A business and community leader in Renton and a Mercer Island City Council member are vying for a political rarity – an open seat in the state Legislature.

And, they have raised nearly $425,000 (as of early Thursday) in their quest to represent their two cities, along with a big chunk of Bellevue and Newcastle and Issaquah, in the state House of Representatives.

Marcie Maxwell, 53, of Renton and Steve Litzow, 46, of Mercer Island are squaring off for House Position 1 in the 41st District. Maxwell won their primary matchup, 53 percent to 47 percent, in August.

Both candidates have spent months campaigning for the wide-open seat, Maxwell announcing her candidacy last December and Litzow in March.

While her natural base is Renton, Maxwell said all areas of the 41st District are important to her. Her work as a real-estate broker and

as a Renton School Board member have taken her all over the 41st District and beyond.

That reach, she said, has allowed her to develop long-term business and personal relationships.

Maxwell has doorbelled daily, reaching thousands of homes throughout the sprawling district. “I work to get the job done,” she said.

The district includes about an equal number of registered voters from Mercer Island and those with Renton addresses – about 16,000 for Mercer Island and about 17,000 for Renton.

The biggest chunk of registered voters is in Bellevue – about 38,000.

On Monday, Litzow rang his 15,000th doorbell – in Newcastle. He, too, has walked the entire district once “in those precincts that are walkable,” he said.

“I am going to make sure they know who I am,” he said.

Litzow called legislative races the “last level of retail politics,” where the candidates actually go out and meet constituents one-on-one, he said.

Litzow, a management consultant, started campaigning March 1 and is back in gloves and plastic rain gear with the change in seasons.

On the campaign trail, Maxwell said the concerns she has heard from voters match those she has talked about since she announced her candidacy. Those issues are the economy, jobs, education and transportation, she said.

“I have been talking to them – and listening to them – about education and our children and our future workforce,” she said. These issues, she said, are “not something new to me.” They are the same issues she has addressed, she said, as a leader in the Renton Chamber of Commerce and on the Renton School Board.

In contrast to what Maxwell has found on the campaign trail, Litzow said policy concerns have changed over time. Early on, it was transportation; now it’s “all economy,” he said.

But what’s overriding, Litzow said, is a desire for Olympia to “just go get something done.” Nationally, he said, the message is change. In Washington state, the message is: take action.

One area where lawmakers will have to take action is the state’s economy and state budget, especially against a looming or already-here national recession.

The current economic problems facing the state today have much to do with what’s happening on the national level, Maxwell said, especially the financial industry. In Washington state, the economic issues were held at bay for a time, she said, but not anymore.

Now, the state must prioritize its spending and look at programs that work and don’t work, she said.

“I am not a stranger to dealing with budgets that have to be prioritized,” she said, as a member of the Renton School Board.

The biggest single economic issue facing the state is what to do with the state’s budget deficit, estimated at up to $3.2 billion, Litzow said.

Litzow said he’s a “huge fan” of using the “priorities of government” approach to writing a budget, an approach that was introduced by another Democratic governor, Gary Locke.

The approach is simple, he said. First, decide what’s most important, then pay for those priorities, he said. The No. 1 priority, he said, is basic education, as mandated by the state Constitution. Below education are public safety, state employee pensions and health care, he said.

There’s enough blame to go around for the state’s deficit, he said. “In good times, you try new things,” he said. But the economy and the revenue it can generate didn’t keep up with the spending, he said.

The same is true in King County, which is facing a $93-million deficit in its general fund, the one that pays for day-to-day operations. County officials are poised to ask the state Legislature for new ways to help pay for its services.

Litzow said the county has been asked repeatedly by the state Legislature to change its business practices and Litzow said it has refused.

“I am not inclined to give them the ability to raise more money until they can show they can spend what they have in a better way,” he said.

Maxwell says each level of government needs help from other governments. She said she hasn’t studied what options the county has to help itself, but county officials have some issues to work on, she said.

Both agree that the solution of the region’s transportation mess will take light rail, more bus service and more highway capacity.

Despite the economic downtown, the region is still going to grow and there will come a greater need to move people more efficiently, Maxwell said. That means making bus service more attractive and efficient, she said. Light rail is part of the answer, too, but it will take some time to feel its benefits, she said.

“We need something more immediate,” she said. “That is bus service that works.”

She opposes Tim Eyman’s Initiative 985, which is intended to relieve traffic congestion. She doesn’t see the initiative as helpful to the state or to the 41st District.

She’s “a bit neutral or skeptical” about Proposition 1 in King County that would provide more money for mass transit. She’s not sure yet whether it provides enough service for many areas of the 41st district, she said.

“We have to build a world-class transportation system,” Litzow said, in part because about 1.7 million new people are expected in the region over the next three decades or so. To do so will require light rail, buses and more highway capacity.

He doesn’t support Proposition 1. Light rail across Interstate 90 won’t ease congestion nor does it help freight movement, he said.

Nor does he support Eyman’s Initiative 985, which he called “a hodgepodge of things” that won’t solve any problems.

Education issues have helped set the two candidates apart.

Maxwell has served on the Renton School Board since 2001. Through her work representing King County school boards on Washington State School Directors’ Association legislative committee, she said she has met school directors from across the state and gained a “great perspective on the needs and issues of communities and school districts around the state.”

Maxwell said she has been an advocate for children and public schools for two decades. It’s important to have legislators who are familiar with school finance, which, she said, “is very complicated.”

“It will be important to have an education leader who can get off the ground running,” she said. “I think I have that to offer.”

In an interview with the Mercer Island Reporter, Litzow was critical of Maxwell’s leadership of the Renton School District, which he called the worst in the 41st District.

“Nobody has ever once said Renton was the gold standard or that we need our schools to be more like Renton’s,” Litzow told the Mercer Island Reporter. “People always point to Bellevue or Mercer Island.”

After seven years on the school board, Litzow said Maxwell “takes a lot of responsibility” for the failure of the three middle schools to meet the minimum WASL standards.

Maxwell said Litzow doesn’t understand the challenges of schools and families and how that relates to the challenges of school districts, including such issues as poverty and those students with little experience with English.

“He would have to represent those areas that he doesn’t call ‘gold standard’,” she said.

Steve Litzow

PARTY: Republican

PERSONAL: 46 years old; lives on Mercer Island

FAMILY: Wife Jenny and children Elizabeth, twins Peter and Margaret and Michael

EDUCATION: Graduated from high school in Brookfield, Wisc.; political science degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

OCCUPATION: Management consultant

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES: Member, Mercer Island City Council

Contributions, as of Thursday: $243,317

Expenditures, as of Thursday: $172,578

For details on campaign finances, go to http://www.pdc.wa.gov.

WEBSITE: http://stevelitzow.com

Marcie Maxwell

PARTY: Democrat

PERSONAL: 53 years old; lives in Renton.

FAMILY: Husband Steve and children Denise and Michael

EDUCATION: Graduate of Rainier Beach High School and studied business and real estate at Highline Community College.

OCCUPATION: Self-employed for 19 years as a Realtor and associate broker, Windermere

POLITICAL ACTIVITIES: Member, Renton School Board, currently the vice president

Contributions, as of Thursday: $179,243

Expenditures, as of Thursday: $146,828

For details on campaign finances, go to http://www.pdc.wa.gov.

WEBSITE: http://www.marciemaxwell.org