Rape allegation, lack of investigation leaves 47th Senate seat vulnerable

Washington’s 47th District covers parts of South King County, including Kent, Covington, and Auburn. It is one of the state’s few swing districts, with a Republican and a Democrat in the two House seats. Moderate Republican Senator Joe Fain is somewhere in the middle.

Fain, a two-term senator, is facing Democratic challenger Mona Das, a small mortgage business owner who was born in India and moved here with her parents as a child. In the primary, Fain came out ahead by about 7 points, and had four times as much in campaign donations as Das. That was before a rape allegation against Fain emerged in September. It has added another factor for voters to consider.

Former City of Seattle staffer Candace Faber took to Twitter with a claim that Fain raped her in 2007. She alleges the incident happened at a Washington DC hotel room following a night of drinking.

Faber has publicly spoken of the assault before, but has not named Fain until recently. Fain has denied the allegations and has called for a full investigation of the matter. But no investigation has been started at this point and it is unclear if there will be. Fain also urged everyone to be respectful of all involved, including his accuser.

Das is not focusing on the allegations against her opponent in her campaign and only had a few short comments on it.

“I am a survivor myself and I believe that we should believe women when they come forward,” Das said.

Other than his initial statements, Fain has been mostly silent on the allegation and about his re-election bid. Das says he’s also been a no show at candidate forums.

Fain declined multiple interview requests for this story.

Fain vs Das on the issues

Fain’s campaign materials show he is a centrist who works with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to come up with solutions for communities – which he did last year as he championed a paid family leave measure that was passed by the Legislature.

As for Das, her priorities include boosting the stock of affordable housing in her district for first-time home buyers, and coming up with creative ways to get more affordable housing for renters — such as ADUs. She says preventing homelessness is also a priority and thinks taking a look at renter’s rights is one way to make a difference.

“If they’re 20 days late on their rent [it] might start the eviction process, so we can talk about eviction protection and eviction prevention,” Das said. “That is usually how people start to experience homelessness first, is they’re late on their rent and can’t afford to stay and then they end up living in their cars and then, you know, it goes downward from there.”

She wants transportation improvements in her district, including more park and rides, but says the overall goal is to make public transit more convenient and get people out of their cars.

Das also supports passing some type of car tab relief.

“We need to make car tabs fair,” Das said.

“We need to make sure that Sound Transit has their money so we have to look for other additional sources for that because we need to deliver those projects on time and on budget,” she said.

Fain voted for a compromise bill on car tab relief that cleared in the Senate that would have saved drivers about $30 on their tabs. That bill is expected to come up again next session.

Fain has also been a leader on education policy and helped get the McCleary education fix done.

Das is critical of his yes vote on that because she says it did not do enough for special education — which she plans to fight to correct if elected.

Das also supports a capital gain tax, which the will be pitched as a way to pay for education funding this session instead of using property taxes. Fain says a capital gains tax is unconditional.

Das supports I-1639, the gun control initiative that will be on the ballot. Fain also supports responsible gun laws, and that landed him the endorsement of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the group behind the initiative.

And while Fain gets a lot of praise for working the middle and bringing both sides of the aisle together to get things done, Das says she brings the same skills.

“Give and take is a part of life, it’s a part of my business,” Das said. ” I have to negotiate with realtors, with underwriters and our staff to make sure that we get loans done and we want to bring that type of excitement and collaboration to Olympia. We are not going to get anything done of we stop listening to each other and I think that’s what’s been happening.”

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