Three candidates are facing off for the 41st District Senate seat in the Aug. 2 primary. Incumbent Steve Litzow (R-Mercer Island), a former Mercer Island City Council member, is running against educator-turned-CEO Lisa Wellman, a Democrat, and Libertarian candidate Bryan Simonson, a CarRentals.com employee.

Litzow is aiming to return to Olympia to continue work on two issues: education and transportation. He has been serving the 41st since 2010, and is chair of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee and sits on the Senate Transportation Committee.

His goals if re-elected would be to improve education outcomes for all kids and implement transportation programs to make sure “we’re continuing to get the Eastside moving.”

Litzow said he is proud of the “tremendous progress” on education funding made by the Legislature in the past four years, including increasing spending for K-12 by $4.5 billion without raising taxes.

The Legislature has committed to addressing the McCleary court case and fully funding schools in the 2017 session. Litzow, a fiscal conservative, said he believes this can be done “without massive tax increases,” but that legislators will “put everything on the table to make sure the 40-year-old problem with over-reliance on local levies is solved.”

He said that the Legislature also needs to continue working on early learning, college affordability and making sure kids are coming to school prepared to learn.

Wellman said that her main goal in Olympia would be to “stop stalling” on needed solutions for children and efficient and accountable government. She said that leadership will be critical in solving the state’s challenges.

“We’re starting to look too much like the other Washington,” she said. “We can do so much better … It’s very partisan and it needn’t be.”

The most important issue heading into the election is education, she said, not just recognizing that McCleary needs to be funded, but looking critically at how that is done.

“Citizens and certainly parents in the state want the same thing: an excellent education that prepares students to thrive,” she said.

Wellman said that new revenue has to be on the table, and that she would like to be a part of the conversation on Washington’s regressive tax structure.

Other important issues to her include equal pay and reproductive health access.

Wellman, a former vice president of Apple Computer, has served on several state boards, including the Washington State Public Works Board, Partners for Rural Washington and former Gov. Chris Gregoire’s Community Economic Revitalization Board

“Public service has always been a part of who I am and what I believe in,” she said.

Simonson felt betrayed by his own party in 2012. He was a Republican and wanted his fellow GOP voters to recognize that Ron Paul was the best man for the job. They didn’t see things the same way. Now Simonson, 32, is looking to take the 41st District’s state Senate seat from Republicans as the Libertarian candidate.

“At the end of all that work we did [for Paul’s campaign], we were basically railroaded at the state and national level,” he said. “I might be a Libertarian-flavored Republican were it not for that.”

Simonson has called Bellevue home since he graduated from high school.

His main issue is one a lot of Eastside residents share, namely fixing the tolling situation on Interstate 405 and improving traffic in the 41st.

Simonson said Litzow’s leadership has helped to give Washington the second-highest gas tax in the country with nothing but more traffic and congestion to show for it. He is also concerned with the recent ST3 proposal. He loves the idea of mass transit, but is concerned with the far-off date of completion and head-spinning price tag.

Ryan Murray contributed to this report.