Not since 2002 has state Rep. Jeff Morris faced an opponent in the 40th Legislative District Position 2 race.

That year, a Republican struck Morris from the right. Now the challenge comes from the left, from Green Party candidate Howard Pellett.

Pellett took about 20 percent of the vote in the August primary election. Morris got 80 percent.

On the fundraising front, the incumbent’s lead is even greater. Morris has raised almost $105,000, and Pellett plans to take in less than $5,000.

Pellett, a retired IRS agent who lives on Guemes Island, helped found the Skagit County Green Party in 2000. He tries to live by his party’s values: Solar panels heat his home’s water, and he only accepts contributions from individuals, not corporations or political action committees.

He says that government needs to move toward a “peace economy” from a war one, that universal heath care should be sought state by state, that the public provision of power is essential and that the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test should be scrapped.

To Morris, Pellett’s challenge is confusing. Morris, the speaker pro tempore and member of the Technology, Energy and Communications Committee, said he has been a leader on energy and environmental issues.

While Pellett argues for higher tax credits for solar panels, Morris points to legislation he authored to do that. He said he has cut state energy consumption to save state money and championed renewable energy sources.

“It was really a head-scratcher when he filed against me,” Morris said of Pellett. “... Howard has yet to say which of those policies he has disagreed with that he would do differently.”

On gay rights and civil unions, both men agree they should be legal. For Morris, education is the most important issue, and he agrees that passing the WASL should not be a high school graduation requirement

“I think where we divide is on the sell-out of Puget Sound Energy to Macquarie (Group, which is based in Australia),” Pellett said. “That is where we divide.”

Pellett said he will vote yes on Proposition No. 1, which would allow the PUD to provide power. Morris said he will vote no.

“I have dealt with PUDs day in and day out,” Morris said of his work on the Technology, Energy and Communications Committee. “... I am voting against it.”

That opposition has nothing to do with campaign contributions from Puget Sound Energy, as Pellett has charged, Morris said. He said the public provision of power would cost rate-payers much more because current rates are standard among all of PSE’s residential customers and subsidized by communities that cost less to transmit power to.

“I don’t think people have any idea about how PSE residential rates are structured,” said Morris, who owns the company Energy Horizon. “The people in Bellevue subsidize the rates in La Conner or Guemes Island ... Your rates are going to go up.”

“I think all of our infrastructure — highways, power dams, water systems — they all should be provided by public entities,” Pellett said. “... It should not be a profit-making business.”

On health care and the deficit, the men also disagree.

Pellett said the state’s rainy day fund should take care of the deficit, but the fund is roughly $700 million, and the deficit is expected to exceed $3 billion.

In the longer term, he believes a state income tax is necessary. On a broader scale, he thinks the economy should be shifted from a focus on war to peace — by pulling back troops from abroad and shifting industries from defense to energy.

With those adjustments, he said the state could and should begin providing health insurance to the uninsured.

Morris said the state should ask two questions in balancing the budget: Can the government do this more efficiently, and can we fix the problem?

For example, Morris said he pushed for state computers to go into “sleep” mode faster, where they use less energy. And with about 480,000 of them, he said that alone will save about $1 million a year.

On the second question, Morris said the state must consider whether programs are actually fixing problems. The state’s basic health program for adults, for example, has a waiting list that never seems to shorten.

“I think we will take a really hard look at eliminating the program,” he said. “There just does not seem to be an end to the demand.”

Any meaningful change in adult health care, said Morris, will have to happen at the national level.

* Elliott Wilson can be reached at 360-416-2147 or at ewilson @skagitvalleyherald.com.