State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue, speaks at the Monday morning news conference, flanked by Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, and Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch.
OLYMPIA, Dec. 12.–So many people had so much to say about the upheaval in the Senate that Washington State Wire just can’t let the opportunity pass without one last notebook-dump. Two Democrats are siding with the 23 Senate Republicans to create a bipartisan working majority, and so much was said at that Monday-morning news conference that you just couldn’t wedge it all into a single story. Next came the usual avalanche of press releases. What jubilation! What betrayal! What a splendid way to show support for Washington’s new governor! So before the moment passes and everyone gets down to the turgid business of governing, and people forget how they they danced and how they boiled – here’s the best of what we didn’t report.
Probably the most significant statement, as far as Olympia is concerned, came in remarks made by Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray to the Seattle Times editorial board. The new Majority Coalition Caucus is offering to share power with the remaining 24 Senate Democrats, granting them six committee chairmanships. There won’t be any decisions until the Dems meet behind closed doors, probably next week. But miffed Murray told the Times he’d rather suffer in the cold. “I think it would be healthier for the institution if 24 of us are a strong minority influencing the process as a minority,” he said. “I think it would make for a better product in the end.”
Let ’em hang — that’ll show ’em.
Anybody Want a Chairmanship?
Meanwhile, you could detect a hint at the news conference that the offer might be open to individual Democrats, not just the caucus as a whole. In other words, it might become every potential chairman for himself. Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee, told reporters afterward, “Coalitions are always fragile. I think the most important thing about this is that this is an opportunity for people to get used to the idea. Maybe other members will sign onto our guiding principles, and it is much better to do this now instead of waiting until January 14.”
All the Lonely People, Where Do They All Come From?
If you like invective, there’s the comment state Democratic Party chairman Dwight Pelz offered to Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat. Pelz vowed an effort in the next election to defeat Bellevue’s Rodney Tom, the Democrat who will take over the reins as leader of the new majority caucus. And he said Tom and fellow Democrat Tim Sheldon are “lonely men that feel this need to be important.”
They might not be the only lonely ones. Said state Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle: “I was supposed to be the majority floor leader. I think I could have a lot more free time. We’ll have to see.”
Inslee’s Best Buddies
The biggest irony? It looks like the members of the new Majority Coalition Caucus will be the new governor’s bestest buddies. Far from undermining Gov.-elect Jay Inslee, they say they will do their darndest to make sure the newly elected Democrat keeps that campaign promise of his not to raise taxes. This means the new Senate coalition may be the only group of lawmakers that even pretends Inslee was serious about it.
“I think we are in lockstep with the governor on that,” Tom said. “I think Gov.-elect Jay Inslee was very clear as far as where he was on new revenue, and what we need to do here in Washington state is to live within our means and do so with a sustainable budget. Not have a lot of gimmicks, a lot of games. We will have a transparent budget that lives within our means, and I think that is what the citizens of the state expect from us.”
Said Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, “Gov.-elect Inslee has said that he believed we could [balance the budget] without taxes. His opponent said we could do it without taxes, Attorney General McKenna, and the public by almost a two thirds majority said they really weren’t interested in raising taxes [with Initiative 1185], so I think the message is pretty clear. We want to work with the governor and we want to live with the wishes of the public in November election.”
See? Some people believe in Inslee.
They Even Changed the Name!
One important thing to note. The proposed realignment in the Senate gives the Republicans six committees, the Democrats six committees, and three committees will be co-chaired by members of both parties. Fair enough, but the Republicans get the coolest ones — about the budget, education, judiciary, health care, government operations and business/labor issues. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, who finds herself replaced as chair of the committee that oversees business and labor affairs, expressed outrage in a statement: “Forcing half the chamber to accept a take-it-or-leave-it plan is not the way you foster collaboration, trust or respect. That’s a recipe for confrontation, not collaboration — and it bears little resemblance to the Democratic principles I believe my constituents in the 36th District and people across the state expect legislators to uphold.
“It takes more than the defection of two conservative Democrats to make a proposal bipartisan. If one side says it’s bipartisan but the other side says it’s not, then it’s not.
“If Republicans were to control the Senate Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, I fear where they would take our state. I find it telling that their very first proposal is to strip the words ‘consumer protection’ out of the title of the committee.”
What’s even more telling: It’s not Labor and Commerce anymore. It’s Commerce and Labor.
‘Bullying Behavior’
Pity the poor Washington Education Association! It spent a whopping $185,000 to help re-elect state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell — and poof, there went her chairmanship of the Senate Education Committee. In the new Senate order, that position goes to Republican Steve Litzow of Mercer Island, who certainly isn’t what the state teachers union would call a prize pupil. In a blog posting on its website, the powerful union accuses the insurgents of being schoolyard bullies: “Instead of amply funding K-12 public schools as mandated by the state Supreme Court and Constitution, Senators Rodney Tom, Steve Litzow and Tim Sheldon have bashed and blamed teachers while slashing school funding by $2.5 billion. This bullying behavior has to stop. Rodney Tom has played political power games for too long, and students in our state’s classrooms have paid the price. We are 4th worst in the nation in overcrowding of our classrooms. It’s time for public school supporters to stand up to Tom and his political cronies and demand they fulfill their constitutional obligation to our kids and start amply funding our schools. Scapegoating teachers is not leadership, and our students deserve more than Rodney Tom’s teacher-bashing antics and political-power grabbing tactics.”
Healing Can Begin
Speaking of power grabs, Sheldon said during the news conference that the partisan control of the Legislature inevitably shuts the minority out of the process. But it ain’t so nice being an independent thinker, either. Next year will mark his 23rd year in the Legislature, making him one of the most senior members, yet because of his votes against Democratic leaders on spending bills and procedural motions he has spent most of his career in frosty exile. He’s been a chairman just three years of his time under the dome, a decade ago — in 2001 and 2002 under the Democrats, and in 2003 under the Republicans. Two years ago, after he advocated a rule change that reduced the power of party leadership, Democrats stripped him of all but one committee assignment — and no one pretended it was a coincidence.
“I’ve been a chair when the Republicans were in charge,” he said. “I’ve been demoted, taken out of the committees when the Democrats were in charge. I don’t think the public likes that. The public likes everybody to be engaged. People that come down to Olympia want to do a job for their constituents. And when parties get in the way of that, it is a shame, and the public sees through it. …A system where one party says we win, the rest of you lose, come back in two years — we will figure it out without you, doesn’t work with the public anymore. Everybody has to get engaged. Everybody’s good ideas have to be listened to. I think under this coalition process we are beginning that healing here in Washington state. We are changing the model… It’s not a give-and-take situation and that is what we are in now. We want to share power, work cooperatively, get out of here in 105 days. There is no reason to have special sessions after regular session and I think under this system we will get there.”
— Erik Smith
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