North Bend Democrat First To File For Seat Goehner Is Vacating

North Bend City Councilor Heather Koellen is running for the 12th district State Representative seat being vacated by Keith Goehner. 

Get our free mobile app

Koellen is a Democrat and is the first candidate for the seat to file with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. 

Goehner is now running for the 12th district Senate seat being vacated by fellow Republican Brad Hawkins. 

The 12th District has undergone significant geographic changes in the past two years and now includes territory west of the Cascade mountains in King and Snohomish counties. 

The once-a-decade redistricting process in 2022 moved the 12th district further west. Then a ruling this year from a federal judge on a unrelated voting matter ended up moving the boundaries even further west.  

The 12th district now stretches from the cities of Monroe in Snohomish County as well as Carnation and North Bend in King County on the west side to Wenatchee and Chelan on its east end. 

Koellen attended the University of Washington in Bothell and is a Registered Nurse at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

According to the North Bend city website, she serves on the King County Board of Health, the Meadowbrook Farm Preservation Association, Snoqualmie Valley Historical Society, and is an alternate on the Eastside Fire & Rescue Board. 

Koellen began serving on the North Bend City Council in 2020. Her current term expires at the end of 2027.  

For his part, Hawkins is now running for the Chelan County Commission District 3 seat being vacated by Tiffany Gering. 

Hawkins said he chose not to run for reelection in the 12th district partially because of its geographic changes. 

And a Democrat, former Snoqualmie City Councilmember Jim Mayhew is running against Goehner for the Senate seat to replace Hawkins.

The 12th district has long been dominated by Republicans and until this year, Democrats rarely ran in any of the contests.