center
who haven't had that institutional voice before.
-Okay. Thank you. And I want to jump
into some issues here, if I could.
You've both identified health and safety
as top priorities if you're elected here.
Lelach, talk to us about those priorities,
if you could, some specific policies
you're thinking about pursuing if you are elected.
-So in terms of health, certainly mental health
is when I walked into this race putting top front and center.
And the prioritization of mental health
really comes from the fact that it has taken over my practice.
When I first started doing primary care 14 years ago,
I'd see one or two patients in a day
with a mental health concern.
It's half the day, every day.
And if it's taken over a primary care practice,
you know it's taken over the schools,
it's taken over our workplaces.
Certainly, as I've been going around
and talking to different groups
in this campaign, it's take -- you know,
you interview with the carpenters union,
the carpenters are talking to you about their mental health.
Like, every single group is talking about that.
So it is, on the most basic level,
not having places to send kids
who need just counseling -- therapists --
to the fact that if I have a child in my office
who is actively suicidal,
there's no place for an inpatient bed either.
And we know that we have had young people and adults
with mental health crises
who are in dire need for treatment
and end up sitting in our emergency room,
sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks,
because we do not have the places to care for them.
So it shows up on that levels.
It also shows up on on our streets
and what we see with the unhoused populations,
and honestly, every single segment of society.
And so when I think about what to do with that,
there have been some initiatives that I've been involved
with that I'm very proud of.
We have a mental health --
a Children's Mental Health Work Group in our state,
which I have been a part of creating
and establishing and continuing to work with.
There's an amazing phone referral line
at Seattle Children's Hospital,
which I was part of the conception of that idea,
writing the bill, pushing it through, implementation,
so that when families have a young person who needs help,
and often those families are overwhelmed
and we as clinicians hand them sheaf of paper of,
"Here are all these names of people you could call.
They may be able to take you. They may not.
They may use your insurance, they may not."
You can actually call Seattle Children's Hospital now
and someone will do an intake
and get back to you with a list of providers.
These people are taking patients.
They use your insurance. They are in your area.
"I'm going to send this list to your doctor
so your doctor knows who I've sent you to,
and I'm going to call you in two weeks
and make sure you got an appointment."
That sort of wraparound, holding a family's hands
as they're in a really tough spot
is life changing for families.
And that is something that I was instrumental in creating.
And based on the Seattle Children's model,
University of Washington has a similar model for adults.
They have a third model that is specifically focused
on postpartum mood disorders.
So an example of something concrete that has been done.
But there's -- we need to fortify the system
top to bottom. -Got it. Okay.
Thanks for breaking all those pieces down.
Darya, health and safety -- top priorities.
Why is that the case? And what kind of policies
are you going to try to push for if you're elected?
-Yeah, absolutely. You know, even our homelessness crisis,
you can tie it back to health care,
specifically behavioral health.
When I look at the folks who are experiencing homelessness,
about 40% of folks nationally, that's the number --
40% of folks identify as having a disability.
The vast majority are folks
experiencing a behavioral health crisis,
a mental illness, substance use, or some combination of the two.
Right? And so then I look at our behavioral health system,
and our behavioral health system has really been built around
our Involuntary Treatment Act,
which was a really important resource.
And it needs to be available
when folks meet that high level of need.
And we shouldn't be building our system around it.
Our system should be focused on meeting people where they're at,
providing care as soon as care is needed.
And it's not doing that right now.
I want to build up the front part of our
behavioral health system.
I want to make sure we're investing in programs
like LEAD here locally in King County.
Our LEAD program has been phenomenal.
I've had the pleasure of working
with LEAD through my work at Disability Rights Washington
as one of those diversion programs
and been able to learn really up close
and personal, learning from the staff
and also learning from the folks who are accessing LEAD programs,
what's working and what doesn't work as well.
What works is having folks proactively go out
and meet people where they're at,
whether that's going out to encampments
to try and build trust and relationship,
or whether that's, you know,
law enforcement calling upon behavioral health professionals
saying this isn't working,
that's not what this person needs to be.
We know that they need treatment
and we think that you are the folks to try
and get them in there.
Making sure that we're pairing behavioral health
with housing as well is going to be
absolutely critical to addressing this crisis.
Talking about crisis response,
I want to talk a little bit about on the 988 hotline
that has just come out.
I'm really proud to be part of the crisis committee
that's working on implementation there.
And boy, is there a lot to do.
-Yeah, just got launched not too long ago.
-Exactly. Exactly. So -- and it's, you know,
coming down from the federal government,
we are realizing overall across the country
that we need to make sure
that when there's a behavioral health crisis,
we have behavioral health professionals
responding to that crisis.
They have access to a different set of tools.
And I think it's also how we support law enforcement as well.
At the end of the day, they're not social workers.
They don't have access to the same tools.
And it's the way to keep everybody safe
and make sure that folks really get that help that they need.
And I want to make sure that 988 is not just a phone number.
I want to make sure that 988
is actually a service that's going out
and meeting people where they're at,
whether that's mobile crisis, whatever that looks like,
and that hopefully one day it can also be a face
where if you're seeing someone
who's experiencing behavioral health crisis,
you can call into it and you'll get a response
to support that individual
who has access to the behavioral health tools they need.
-Thank you very much for that. Yeah.
-So just to build on that a little bit.
One of the things that you all may have seen recently
is there's a real push in terms of
as we try and expand our services.
There's this antiquated law that the federal government
will not help us fund inpatient facilities larger than 16 beds.
-Right. -And in my mind,
that is something that we really need to work to undo
because we are down not just 16 beds,
we are down many, many, many beds
and really need places for individuals to get treatment.
And I know that Darya's organization
has not been on board with that.
And that's another place
where I think we would differentiate ourselves in that.
I would be a yes to everything.
We need to be sure that we're treating people.
We need to be sure we're treating people appropriately.
But I very, very strongly feel like we have enough individuals
who meet criteria, and it is a mental diagnosis criteria.
What level of insight
does someone have to their own disease?
Are they able to say yes when they need it?
Sometimes if you're off of medications,
you don't have that insight and you're not able to.
And so I think the idea of fortifying
those would be something that I would be very much in favor of.
-It feels like maybe response. -Yeah, yeah.
I love to talk about that, you know, absolutely.
We need places for people to go.
I think that this is an interesting conversation
because a lot of it has been phrased around,
we don't have places for people to go,
there's not enough beds.
And it is true, we don't have enough beds.
But the reason why we don't have enough beds is not
because we don't have brick and mortar.
It's because we don't have the workforce,
because we don't have the people to actually staff
the facilities, and so, you know,
if someone meets the criteria for involuntary treatment,
very often what happens is the designated
crisis responder is going to call around,
try and find a location for them to go.
And that individual is most likely going to get denied,
not because there isn't a physical bed in a location,
because there isn't the staff to keep it open
or because we don't have any specialization as well.
Right? This is a big issue for folks
with specifically experiencing behavioral health crisis
and, like, developmental disabilities, for example,
or some other medical situation that comes with it.
And so, you know, I've seen the state push towards
trying to build, build, build.
And what we need to do is build up our workforce
so that we have all of the staff to be able to supplement
all the different wonderful programs and ideas we have.
-Okay. Thank you for that. It's closing statement time.
-Oh, wow. -Yeah, here we go.
We've gone through some really good stuff here.
I appreciate it. Darya, if you wouldn't mind,
try to keep it to about a minute.
-Okay. Sounds good. So thank you all.
It's an honor to be here.
Like I said, this is most glamorous thing I've been --
-That'll Seattle Channel for you, yeah.
-And I really want to say thank you also to the voters
who made it possible for us to win in the primary
with about 32% of the vote. Really, really proud of that.
And we hope that you will show up again
and help us win in November.
You know, looking at the folks who are supporting me,
there's a lot of different people.
And I'm really, really proud
of the different endorsements we've got.
And I'm proud to be the only candidate in this race
with endorsements from reproductive organizations,
transportation organizations, been able to
receive endorsements from also children's organizations.
And, you know, just recently last night,
we got the endorsement of the King County Democrats.
And so we've sealed all of the Democratic organization
endorsements as well.
And, of course, incredibly proud to have the endorsements
of three former candidates from the primary,
all three of them.
And I think that that really speaks to my ability
to build bridges and relationship and coalition
with folks all across the board.
And that's what I want to bring to Olympia.
I want to bring an organizer to Olympia.
-Thank you. Lelach, you get the last word.
-Sure. Well, also, thank you.
And thank you.
I think as I look at this race,
we have -- we have hundreds of lobbyists
and organizers in Olympia already.
We have zero doctors in the legislature.
That subject matter expertise is, in my mind, crucial.
It is what I bring as a scientist, as a physician.
It's also what I bring as a mom.
I will I will not stand by
and watch my daughter have fewer rights than I've had growing up.
I want not only my own children,
but all the children that I have cared for
in my 23 years of clinical work
and all the children of our state
to grow up in a community
that is safe and secure and sustainable,
and being a problem solver and being a doctor,
bringing that lens, I think really makes me
uniquely poised to create those solutions.
I too am super excited to have the endorsements
of really all of the major labor organizations in our state.
The SEIU, the UFCW,
the Washington State Labor Coalition,
the Teachers of Seattle, the Seattle Education Association.
So I really am excited to be a voice for all of them
and for all the families and patients
that I've cared for all the years,
bringing them all and their lived experiences to the table
to create good policy for our state.
-All right. Thank you both very much.
And we will be right back.
What are people saying online about the two candidates?
One writes, "As a practicing pediatrician,
Dr. Lelach Rave's work as a legislative advocate
for Washington's kids is critical.
Her values align so well with our community."
Another says, "I'm supporting Darya
because of my deep concern for the health
and well-being of our community.
She's a fierce advocate for the difficult reforms we need.
We'd like to know what you think.
Send us an email at Contact@SeattleChannel.org
or find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Coming up next week, voters will decide
whether to double the county's conservation futures
property tax this fall.
Supporters say the levy hasn't kept up with rising home values,
with the state's 1% cap on property taxes.
Opponents argue homeowners are already overburdened.
It's a conversation on land conservation
on the next "City Inside Out."
I hope you join us.
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