Greg Hoover is the perfect example of the kind of candidate Democrats in Washington hope can break the dominance of the Republican party in the 5th State Legislative District.

The 5th district covers Issaquah and Sammamish, as well as Snoqualmie, North Bend, Fall City, Maple Valley, and parts of unincorporated King County, and is currently represented in the legislature by two Republicans, Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne.

In order to present candidates that appeal to what they believe are largely moderate voters without strict party affiliations, the 5th District Democrats have tapped into two candidates with strong business backgrounds, Sammamish residents Dean Willard and Greg Hoover.

The Reporter caught up with Hoover at a coffee shop in Issaquah recently to hear how a young man raised by descendants of the Iowan Republican and 31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover came to be running as a democrat in Western Washington.

Like Herbert Hoover, Greg Hoover was not raised by his birth parents – he was given up for adoption as a baby and raised by the Hoover family in California. His adoptive father was the Chief of Police in Whitier, Calif., and as a teenager Greg developed an interest in law.

“I remember it clearly, the moment I decided I wanted to be a lawyer,” Hoover said. “I was 16 years old, and we were doing a mock trial case in high school. The teacher had put together two different juries, and it was meant to teach us that no two juries were ever alike, and there can be different outcomes. I won over both juries, it was the first time anyone had done that. I was hooked.”

Hoover specializes in business law, with a particular niche in the Asian community, and runs his own law practice out of downtown Seattle. He also has his real estate brokers license, and operates a small brokerage company in Bellevue. It was this business experience that led supporters of the Democratic party to make a direct approach to him in March of 2009.

“I have a good friend who is closely involved in national Democratic politics – he always liked to call me ‘Senator Hoover,'” Hoover said. “I always thought he was just playing around with me, and never took it too seriously. Then one night he invited me to a dinner, and there were a lot of Democratic ‘big-wigs’ there. They asked me to consider running in the 5th.”

Hoover didn’t immediately jump at the idea, knowing it would take some readjusting of his personal and professional life. In addition to his two careers, Hoover is also the co-founder of Runners for Autism, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness of Autism and similar disorders. And as the father of a young boy, Hoover wanted to make sure his son, Austin, 6, was settled in school before taking on the challenge of a run at state office. He made his decision right around Thanksgiving.

“I was honored,” Hoover recalled. “You know, Obama had just come in to office, it was inspiring, there was a lot of energy in politics. Obama was a huge factor in my decision to run, but I am also critical of a lot of his plans. He has done a lot of good, and there are some things I disagree with.”

As the politicking begins, one thing you won’t hear from Hoover is any trash talk about his opponent for Position No. 1, incumbent Jay Rodne.

“Jay is actually a friend of mine, we’ve come up against each other in cases in the past,” he said. “I’m glad to be going up against him, he’s a worthy opponent.”

Hoover said the two men had given their word to each other to run positive campaigns focused on the issues and not on mud-slinging.

The sense of agreement between Hoover and Rodne even runs a little into their politics, a point which may be encouraging for those reaching for the middle ground but not so for Democrats looking to move away from what are traditionally Republican ideas.

“Jay and I both agree that a state income tax is not a good idea when the economy is down,” he said. “I don’t agree we should be raising general taxes. But I also feel that everyone should pay their fair share. We must first be looking at areas where we can cut non-essential programs to save the money. Increasing the sales tax at the moment would just be unfair to fixed and lower income people who already pay more than their fair share.”

Hoover believes the solution in state government needs to be like “stitches on a wound” – a permanent way to solve the problem, but realistic in that it will still take time to do so.

Where Hoover really starts to diverge from his opponent is in taking a stand on what programs should not be cut.

“Health care and education, definitely,” he said. “Health care is one of those programs which must not be cut, especially for low-income families. Education is the paramount duty of the state. We cut that and we hurt our children and our future.”

The state’s Basic Health Care Plan, which provides subsidized insurance to low income families, is expected to be greatly reduced or eliminated entirely unless additional revenue sources can be found as part of the 2010 budget.

Hoover described himself as pro-union, and supports the fight of the state’s teachers to earn a living comparable with the importance of their role.

“My sister is a teacher in Colorado,” he said. “I’ve seen what she’s had to go through. They work incredibly hard for $35,000 a year, and they need their unions – there is so much politics involved. The teachers do have a right to strike, I just hope they always have the needs of the children in mind too.”

The other area Hoover wants to make a difference in the 5th is the environment, and green technology.

“I believe there is a huge opportunity for wind turbines out in North Bend, out near Mount Si,” he said. “They have tremendous windstorms out there, and if we could harness just some of that energy, we would be creating a new generation of jobs as well as reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. Green technologies like that are the future.”

Hoover said he was “strongly for” stem-cell research, and described himself as “pro-choice.”

“The Bush stance on that was flat-out ignorant,” he said. Hoover said advances in science had long surpassed the concerns of stem-cell opponents, and policies that had more to do with religion and ideology were getting in the way of real medical breakthroughs.

Before he can look at bringing his policy ideas to the district, Hoover has a lot of fundraising to do, and currently tapping in to his many contacts in the worlds of business law and real estate to get the support he needs to mount a real challenge to Rodne.