Rolfes announces challenge for Woods’ seat

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND — Former Bainbridge Island councilwoman Christine Rolfes is pledging a nonpartisan approach to improving state education and health care as she embarks on a campaign for the state Legislature.

“I think I’m good at moving things forward and pulling people together,” Rolfes said Monday. “Some people play partisan politics, others keep their nose to the grindstone.”

Rolfes, who served six years on the Bainbridge City Council, will run as a Democrat in her bid to unseat Rep. Beverly Woods, a Kingston Republican who has represented the 23rd Legislative District for three terms.

If elected in November, Rolfes said she’ll apply many of the lessons she learned while serving on the council.

“A benefit I had serving on the council was to work with a diversity of opinions,” she said. “I learned you don’t get your way. You work toward a solution together.”

Rolfes says no particular issues are driving her bid for a House seat. Rather, it’s her desire to jump back into the thick of public policy, where she feels she is most effective.

“I left the council saying I need to get some sleep,” she said, listing one of the many reasons — including a desire to spend more time with family and a promise to voters not to run again after two terms — she opted not to seek reelection last November.

Former diplomat Chris Snow was elected unopposed to Rolfes’ former south ward post.

“After I left (the council), I started doing my resumé and networking,” said Rolfes of her efforts early this year to find a job in international development, a field in which she worked before her service on the council.

“But when I started looking for work, I

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