MOSES LAKE — Former Moses Lake City Council member Deanna Martinez has announced her candidacy for the Washington House of Representatives. Martinez is running for the position left vacant when Rep. Alex Ybarra announced he was running for Washington State Senate.

Martinez is one of two candidates for the position so far. Business owner Jeff Leichleiter, Ellensburg, announced Friday he was in the race.

Martinez said she has identified some areas she wants to focus on if she’s elected, starting with public safety.

“As a city council member, (public safety) was high on my list,” she said.

She does not support a bill approved by the Washington Legislature during the 2026 session that establishes a board appointed by the governor to oversee, and possibly decertify and remove, elected county sheriffs.

“Some other (oversight) board will have the ability to fire our sheriff for who knows what reason,” Martinez said. “That should be a local decision.”

A separate oversight authority is redundant, she said, since it should be up to local voters to make those decisions.

Martinez said if elected, she wants to work on ways to encourage economic development. She cited Moses Lake as an example.

“We’re trying to grow, we want to grow, we’ve grown some, but there are restrictions,” she said.

Regulation – some of which Martinez said she thinks is unnecessary – is part of the problem, in her opinion. Excessive and restrictive regulation also has made it more difficult to provide other necessary services like electricity, she said. The legislature’s stated goal is additional affordable housing, she said, but state regulation has made that more difficult.

Infrastructure and water availability also are part of the economic development picture, she said. She cited the January closure of the Hansen Road overpass and the possible interruptions of traffic on Interstate 90 as an example.

Maintenance on Hansen Road and the bridge at Adams Road was delayed to the point that both had to be closed, she said. In her opinion, funds generated through the state’s Climate Commitment Act fees should be used for road maintenance.

The Moses Lake council spends a lot of its time working on water issues, and Martinez said she thinks her experience is good training. There’s a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to water, she said.

“There is a whole system that has to work and work together,” she said.

As a registered nurse, Martinez said health care would be another area of focus. Excessive and unnecessary regulation has made it harder to recruit medical professionals to Washington, which has had an impact throughout the system, she said. Medical professionals are recruited to urban facilities, she said, which cuts down on staff availability in rural areas.