Either way the vote goes, Kitsap County is getting a longtime Republican resident with military roots on its county commission.

Vice-chair of the county Republican party Sean Murphy and military consultant Oran Root are running for District 2, the southernmost part of Kitsap.

This will be the first time that those residents will see two new names on the ballot since Charlotte Garrido was elected in 2008.

Because they’re both Republicans, Root’s and Murphy’s platforms are similar.

“What this comes down to is, I have some ideas on things that I think would be good to help move the county forward; he also has some ideas. What I really want to see is, I want to see people look at both of those ideas and say, ‘Hey, this is a direction that we think is going to be best for the county,’ and make their decisions based off of [that],” Murphy said. “We all really want the same things: we want safety, we want community bonds to be strong, we want prosperity, we want what’s best for our friends and neighbors.”

Both want to ensure that Kitsap will be able to accommodate the growth the county will see in the next few decades, and they agree that the permitting process needs updates — but they differ on where change should start.

Root thinks the county should take a top-down approach and prioritize “a strong Department of Community Development leadership team,” followed by amendments to the permitting and regulatory process. That will help increase the availability of housing in the county and “ease the burden on families, young professionals, and new home buyers supporting our public safety and schools,” he wrote on his campaign website.

Murphy feels the opposite way: by making changes starting at the permit level, more projects may be served faster, which will stimulate economic growth. For example, Murphy said, the county’s budget shortfall might be alleviated by streamlining the permitting process, because instead of raising the sales tax, an easier permitting process would allow businesses to proliferate, which would generate more revenue.

“The permitting aspect impacts so many areas of our daily lives that may not, at first, even seem related,” Murphy said. “If we’re going to manage our growth properly — and we’re going to need the growth, I mean, both in the businesses and in the housing — we need to really be thinking and focused on, how are we supporting the businesses? How are we supporting individual property owners who want to create rental property? How are we helping the families that are just trying to get a piece of land and then build their house on there?”

Public health and safety are also touchpoints for Root and Murphy. Both hope to increase resources and funding for law enforcement and push for mental health resources as a preventative measure.

“Deterring, enforcing and reducing crime requires a true bipartisan support strategy from the elected judges, prosecutors, defense, policing and most importantly, the public. Our fellow citizens deserve better,” Root wrote on his campaign social media.

Murphy focuses on the crisis of fentanyl addiction in Kitsap. He initially campaigned on a bounty strategy, offering $500 for incriminating information on fentanyl dealers in the region. But he has stepped back from that idea after conversations with groups like Narcotics Anonymous and social workers. Handing $500 to a recently sober addict could lead to a lot of overdoses, he realized.

“We looked at the idea of, well, a lot of our addicts and our mental health patients are homeless for those reasons. What if instead of handing them cash, we helped move them into transitionary housing — such as a sober living home or a mental health help home — and we used that money instead to pay their first month’s rent or deposit? Then they can get some help and some focused treatment.”

Murphy is also running on an issue that Republicans rarely spearhead: transportation. He hopes to reduce traffic congestion on Highway 3 by establishing a commuter train between Belfair in Mason County and the Bangor Naval Base, with a park-and-ride in Gorst. Additionally, he wants to reignite conversation about a bridge between Port Orchard and Bremerton, and to address bridge infrastructure on Hood Canal. “Our thoughts here are, Mason County can help absorb some of the growth in Kitsap that is coming through the Navy and civilian population,” he said.