A Champion For Dayton

DAYTON - One could find Rep. Terry Nealey on the court shooting hoops, talking about job creation at the Economic Development Steering Committee meeting, painting a wall to help a Dayton teen with his senior project or taking a ride around Dayton in his restored 1931 Hupmobile.

Nealey, who has served on the state legislature since 2009, has announced he will be running again for his position in the 16th District. Nealey said he has worked hard on the state's budget and is focused on improving our energy policy. Others say Nealey's work has helped bring jobs to the area and touted Dayton with every chance he got.

"He's got a lot of energy," said Jennie Dickinson, the manager of the Port of Columbia.

Dickinson said she believed Nealey has adapted well to Olympia, while maintaining his community-minded goals.

"He gets the big picture and he walks the talk," she added.

This time around, the reason to run again was simple.

"I just felt called to do it," Nealey said. "I've felt all of my life it's important to serve your community, state and country."

Nealey's sense of service comes from his small-town, farm background and the two years he spent in the military.

He grew up on a wheat, cattle and hay farm near LaCrosse and graduated from high school there in 1965. His high school had 100 students and he played all of the sports and was class president one year. His parents, sister and twin brother worked hard on the farm to keep it going. And at nighttime, he would watch Perry Mason on TV and one day dream of being a lawyer.

After high school, he attended Whitworth College and transferred to Washington State University. WSU had the courses he wanted to take and an ROTC program. The country was fighting the Vietnam War and Nealey said he wanted to be prepared. Nealey spent time abroad and as a military police lieutenant on the East Coast.

He had married Jan, whom he had known since high school, and after his service, they went to Spokane so he could attend three years of law school at Gonzaga University. While he had family in the Spokane area, his brother still maintains the family farm, Nealey moved to Dayton in 1976. He had a good friend in Dayton who told him one of the town's attorneys was set to retire and Nealey wanted to fill the need. He worked under Bert Woolson for four years and then took over the practice. Nealey said he practices very general law in the area and served as the county's prosecuting attorney for 16 years.

His work experience, especially with farm-type law, really helped him as a legislator, he said. He often worked on cases involving farm leases, contracts and estate planning. During his career, he represented the Columbia County Health System and the Port of Columbia. In his work on the judiciary committee in Olympia, he said the group sees more bills than any other committee, but he rarely comes across a subject he knows little about.

And when Nealey wasn't practicing law, he was raising a family with Jan. He has two grown children, Keith and Kristin, who now live on the West side of the mountains and have children of their own. He helped Jan start the Young Life program in Dayton and even coached high school basketball at Dayton High School. His pride is displayed on his office wall - a plaque from the 1995 state champion basketball team he coached. Nealey has been playing basketball since he was three and he has no plans to stop. In fact, he's headed to Florida soon to compete in a tournament with some teammates from Washington and Idaho. His team is on the younger side of the 65-and-older age bracket, so he believes they'll come home victorious. Nealey said he makes sure he's on the court three days a week.

"It helps me play and think better," he said.

Basketball is Nealey's favorite sport but Dayton is his favorite city. Nealey said he is proud of his community because of the work they put into the city to make it a better place. Together the community renovated and improved Main Street and the county courthouse. But, there's definitely more to be done. He is bothered by the fact that when he moved to Dayton there were 17 adult softball teams and now there is none. The community is aging and the graduates aren't coming back, Nealey said. The effort to preserve his community is part of the reason why Nealey is so jobs-oriented. If there are jobs open for young adults, they'll come back to Dayton and raise their families, he believes. He helped create the Economic Development Steering Committee to focus on the local economy with jobs as the main goal.

As Nealey checked items off his to-do list and got closer to retirement, he decided to run for office. He is following in the footsteps of his father Darwin who was a legislator for 10 years in Whitman County. With the influence of his father and local support, Nealey ran to represent the 16th District. But, he lost a close race to Democrat Bill Grant. Grant died two months after the election and Nealey, knowing if he was elected that would mean running a campaign three years in a row, felt motivated to run again. And the second time - he won. He has held onto his seat since that time.

Charlie Button, the former CEO of the Columbia County health system said it is obvious that Nealey is passionate about rural Eastern Washington and has supported rural health care in the face of large proposed cuts this year.

"Proposals were made in the legislature in the last budget cycle that would have signifi- cantly stripped reimbursement to Critical Access Hospitals like Dayton General Hospital," Button said. "Throughout the legislative session, Terry was listening to the communities that he represents and was actively engaged in meetings and conversations at the legislative level to protect our current system."

Button said Terry does his best to make life better for the residents in Eastern Washington and he and his staff at the hospital appreciate all he has done while in office.

Nealey certainly displays the kind of "quiet determination" he said he saw in his own father. But, his decision to keep at it, even when the battle is uphill, comes from Nealey's sense of confidence and his belief that he "is the best qualified and could do the best job."

So, he will run again with fiscal responsibility being his top priority. No one has yet filed to run against him. Filing ends on May 18.