Max Vekich, candidate for Seattle Port Commission Position 4, has been active in healthcare issues since he began his political career.

He has been a political activist since the age of 18, when he first became a precinct committee officer for the Democratic Party.

At 28, he was elected to the Washington State Legislature as a Democratic representative from the 35th district, which covers parts of Grays Harbor, Thurston, Mason and Kitsap counties. He spent eight years in the Legislature, 1983-1990, the last four of which he sat on the House Committee on Health Care alongside now U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell.

After being elected to the Legislature, Vekich says, he received a shocking and saddening introduction to healthcare issues when he saw five children in the Bremerton area with medical expenses that topped half a million dollars before they were even six months old.

This experience inspired Vekich’s “First Steps” legislation, passed into law in 1989.

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